Website Maintenance For Small Business Owners
Being a mom operating your business from home, there are many things that you have to juggle to ensure that your business runs smoothly. And for most small business owners, having a website that is working for you promoting your products and services to the world is a necessity.
Website maintenance is a must to minimize any chance of it going down or being hacked, both of which could devastate your business. But, should you maintain your own website, or would it be best to outsource this project?
In this article we will take a closer look at some of the things to consider when it comes to maintaining a business website.
Website Maintenance Considerations
Do You Have The Time?
When properly caring for a small business website, there are many tasks that you will be faced with on a regular basis. Many of these tasks are quite technical and require certain skills to properly execute… this means that you would need to spend a considerable amount of time learning exactly what is required to be done and how to actually do the task.
Aside from regular content updating (for example, posting blog articles or updating basic content such as product pricing or business hours), your website is going to require ongoing testing and monitoring. For a more comprehensive list of tasks required as part of website maintenance, you might want to check out this article.
Should You Manage Your Website?
Unless you have a history of website management in your past, you are likely not going to have the expertise in fixing problems when they occur. If your website goes down for some reason, you may not even be able to find the right person to assist you for days or weeks. Can you afford for your website to be down this long?
Plus, as a mom running a small business from home, the day-to-day job of running your business is always going to take priority over other tasks like maintaining your business website. Having your website consume your valuable time and energy may not be the best option for many moms working from home.
Website Maintenance Options
There are a few different options for caring for your business website. Here we discuss them in more detail:
Don’t Maintain It
How many times have you visited a website and it is immediately obvious that it hasn’t been updated for years? The website design is dated and old-fashioned, it’s not mobile-responsive, or the contact details are wrong or missing. Instantly, any visitors to websites like this lose confidence and people are turned off. With so much competition, you just can’t run a successful business like this.
This often happens because business owners try to save money by not organizing for someone to do the updating for them, and they just don’t have the time or interest to do it themselves.
DIY Option
You can care for and update your own website. But this means spending the time doing something that may not come that naturally to you. Many business owners do choose this option, especially if they don’t mind if they are interested learning some of the technical aspects behind running their website successfully.
There are website training courses that work-from-home moms can complete to help get them up to speed on what is required and how to look after and update their business websites.
Outsource It
The other option is to get a professional to do it. They can either help you out when needed, or on an ongoing basis. By having an ongoing relationship with a website professional, they can quickly go in and perform maintenance tasks and update your website for you.
Something that may take you an hour may only take them 10 minutes, so it can save you valuable time and energy, leaving you to do what you are best at… running your business. A professional can also advise on new trends and implement new techniques to drive more visitors and potential clients to your website.
Choosing the right person for your website maintenance
Thanks to the newer “drag-n-drop” page-builder style website platforms, many small business owners have turned to them as an alternative to hiring professionals for website development and ongoing maintenance. However, without proper knowledge and experience, there can be many things that can go wrong, which can lead to your website going down for an extended amount of time, or even worse, being hacked.
As a small business owner working from home, your website is often a critical part of your business’s success, so keeping it up and running and working for you 24/7 is crucial. As all businesses are different, who is the best person to maintain your website will differ. This could be you, or someone you know, or a professional. However, it is always recommended to have someone care for and maintain your website regularly.
Brendan is passionate about website training for small business owners. He provides customized website training sessions to business owners so they have the confidence and knowledge to successfully manage and maintain their own websites.
