Importance of Web Maintenance and Updating

Imagine yourself going to an important meeting in a tattered suit, messed up hair and incorrect information, what sort of image would you have. Do you think you would be successful? To answer the question - absolutely no way, you would not even be considered.
Your website is your representative on the Internet; it is the reflection of your image so it is important to regularly maintain your website and update it. A tattered, messy website with broken links, incorrect content, missing metadata is also not worth considering.
The sole reason for a website is to advertise to the world at large about yourself or your company. Imagine what sort of advertisement such a messy and un-maintained site would do. Even the best developed website needs constant maintenance and upgrades to remain at the top of the search engines and keep users coming back.
Website maintenance is composed of six areas.
1. Publishing - to keep content up-to-date.
2. Quality Assurance - to spot errors on a site.
3. Feedback Monitoring - communication with website visitors.
4. Performance Monitoring -to measure activity on a site.
5. Infrastructure Monitoring - to ensure a sound technical footing for a site.
6. Change Control - to manage ongoing technical or other changes in co-ordination.
Website maintenance encompasses various actions needed to guarantee the operational integrity of a site. This means regularly checking off:
1. Broken links.
2. Missing content, e.g. Images.
3. Missing page titles.
4. Spelling and grammar of content.
5. Missing metadata.
6. File sizes of pages to ensure they are not too large.
7. Browser compatibility.
8. Applications are functioning correctly, e.g. online forms.
9. Server Side Scripting or other languages function correctly.
10. Legal and regulatory guidelines are being adhered to
11. Pages conform to your organization's Web-Accessibility standard.
Website updating is also an important part of web maintenance as it helps you garner fresh interest from clients and higher SEO rankings. You should update your site when:
1. When your company has a value addition - like new accreditation, licensing or some sort of recognition.
2. New products or services, or the launch of a new product should be included at once for sales generations.
3. Completed a successful project. If you've just finished a project, include it on your website. Create an online portfolio, add a case study to advertise it.
4. Added to your client list - get a testimonial from each of your successful client projects. Updating your testimonials regularly will also show clients who have visited your site your strengths.
5. Add an article- Writing an article is a great way to keep your website information current and to put more content on your site. Search engines choose content-rich sites, and visitors will keep coming back for new information.
6. Press releases- post all press releases and other information you publish about your company to your website.
7. Changes in your business- Any change in the company status quo should be added to your website.
Just as you do not compromise with the maintenance of your business, you should not compromise with your web sites maintenance.