So you’ve finally got your website live, and it’s looking great – fantastic! But here’s the truth that many Melbourne business owners don't know – a website isn't a ‘set-and-forget’ kind of thing.

It can be tempting to think your job is done once your new website is live. You put in the hard work, and you're ready to get back to doing what you do best running your business. The reality is that all websites need regular maintenance to keep running smoothly, generate more leads, and ensure long term success.

Just like a car, your website needs ongoing attention to perform at its best. A great website is key to success, but it needs to be maintained and it's more than just having a fancy website that doesn't require any further attention. Your website is the central hub to how your clients perceive your brand. It helps you grow your client base as it helps make a strong impression for anyone looking for your services.

In this article, I'll show you why a website maintenance plan is so essential, and how you can easily manage this to be effective. I want to ensure you take away actionable knowledge to give your clients the best possible outcomes for your Melbourne business.

Why Website Maintenance Matters for Melbourne Small Businesses

It’s essential for the long-term success of any Melbourne business to ensure your website is working at its peak. You see, ignoring your website will cause problems down the line. 

Here are a few things that can happen if your website is neglected:

You could have your site hacked and suffer a data breach, which can be disastrous for your reputation.

Then you could also be dealing with slow loading speeds and a poor user experience which is something that no one wants.

On top of that, not keeping your site updated can also negatively impact your search engine rankings, and for local SEO purposes, this is essential to maintain.

All of this means you could be missing out on opportunities and having a poorly functioning site while your competitors swoop in and steal your customers.

It's all about preventing problems before they have a big impact, and because you’re using a great website platform, many of the technical aspects of website maintenance are automatically managed for you.

This gives you the best of both worlds – security with a great website, and ease of use without the heavy lifting that many other platforms demand.

Essential Elements of a Website Maintenance Plan on Your CMS Platform



When it comes to your website, you’ve got a head start as many areas are already taken care of! Here’s what you need to keep in mind for your website maintenance plan:

• Built-in Security: Your website platform has SSL security built right in, which gives your site great protection from security issues that may otherwise cause big problems down the line, giving your users a safe journey on the site.
• Automatic Backups: You’ll never have to worry about losing all your work. Your CMS platform creates automatic backups every time the site is re-published, so you always have a safe point to come back to if things go wrong.
• Software Updates Managed on the Platform: Your CMS platform takes care of all the CMS, plugin, and theme updates in the background, which really means you’ll never have to worry about that part of your website maintenance plan.
• Performance Monitoring: It’s still vital to regularly check that your website is fast, functional, and everything is working as it should, for a smooth user journey and to stay ahead of your competitors in your local area.
• Content Updates: Keeping your website content fresh, relevant, and up-to-date will show you are on top of everything. Dated content can deter users, so keep it useful, and accurate. This includes your core pages, blog posts, and case studies.
• Broken Links & 404 errors: Checking broken links and 404 errors are crucial for a positive user experience, and your platform will also notify you when any links are broken for ease of access.
• Regular Website Review: Even with a great CMS platform, it’s important to check your website and always consider ways to make it better and more useful for users. This includes your design, text, forms and other content that might be on your website.

Website Maintenance: What You Need to Think About on Your CMS Platform

Because your CMS platform takes care of so much in the background for you, there are very few tasks required to maintain your website, it can almost feel like a 'set and forget' system, especially because the platform makes website ownership a breeze!

Here are a few things to think about regularly:

Monthly:

• Add new content: Regularly add new content to keep your website updated, engaging, and valuable for your target audience. This might be case studies, blog posts, or testimonials from happy clients, and you can easily do this using the Blog app directly on the platform's dashboard.
• Monitor performance: Make sure all the core areas of the website are still working as they should be. Keep an eye on Google Analytics to see what's popular and what needs improvement.

Quarterly:

• Review Website Goals: Review the goals of your website on a quarterly level, and make sure the key goal that it needs to perform hasn’t changed, and if it has, put in place a process to remedy that issue.
• Think about a refresh: Consider a visual refresh if your design looks dated compared to competitors, or consider doing some A/B testing to see if there’s any ways the design can be improved from how it was, as the online landscape changes all the time.

Annually:

• Review SEO Performance: Are you still seeing new customers coming from your site on a regular basis? Review your SEO performance in Google Search Console to ensure it’s all still tracking, and make improvements where required to continue your businesses’ growth.

Consider using the tools available:

• Check out the different widgets, integrations, and features to ensure all the right parts are integrated into the site, and performing as they should be.
• Make sure you are familiar with the back-up process and that all of this is easy to use, giving you peace of mind that your website is protected.

In addition to this, you can have full peace of mind that your website is being hosted to the highest standards providing world-class hosting, giving you a super secure and fast website!

The best thing about using your CMS platform is that it is all easy to implement, and provides excellent security, website speed and usability that will ultimately have a positive effect on your business.

DIY vs Professional Website Maintenance in Melbourne

So, you might be wondering if you can maintain your website yourself, or if you need a professional. Well, the best thing is that on this platform, it's easier than ever to manage yourself, and a lot is done for you. However, if you are a busy small business owner in Melbourne, you’re likely focusing on other areas, so having an agency take over the hassle might be a better option.

While logging into the CMS gives you an easy platform to maintain the site yourself, a professional website maintenance service can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, as well as making sure you’re getting all of the advice you need from a local SEO and web design expert.

In some cases, you may have specific questions or issues, which can be resolved easier by getting help from the experts, and also freeing up time to focus on your business.

Yes, this will come at a cost, but many business owners understand the value in this area and use a website maintenance plan to save time and also get a good return on their investment.

Benefits of a Proactive Maintenance Approach

Having a proactive website maintenance plan is a must. It means that you will ultimately save money in the long-run by avoiding big issues, and also preventing costly repairs, all the while maintaining a high level of security, and reducing the risks that an outdated website poses.

You’ll also be giving your users a better experience because the website will be up to date and also perform well, meaning a user can easily find what they’re looking for, quickly and efficiently.

All the security updates and backups mean your website and business is well protected and everything runs smoothly.

The main outcome from this is that you can provide a consistent and positive experience for users every time they visit the website.

And the best thing? Your website’s platform is built to take a lot of that burden off your hands so that you have more time to focus on your Melbourne based business!

Conclusion

So, to summarise, a website maintenance plan is critical for every business owner, but what that plan will look like may be different for each business. Using the Duda Platform makes this so much easier, and reduces the headaches, while giving you all the tools you need, with excellent website speeds, security, and an easy to use CMS.

So, make sure your website stays current, and you’re taking all the necessary steps for long-term growth, and long term business success, for years to come.

Ready to implement a website maintenance plan for your Duda website?

If you’re in Melbourne, contact me today to discuss how I can help, and let's make sure your website continues to perform at its best, and continues to grow your Melbourne business!