SEO is a long-term marketing process that never really ends. As industry standards change and technology develops, SEO has to adapt to still offer the same results. Website maintenance is very much the same, as new updates require work and changes must happen to keep your website running. This matching process is one of the reasons why website maintenance is essential for SEO.
Website Maintenance and SEO
Improve Speed
Improving speed is the core reason website maintenance and SEO go together. Website maintenance in most cases ensures that website frameworks, plugins, extensions and security features are all maintained and updated. While many of the reasons for this are to ensure the security integrity of a site, they are also major contributing factors to keeping the site speed quick.
As I’ve discussed previously on the blog, page and site speed is a ranking factor. And it’s a particularly major one too. Keeping up to date on your website maintenance is essential for SEO because it will ensure your site stays as fast as possible.
Keep Design and UX up-to-date
Another aspect where website maintenance is essential to SEO is maintaining the visual components of the website. While you may think this job is finished once your website is built, there are technical factors that can change a website’s design over time. Updates to themes, frameworks, coding languages and servers can all have an impact on the way your design is displayed. Therefore, if you don’t keep the site up-to-date, you run the risk of your design becoming messed up.
Not only does this make your site look unprofessional but it will affect your website visitors’ user experience (UX). UX and SEO go hand and hand. If you don’t make your website journey an easy experience from entrance to exit, you’ll miss out on leads and sales.
Security Protection and SEO
Website security should be a priority for all site owners, regardless of whether you take payments or not. Security breaches aren’t just detrimental to your business for data loss but they can also affect your SEO. If your site is not secure, it is likely to impact your domain authority. This could be as simple as not having an SSL installed on your site, so your browser shows HTTPS. Today, no website should be utilising HTTP. Furthermore, If your site is hacked, you could tank your domain authority which will undo any hard work or longevity you had built in it.
React to industry changes
As mentioned above, there are changes to a site that is out of your control, and that’s why website maintenance needs to be consistent to react to these industry changes. Firstly, If you don’t update themes or code on your site, it may not work as it did when first built. Secondly, if plugins and extensions are not updated o reviewed for compatibility, they can break parts of your site or lead you open to hacking attempts. Thirdly, choosing hosting that utilises the latest technology and implementing maintenance that supports this will ensure your site can perform its best.
Website maintenance Required? Get in touch
If you need advice about website maintenance or your site is out-of-date, but you don’t know where to start, I can help. I provide comprehensive website audits that highlight issues in your site from a code, security, speed and SEO perspective. I also offer website maintenance refreshes and can advise on ongoing maintenance packages. See all my services here, or get in touch for a no-obligation chat.