The real work starts once you have set up a fully functioning ecommerce website. There are still a lot of things to do to make sure that it runs smoothly. For those without technical background on ecommerce website management, this sounds like a daunting task. But by equipping yourself with the right knowledge, you will know that it is simpler than it looks.
US ecommerce witnessed a growth of 44% in 2020. As the market continues to grow, you must make sure that your ecommerce website can keep up with its competitors. Otherwise, you might end up losing customers to them in the long run. Hence, it is high time you learn how to effectively manage it.
With that, here is an ecommerce website maintenance checklist to help you maintain it properly.
Table of Contents
1. Tighten website security
Security breaches are often the top causes for crashes and other anomalies within an ecommerce website. Moreover, it can endanger your entire business and your customers. If taken lightly, it can negatively impact your brand as well as your sales.
Thus, tightening your website’s security is a critical component in its maintenance. You must make sure that no malicious entity can enter the backend of your ecommerce website or anywhere else. You can do this by investing in reliable security tools such as antivirus software, security scanner tools, anti-malware software, and firewalls. Protecting your website will make sure that your website will run as it should. More than that, you are also keeping your entire business and customers safe.
2. Regularly update website content
Content management is critical in site maintenance. A dead website can turn away visitors. You need fresh content if you want to attract more customers. Hence, you must find time to post something new in your ecommerce platform regularly. This can be in the form of blogs, newsletters, event landing pages, and images.
You should also make sure that all plugins and integrations within your website are in their latest versions as well. Having one outdated component within your website can make your business vulnerable to cyberattacks. Moreover, it can affect your webpage’s performance. Updating your plugins and integrations will make sure that they have the newest security patches and other fixes.
3. Conduct SEO audits
The online environment is an ever-shifting landscape. Trends, user behaviors, and search engine algorithms can change in a blink of an eye. Thus, you must regularly conduct SEO audits to make sure your website ranks on search engine results.
A SEO audit usually involves:
- Checking out competitors’ websites
- Monitoring your website’s ranking
- Optimizing keywords, tags, descriptions, titles, etc.
- Analyzing results from indexing and crawling
- Fixing broken links
Performing a SEO audit makes sure that your website remains optimized for viewing. Likewise, it ensures that your content can still get the exposure it deserves online. And since website annual maintenance packages usually don’t include SEO services, you can utilize and integrate SEO tools available for your website instead.
4. Frequently evaluate and test website
Website layout and design are important aspects of your branding. Nonetheless, functionality often trumps aesthetics. You must find a balance in between if you want your vision to come into reality.
Any forms of changes can affect your website’s performance as well as your conversation rates. Hence, you need to frequently evaluate and test your website to make sure that it runs smoothly. This will also help you understand what works and what changes you can do on your web pages in the future.
So if you plan on integrating software into your eCommerce website, you better make sure to test if it will work or not. One way to do that is through A/B testing. This is where you compare two versions of your webpage to see which one performs better. This way, you can simply scrap the other one if it proves to be ineffective.
5. Always monitor for issues
Technical issues can arise anytime when running a website. If left unattended even just for a short while, you can lose customers in the process. You need to constantly keep an eye on your ecommerce website if you want to resolve issues immediately.
Doing this manually can be ineffective and inefficient. Not to mention, it is time-consuming. Thus, it is essential that you choose ecommerce maintenance services that offer real-time monitoring and scanning. Such tools will keep an eye on your website’s performance while you do other important tasks. And if ever some issues come up, it will immediately notify you. This way, you minimize its impact before it can get more serious.
Website management made easy
Maintaining an ecommerce website is just as tough as building one from scratch. You must make sure that it continues to run smoothly. Otherwise, you can turn away customers with a clunky website.
Fortunately, you don’t need technical expertise for effective website management. You simply need to arm yourself with the right knowledge and strategies. You will also need the right ecommerce platform like Zielcommerce to make sure that your website remains secure and stable. Go ahead and check it out.
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