Tag: Clean-up

Fresh Is Best: The Importance Of Staying Up To Date

Posted on December 15, 2016 by - Content, Copywriting, Maintenance, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

You have just made the decision to create a new website for your business. It looks awesome, runs fast, generates additional revenue, and acts as a powerful representation of your brand. Time to unplug the mouse and keyboard and call it a day? Think again.

The key to a successful website with a long life is regular updates and maintenance. A website, after all, is a dynamic product that represents your business, and is really never a “finished product”, as there is always room for improvement. The Internet is an ever-changing environment; with newer technologies and software’s being developed each day, the code behind your website eventually becomes dated. Outdated code can result in performance interruptions over time; some sites can suffer from broken links, slow loading pages, security vulnerabilities, and a plethora of other complications. Performing regular maintenance on your site keeps it running smoothly, and ensures that your customers enjoy a positive website experience.

Being up to date doesn’t stop at back end maintenance; every business can keep their content dynamic by regularly adding blog posts, testimonials, and internal news. You can even link your social media to your website and have it posted for you when you upload new content. This way, customers, clients, and leads that follow you on various social media can be notified when new content is added, thus driving traffic to your site. Got an e-commerce store on your site? Regularly updating products will make your store seem more “kept”, and encourage consumers to regularly visit your website. Having a consistent flow of product updates will give consumers a reason to visit your site and keep current with what you have to offer. The same goes for company news, insights, and updates.

Don’t give your web visitors any reason to feel uncertain. Problems with your website or outdated content can make your brand illegitimate. So regular content and maintenance updates will not only ensure brand legitimacy, but also make your visitors feel comfortable and confident in your brand. Check out Web Toaster’s content marketing packages to help you keep your content fresh, without having to lift a finger. Also, don’t forget to take a look at our “Hosting, Maintenance, & Support” packages for a great night’s sleep, knowing that your website is vacuum-sealed and always fresh.

Fail To Plan? Plan To Fail: The Importance Of Website Planning

Posted on December 4, 2016 by - Content, Copywriting, Maintenance, Tips & Tricks, Website Design

Fail to Plan

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Arguably, one of the most difficult steps in building a website is the planning process.

A good website will take hours of planning, mapping, proofing, and revising. Many small business owners fail to give planning the importance that it merits, and this is where the problems start. Your website is your business’s digital storefront, and its existence is just as important as any other aspect of your business. Therefore, it should be allotted just as much time and attention as you would give any other facet of your day-to-day operations.

Imagine constructing a house with no plans; the process would be full of headaches, messes, and would take much longer than if it was planned out beforehand. The same way, a webpage should be meticulously planned out as well. The planning process generally should involve setting a purpose, a budget, roles, a target audience, organizing information architecture, and content creation. A well-planned website will have a predefined structure before it is built, and will be proofed multiple times before launch. It’s easy to neglect internal projects for revenue-generating work, but the key is to treat yourself as a client and deliver the same (if not stronger) strategy and quality of work that you would for someone else.

Although websites are flexible, and can be changed, poor planning often can result in poor communication, and inconsistent back and forth between involved parties. Sometimes, this can force developers to make assumptions that might not fulfill the vision of the business, requiring them to backtrack and further prolong the process. Web Toaster provides all our clients with an easy-to-use questionnaire, which helps us get a feel for your business, and allows us to tailor your site to your vision. We also provide a straightforward content form, which will help you map your website and each page’s respective content. Web Toaster’s proven method streamlines the planning process down to the last detail, making your website creation an easy and stress-free process.

Vacuum Sealed Security: Keeping Freshness In & Hackers Out

Posted on September 21, 2016 by - Maintenance, Security

Lock

As of October 2015, WordPress CMS powered 29.7% of all new sites. Even more impressively, 25.5% of the Internet is powered by WordPress. Why? To put it simply, WordPress is a phenomenal resource for web developers and business owners as it is easy to use and learn, open source and modifiable, SEO friendly, extremely versatile, and was built with security in mind.

Unfortunately, as with any open source resource, malicious parties can hack websites that do not take their security very seriously. According to Forbes, roughly 30,000 websites are hacked each day due to particular vulnerabilities, which WordPress sites are not exempt from. Typically WordPress CMS users experience unusual activity on their websites as a symptom of a security breach. This could come in the form of spam, or abnormal increases in traffic; possibly from foreign countries. Additionally, many hacked websites suffer from spontaneous redirections to other pages, unknown admin users, and unapproved content additions. Web security is extremely important because the credibility of your brand relies on the stability of your website.

Typically, more cautious WordPress users take precautions to “harden” their websites. These precautions typically include maintaining the latest WordPress version as soon as updates are released, constantly updating plugins and ensuring that they are from trusted sources, strengthening passwords, and using credible themes. It is also advisable to use a trusted host to keep your website online.

As a small business owner, keeping track of web security and having to take care of breaches can be a tedious and technically intensive task, which many do not have the time or expertise to handle efficiently and effectively. Web Toaster is here to save you time and effort, and maintain a strong brand for your company. Part of our value is our website maintenance and security packages; Web Toaster offers 24/7 website monitoring for malicious activity, so our skilled team of developers can manage any sort of breach without you lifting a finger.

Treat your website to Web Toaster’s vacuum-sealed security, and sleep soundly every night knowing that your website, business, and brand, are in good hands. Learn more about Web Toaster’s Maintenance Packages here.