What is Website Management and why is it important?
What happens after you create your company’s website? As you may already know, that’s just the first step in building a strong online presence. Nowadays, every company has its own website, and what you do with it is what sets you apart from the competition. The term ‘website management’ refers to the way we update a website and oversee its performance.
Why? A regularly updated website is the best tool to attract new leads and convert them into customers. However, what might convert them could be overshadowed by usability problems that arise and encourage them to leave your website. That’s why it’s important to prioritize website management.
Now, there are different ways to manage a website. Let’s learn more about how it works and what you can do to get the best out of having a company’s website.
The five key challenges of companies updating their website
Ranking high on Google
SEO can be fickle. Everyone wants their website to rank high on Google but not everyone can put the time and effort needed to make it happen. Ideally, you should try to update your content and review your keywords every 3 to 6 months. Sometimes, the keywords you target might become less effective and there could be others that could attract more leads. That’s why it’s important not to just settle and to keep reviewing your SEO strategy.
Of course, this task can take quite some time and if you’re not an expert in SEO, it’s going to be a bit of trial and error until you find what works. What is the best way to cut down on time and mistakes? To hand over this task to someone who knows SEO inside out.
Creating regular content
Updating your old content can significantly help your website’s SEO. Although, it’s only phase 1 of 2 when it comes to successfully maintaining a website. People need a reason to visit your site. And what better reason is there than fresh new content that is relevant to their interests? Again, this is another task that takes time and effort – the quality of this content is more important than the quantity.
There are two things we know about Google: it favours long-form content and it’s not a fan of keyword stuffing. As such, you need to make sure that what you post is related to your industry and offers value to your readers. We know that this can be tricky if you are short on time, and that’s why it’s often better to hire someone who can write amazing content on your behalf.
Updating company information & images
What happens if you forget to update your website? One of the main things is that you end up with outdated information and images. Your visitors might try to reach out to you via an email you no longer use or ask about a product that you no longer sell. To make mistakes is human but forgetting about these few little things can appear unprofessional to your visitors. What if you miss out on an opportunity simply because you didn’t update your contact details?
This is even more important if you are planning to rebrand. For your branding to be consistent, it needs to appear the same across every platform. Therefore, every new font or new colour should be found on your site as well.
Broken links
A good thing to do with SEO is to add internal and external links to your content. But what happens when website addresses change or pages expire? You might have experienced this too: you’re reading an article and click on a link to a study that backs up that statistic when… you end up with the dreaded ‘page not found’. How quickly did you leave that website after that? Make sure you review and update your content regularly to avoid increasing your drop-off rate because of a few broken links.
Outdated website strategy
One thing is creating and updating your website, another is planning how to attract visitors to your site. While SEO plays a great role in showing your site to others, promotion is just as important. Do you have a strategy to redirect people to your website from your other online platforms? Do your email campaigns effectively promote it as the place where they can find offers and value? Think about it, and update your marketing strategy regularly to what seems to work best. To succeed in this, you’re going to need to use data and analytics to understand what generates new leads and converts them.
How often should you update your website?
By now, you might be wondering how frequently you need to make all of these updates. The real answer is that there is no specific timeframe. Realistically, you should update it as often as possible. This doesn’t mean that you should completely rebrand your site every week, but that there could be frequent minor changes to be done.
Besides, reviewing your content and tweaking it every once in a while is important. By doing this, you can keep your SEO effective and also avoid making mistakes that will push visitors to leave. Plus, if you are running a blog, you should try and share new content there every week or at the very least every month.
Do you have a new product to offer? Is there a trending new topic related to your industry that you can write about to boost your website traffic? Keep all of this in mind when you’re wondering whether you should update your site or not.
Overall, you should alternate between frequent minor updates that maintain the usability of your site and occasional major updates that can improve it and generate more leads. Both of these updates are key to successful website management!
What are the benefits of a regularly updated website?
- Effective SEO attracts more leads to your site;
- Updated content helps convert these leads;
- Up-to-date CTAs and contact details allow these converted leads to take action and buy your products or enquire about your services.
The above points are the reasons why investing time and money into maintaining your website is guaranteed to bring a return for your company.
Why should you hire a Website Manager?
You have read all about the challenges and tasks that a company needs to go through to successfully maintain a website. Now, you might be wondering where you will find the time to work on each one of them. Especially considering everything your company is already doing to make a profit and boost its brand!
That’s where a Website Manager can come in and help your company succeed at website management without taking your attention away from what you do best. This type of professional is someone who has experience in running successful websites, and who knows how to help you boost conversion and reach your goals.
It’s true that you can decide to do everything yourself, or offload these tasks to someone else on your team. Although, if neither of you has the right knowledge to do this, you risk wasting resources and precious time. The web waits for no one, and a website manager can help you keep up with competition and even identify how to beat it.
Which tasks does a Website Manager take care of?
A website manager can be in charge of every aspect of your website, from scheduling content to reviewing its SEO. More specifically, here’s what your website manager will do for you:
Monitoring your website performance
Research has shown that 55% of people spend an average of 15 seconds on a web page. If 15 seconds is how long it takes for your website to load, most of your visitors will end up exiting straight away. That’s why it’s important to have someone at hand who ensures the smooth running of your site.
Additionally, this type of professional would also be in charge of overviewing how well your website is performing. The analytics provided by your website can be the key to your company’s growth. Those numbers tell you what you are doing well and what has room for improvement. Your website manager will keep an eye on them and provide ideas for improvements based on data.
Fixing any web issues
Is there anything that needs fixing? Your website manager will know instantly and fix it before any other visitors will have time to notice it. From troubleshooting to spotting security breaches – you can be reassured that your site is in safe hands.
Updating your content & images
Is any information on your site redundant? Do you need content that better aligns with your brand? A website manager will make sure that your company information is up to date, and that your content adds value to your site. They will spot any inconsistencies before they risk badly reflecting on your company.
Strategizing to convert leads
While your marketing team focuses on advertising your products/services across other platforms, your website manager can help you find the best strategy to update and promote your website. It takes an average of 50 milliseconds for a visitor to make up their mind about your site, and your company. As such, it’s important to know what is the best way for your company to introduce itself to new leads.
Testing to improve User Experience
Regardless of a great first impression, if a website is difficult to use, people will still abandon it. That’s why a website manager would keep testing your website to guarantee a great User Experience. Not only does this help spot any issues, it also identifies new ways to improve the promotion of your products/services on your website.
Improving your web traffic
Every company that builds a website is immediately struck by the following doubt: how do I get people to visit my site? The web is overwhelmed with websites on all kinds of topics, so it’s natural to be unsure of how you can stand out from the crowd.
That’s also part of the job of a website manager. They will use their expertise and knowledge to ensure that people find you when they search relevant keywords on Google and help you stand out from your competitors.
What is a CMS (Content Management System)?
In short, CMS is what allows your company to easily build and manage your website. Different from traditional web building, this software application requires no coding or web design experience. Anyone, even people with little technical knowledge, can learn how to use these systems to share and edit content.
The benefits of using CMS
No previous knowledge required
Whether you have a tight budget or strict deadline, every company can benefit from being able to build their site without knowing how to code or design. The interface of a CMS is made to be super intuitive and get your site up and running in no time.
Easy to optimize
These platforms offer a lot of extensions and features that allow you to monitor analytics and edit content accordingly. From improving your SEO to finding out how long your leads spend on your site, a CMS gives you plenty of chances to optimize your site as you see fit.
Great to share content
Most of these systems include a blogging feature for you to use to boost your website visits. This feature is usually easy to use and allows you to also schedule content so that you don’t have to set up reminders for when to post your blogs.
Access it everywhere
Here’s another great thing about a CMS: you can access your website from any device! You’re not limited to your desktop, and if any urgent edits are required, you can instantly fix them even from your phone.
Overall, they simply allow anyone to create their own website by using a template that has already been created and adding content to it. However, if you wish to make your site more unique, they also often allow you to edit the code accordingly. Basically, they give you the best of both worlds. In just a few steps, you will find yourself with a website ready to launch.
The six most popular Content Management Systems of 2023
One quick Google search can tell you that there are many different CMS options available. So, how do you choose which one is best for you? To help you decide, we have listed the best content management systems of this year:
WordPress
43% of all websites currently online have been powered by WordPress. A statistic that rises to 65% if you only count the websites built with a CMS. This makes WordPress the most popular web building platform and one you have probably heard about before.
Why should you choose WordPress?
This CMS lets you build any type of website you have in mind, from e-commerce to a membership-based platform and more. It’s free to use and only expects you to pay for the domain and web hosting. Once you sign up, you can add your content and images straight away, without any knowledge of coding or design required.
In fact, you get access to plenty of website themes for you to choose from. You can always customize the theme further by adding any extras you need. Overall, it’s a great option for beginners who wish to dive in straight into creating their website.
It was initially developed for blogging but has now expanded to offering all kinds of plugins and features to help you easily develop your own website.
What are the downsides of WordPress?
Despite its popularity, WordPress is not without cons. The business version of this CMS doesn’t have many options for monetization. Plus, you get fewer plugins available and not as much control as with the open-source alternative that is WordPress.org.
Shopify
Shopify is a popular CMS and e-commerce platform that allows businesses of all sizes to easily and effectively sell products.
Why should you choose Shopify?
This system allows you to easily set up your online store in just a few clicks, offering all kinds of payment options to your customers. Similar to WordPress, it gives you plenty of themes for you to choose from, and lets you use extensions to customize your website further. Once again, you need no experience with coding or design to create what you have in mind.
If you ever find yourself stuck on what to do next, their customer support team is available 24/7 and there are plenty of resources online you can check out if you have any doubts.
What are the downsides of Shopify?
The apps offered by Shopify are not as flexible as other plugins, and their overall cost can add up pretty quickly depending on how many you choose to use.
HubSpot CMS
HubSpot CMS is a platform that focuses on everything business-related, from helping you grow traffic to automating tasks, managing content, and much more.
Why should you choose HubSpot CMS?
As with most CMS, you can get started with HubSpot CMS pretty easily as its interface is intuitive and allows you to instantly add your content.
What makes them stand out from other alternatives are their advanced security features and smart functions that give you the chance to customize certain pages for a specific type of visitor. Plus, you can use their different marketing and sales products to streamline your business operations and monitor everything over one platform.
What are the downsides of HubSpot CMS?
It’s not free to use and it’s not the best option for an e-commerce business as it’s more intended for other types of businesses.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is more of a plugin than its own CMS as it runs on WordPress websites. It’s a great addition to the sites that wish for a more e-commerce oriented approach to their CMS, and it’s used by 20.4% of WordPress websites.
Why should you choose WooCommerce?
This platform is quite similar to WordPress in terms of being free to use (except for the cost of setting up your own domain and web hosting), offering plenty of extensions to add and web themes to choose from.
Its difference is in the way it allows its users to sell products online – digital, physical, and even affiliates. Since it’s an e-commerce plugin first and foremost, you get plenty of features to monitor your stock and sales.
What are the downsides of WooCommerce?
While it’s true that it can be added to any WordPress theme, you might find that the ones made by WooCommerce offer better functionality. Plus, you might find yourself overwhelmed by the many options to choose from.
Drupal
Drupal is an open-source CMS that works great for businesses who wish to further customize their site and have a developer at hand.
Why should you choose Drupal?
You can get as creative as you like with the different features available, allowing everyone in the team to access your site and add or edit content as needed. While it’s more advanced than some other options, you can easily reach out to customer support whenever you need their help.
What are the downsides of Drupal?
Due to the nature of their customized and advanced themes, the cost of using this CMS can often be higher than others. Plus, it’s not particularly beginner-friendly.
Joomla
Joomla is an open-source CMS that has been around for nearly as long as WordPress. As such, it’s become another popular alternative for web building.
Why should you choose Joomla?
If you want to build a truly unique site, this is the CMS for you. While it’s more advanced, it still allows people who are not developers to add and edit content as needed without coding knowledge. Thanks to its extensions available, you can customize your Joomla website to be anything, including an e-commerce website, and do it for free.
What are the downsides of Joomla?
This CMS is easier to use for developers as it can be quite complex at times. You also can’t add as many extensions to it as with other platforms.