Web Site Maintenance

By Richard Lowe
Posted Thursday, December 2, 2004

There are many things that all webmasters must do on a regular basis to ensure that their web sites remain useful and functional. Some of the tasks you should be performing are listed below.

Promote

You must promote your web site constantly. Every single day you should do something, anything, which attempts to get people to your site. This is extraordinarily critical in order to ensure that people continue to visit your site day after day. The "Advertising" section describes many of the techniques that you can use to get your site noticed.

Advertising - (http://www.internet-tips.net/Advertising/Advertising.htm)

Check your links

Another task that must be performed on a regular basis is checking for "link rot". This is the tendency for broken links to appear all over a site. It is most common with external links (sites move, are abandoned or are modified all of the time) but can occur occasionally with internal links.

Link Rot - (http://www.internet-tips.net/Webmaster/maintlinkrot.htm)

Change Your Site

People expect sites on the web to be constantly changing. If your site is static and unchanging there is no reason for someone to come back again - after all, they've already seen it so why return? One major way to get them to come back is to change the content constantly and to be sure that your visitors know it is changing.

Monitor Your Site

Subscribe to a service which checks your site on a regular basis. This is important, as if your site is constantly "bouncing" you will find it being removed from search engines and your visitor levels will drop.

Review Your Statistics

A task you should be performing on a regular basis is to review your statistics. At a minimum, you should check your page counts to be sure that your site is being viewed. At best, you need to know where people are coming from, which browsers they are using and what they visited while they were at your site. A webmaster who does not have access to statistics is a crippled webmaster who has no idea how effectively his website is performing.

Statistics - (http://www.internet-tips.net/Webmaster/Statistics.htm)

Publish A Newsletter

I firmly believe that all webmasters who maintain sites of any significance (a reasonable amount of content) should regularly publish a newsletter. This allows interested visitors to be updated on events and new materials published on the site, and gives the webmaster a method for communicating with his audience at will.

Ezines - (http://www.internet-tips.net/Ezines/index.htm)

Stay Up-to-Date

All webmasters need to stay up-to-date on new technologies which they can use to improve their web site. In addition, getting certified, joining organizations, continuing their education and attending conventions is essential to staying current and active.

Certifications - (http://www.internet-tips.net/Misc/Certifications.htm Organizations) - (http://www.internet-tips.net/Misc/organizations.htm) Education - (http://www.internet-tips.net/Misc/education.htm)

Review Your Site

Occasionally review your site. When you look over a page, check your grammar, spelling and accuracy. Remember that as time progresses your articles may become stale, so be sure and recheck your conclusions and facts. What may have been true when you wrote the article last year is not necessarily true or important anymore.

Check Your Site's Security

Learn as much as you can about web site security, and ensure that, to the best of your abilities and knowledge, that your site is secure. This ensures that your customers (if any) and visitors information remains confidential and safe. It also protects you and your web host from harm.

Protect Your Visitor's Privacy

Post a privacy policy and adhere to it without exception. Review your practices occasionally against your policy to ensure you are following it to the letter.

About the Author
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge. Web Site Address: (http://www.internet-tips.net) Weekly newsletter: (http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm) Daily Tips: mailto:internet-tips@GetResponse.com