Many people think that once they create a website or social media pages - that's it. The end. Now they have them and don't have to think about it anymore. However, what happens when your client enters a page like this, which has not been recently updated? What impact does it have on your business?

Read 9 ways website maintenance affects the success of your business

1. Outdated information

Your site: The last news item says "Opening hours for the Christmas holidays". It's summer now. It says NEWS in big letters, and the "latest" article was posted in January 2015. On the site, there is a map with the address you changed three years ago.

Client: He wonders what's going on with you. "Are these still working at all?" From everything it seems that you may have closed the company. He'll stop by the address he read on the site, maybe he's lucky you still exist. When that - some new cafe there, it has nothing to do with you. The client cannot find you, let alone contact you. There are others. Done. He went to the competition. You are forgotten.

2. Missing products

Your site: You have an online store, people were ordering before when you built it, so maybe you ran out of stock and didn't have something. In the meantime, the stock was filled again, and you forgot to put it on the site. Or you have promotions and offers, and you're surprised that people didn't rush to take advantage of that opportunity. Or you have a very interesting new product, but you haven't put it in the shop at all. Because you made it a long time ago, who will remember to change it all the time.

Client: Up until now, he used to go shopping with you often, but now he doesn't want to jump in and see what's new. He cools at home and doesn't think about your product at all. And why? Because he has no idea that you have that product. You wonder why no one buys it, maybe you should pull it from sale because it doesn't seem right. And the product is great, only... No one heard about it, because you didn't inform your customers about it in time.

3. Slow loading

 Your site: …Loading… And loading… And nothing. Nothing appears, nothing opens, and absolutely nothing is visible.

Client: He waits and waits. It refreshes the page non-stop. He's checking his internet signal, it's at maximum. It's not about that. He will try again, but nothing and nothing again... He is losing patience. He got annoyed, he doesn't have time for that. What's the point of having a website if it can't even open?

4. Unstable site

Your site: It's just loading, then it stops. Suddenly a white image. Then suddenly it's there, suddenly it's gone again. A new page should be opened, it just suddenly returns to the previous one.

Client: He wants to look at something, but he can't. Try it once, twice, every time something strange happens. He's slowly losing his temper. It cannot be done that way. He can't mess with it anymore. Among other things, if you don't have time to dedicate yourself to the site that represents you, to organize it so that it functions normally... Well, people will think that you won't even have time to devote yourself to him as a client. Perhaps it is best that he never visits your site again.

5. Errors on the site

Your site: Clicking on one link takes you to something like the tenth, which has nothing to do with it. Clicking on the second link leads nowhere, it doesn't even work. If someone tries to buy one product, a whole third one appears in the basket. For the second product, the price is on sale, and the sale has long since ended - there will be surprises when the invoice arrives.

Client: He tries to order one product, it keeps taking him to another. What will he do, he clicks in order until he sees under what (wrong) name is what he is looking for. Finally managed to order the goods, when it... What he wanted to buy did not arrive at all. And he remembers exactly that he clicked well, found it at the end, and then a shipment arrives with things that he sees for the first time in his life. He still has to pay three times more than he planned. Well, it won't occur to him to buy that again. "How unprofessional..."

6. Old fashioned design

Your site: Flashy buttons, ornate frames, unreadable fonts... Plus, nothing is optimized for mobile and tablet, because when you created the site, smartphones might not even have existed. You created a site a long time ago, thought that having it was enough. However, time overtook him.

Client: The thinking is, if you've stayed in the decade before with a website, you probably haven't progressed with business in general either. He needs someone who keeps up with the times, who is up to date, who has solutions for his current problems. And that's very different from the impression you leave with an outdated site. They will search further.

7. Site infected with viruses

Your site: Pop-up windows pop up everywhere, no one can extinguish them all as there are. When someone enters the site, it is impossible for him to open what he wanted, whatever button he clicks, a suspicious link opens in a new tab. Click back quickly! back! back! No use, everything froze, will have to shut down the computer manually. Or in the best case for the client, he will receive a notification that the site is not safe, although you are at a loss again because even then your site will remain without visitors.

Client: It won't even try to open your site anymore. It was enough for him to wince and freak out for the first time out of a million warnings he had received. They will assume that you have shut down the site, that it has been taken over by someone else, maybe that you don't even exist as a business anymore when you don't have a web address that works normally. Even if he also caught the virus from you... You will not really remain in his pleasant memory.

8. Hacked data

Your site: You have been attacked by hackers and they have deleted everything. You didn't make a backup ("Is that necessary?"), all data is lost. No one can even access the site, or if they can, they will come across something completely different from what they should. Since you didn't have a backup, you will have to all to build from scratch. Not to mention if your emails and passwords have been compromised (ugh!)

Client: He will be confused. It will wait while you set everything up and tidy up again. The question is whether you will even appear in the search, because it is unlikely that Google will show you if your site is completely empty. Also, you now have to deal with the site again and attempts to restore data, leaving you with less time to devote yourself properly to clients. The client probably doesn't have that much time to waste, he'd rather switch to a competitor.

9. Bad positioning on Google search

Your site: Somewhere all the way on the second page of search results, you think it's a coincidence, that nothing can be done there - the competition simply has better luck. You don't even think about the fact that it can be fixed and your site remains buried at the bottom of the results. The number of visits is catastrophically low, and therefore sales are not booming.

Client: He is looking for the services/products that you offer, but most of the competition jumps out at him first, they have overtaken you. They distract him, he goes to their websites and he doesn't even know yours exists. It's easier for him that way, and he himself thinks that those who are at the top are there for a reason, because they are probably the best.

All these problems can of course be solved with regular site maintenance.

Let your clients find you easily, keep up to date with your offer and feel satisfied while using your site. While it's not impossible to maintain your site yourself, it's clear that you almost certainly don't have the time or maybe you don't have enough technical knowledge to do it. Maybe you are simply bored to deal with it or you have other obligations on the agenda.

If you are concerned about costs, you do not need to hire special workers just for maintenance purposes. Hire external collaborators to take care of everything, and you will have more time to deal with your business challenges.

You can get from the Tourmaline company all IT agency services on a monthly basis, for only 6000 dinars. monthly. Also, if you decide to sign a multi-year contract with us, you get redesign up to 1000 euros values for your site completely free!

More about Tourmaline find out by clicking here, and in more detail about website maintenance and our packages read at this link.

Schedule a free consultation today, so we can look at your needs together.