Having a website for your small business is absolutely essential in today’s digital world. But website management is a full-time job all on its own. While there are several important and great things about managing a website, there are also some difficulties that may make it hard to manage on your own.
This is what today’s blog post is centered around. We’ll give a straight-forward definition of what website management is and what it entails. We’ll also discuss the great parts about managing a website, as well as some of the difficulties.
Ultimately, having a full-time partner manage your website for you is the best option. That way you can focus on what you do best: running your business.
What is Website Management?
Here is our definition of website management at Vervology:
“Maintenance; updates; security; performance; maintaining the foundation for your online presence; delivering performance to meet your user’s expectations.”
It’s all about regularly checking in to make sure your site is performing its basic functions in order to support the needs of your business and your audience. This includes a mix of performing updates, as well as careful monitoring of any threats or issues.
Another significant part of it is ensuring ease of use for your audience and making sure that their information is secure while they’re using your website. It’s important to have security measures in place to cover this in order to protect them and yourself.
Website Management: The Good
Having a professional website for your business, rather than just a social media account, is necessary for creating a digital storefront. It creates a place for you to house all of your important information, as well as provide content for your audience.
The great part about having this website is that you are free from some of the gatekeepers that exist on social media. If a platform were to suddenly change its terms of agreement or even key functionalities, the content you’ve built up there in the past could be in jeopardy.
With a website, you’ll find you have a bit more freedom and space to show off your brand. Plus, you’ll be in a better position to control your design and messaging.
Website Management: The Bad
As we previously touched on, managing a website can be time-consuming. As a busy small business owner, it can be difficult to find the time needed to make sure your site is functional, accessible, laid out in an intuitive way, and constantly working the way that it needs to.
Along these same lines, if your website happened to go down, would you know how to fix it? If your background is not in systems, it can be hard to keep up with the demands a fully-functioning website presents. Without this extensive background knowledge that’s fully up to date, your website may experience serious problems.
Even if you choose to do hosting with an out-of-the-box solution and a template-based, customizable website, you’ll still be responsible for creating and managing content, which is also time-consuming.
Website Management: The Ugly
What do you do when the security of your website is threatened? What if you run into legal problems due to accessibility compliance? Website management is more than putting something online and looking at analytics every now and then. You have to have knowledge of protecting against any security breaches in order to ensure the safety of your business, as well as your customers.
According to Fundera, 43% of cyber attacks take aim at small businesses. If this were to occur, it could do some serious damage to your business and online reputation. How do you go about picking up the pieces of this website, particularly if it was an issue that could have been avoided in the first place with careful security measures?
If you’re working outside of your field with a website, it can be difficult to know what steps to take in order to properly protect your information. Plus, these systems need to be carefully monitored at all times in order to ensure there aren’t any irregularities that go unnoticed.
In Summary
A website is essential, but without the skills, knowledge, and time it takes to set one up and keep it going, it can be difficult to maintain along with taking care of your business. That’s why it’s always a good idea to hire someone you trust to maintain your website for you, such as a third party business.
With Vervology, focus on the good. We take care of the technical side for you: performing updates, security checks, content creation, and backend maintenance. That way, you can focus on your business while also having the capability to request updates and fixes. It’s small business website management as it should be. Get in touch to schedule your free consultation.