Website Maintenance
Far too many websites fail to live up to their original promise. At the outset the intentions are good: their owners put a lot of time, money and effort into the initial design; the website goes live, functions as the designer intended and provides a satisfying experience for its visitors.
But what is not always appreciated at the outset is that maintaining the website will require a significant amount of time and expertise, and will need to be carried out frequently, otherwise the pages will rapidly appear to be neglected.
The problem is compounded when maintenance is handed over to someone who doesn't have the skills, motivation or time to do the job properly.
The signs of neglect are all too familiar:
- The most recent item on the "News" page (or, worse still, "Latest news" page) is months out of date.
- A notice that says the last update to the site occurred many months ago.
- A similar type of notice, automatically generated by JavaScript when the page is displayed, that always indicates that the site was updated today, when it's obvious that nothing has been changed for some time.
- The Home page has been hijacked and turned into a surrogate "Latest News" page.
- Undated items of "News" (whichever page they're on) - how is the reader to know if they're still relevant.
- Outdated items of "News". Something that is a year old cannot be considered News! Old news - if it is still relevant in any way - should be stored in an Archive page. If it is no longer relevant - it should be removed.
- Links to external websites that no longer work.
- Text that has been added without maintaining the layout and look of the original web pages (this usually is displayed using the Times New Roman font).
- Text that has been added without considering its relevance for visitors to the website - and whether it's appropriate for them to see it!
These are not devastating problems in themselves. The information is still there, but visitors have to struggle to find it. However, you have to remember that your website may be a prospective customer's first impression of your product or service.
At Carruthers Back Office Solutions, we can clean up your existing website. We can also maintain your website with regular updates that you send to us on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis.
You may have noticed that we don't offer website creation amongst our services. There is a good reason for this - graphic design is not in our skill set. And if we can't do something well, we'd rather not do it at all. These days an effective website must not only be designed to reflect the image of the organisation it promotes, it must also adhere to the W3C Standards. If you require a new website or a makeover of an existing website we suggest that you contact a professional website designer and assess their portfolio.
