Annual Website Maintenance

At the start of the new year, it's a good time to take a good look at your website and review it for accuracy, dead links, etc.

Here are our suggestions. If you don't have time to do it all yourself, check out our Website Maintenance Checkup service.

Order your Checkup today and be on the road to good website health!

1. Test all your forms

Test all your contact and feedback forms. Make sure they're working. You have a few feedback for handling tools available in your cpanel.

2. Check your domain name record for accuracy

Make sure your address, name, and especially your email address are correct on your domain record. You can review your domain record online at Whois.com. If you find your domain needs changes and you registered it here at Hosting CT, you can use our domain modification form to update the record. Just login to our client area, click on the domain you want to edit, and click the arrow next to it to find Edit Contact Information. See screenshot below.

client area - domain name contact information

3. Check that all email addresses listed on your site are correct.

Make sure all addresses are setup correctly and are being checked. Make any necessary changes by logging into your control panel and working with your Mail.

4. Check for broken links

It's not uncommon for sites to grow quickly, with new pages being added and old ones being deleted. Check to make sure all your links are still working and pointing to the right urls.

5. Check your site's search feature

If you're using a search script/program, make sure the files that you have excluded from search and the folders you have included in search are still accurate.

6. Check your download time

Are your visitors leaving after viewing one page? That might be a sign that your site takes too long to download. Review each page to make sure it is quick loading. Check images to make sure you're not resizing images in the code.

7. Update your copyright date

If you are using Server Side Includes (ssi) or a content management system (cms) this will be a snap. Just update the date on your footer and it will be updated automatically on all page! If you're not using ssi, well, it may take a while to edit each page manually.

8. Check your search engine visibility

See how well your site is doing in the search engines. Go to Google and do a search to see how many of your pages are in the Google index Search for site://www.yoursite.com This will only tell you how many of your pages are in Google's index, not how well your site is ranked. Try searching for your keyword phrases on Google to see where your site falls. To improve your search engine ranking, take a look at our SEO services.

9. Update your site content

Your content should be fresh. Update it as often as you possibly can to keep your visitors coming back. A bare minimum would be once a month.

10. Check all Scripts

Check all scripts for updates. Often security patches will be available and should be download and installed.

11. Check your privacy policy for accuracy

If anything has changed in the way you gather or use client information, make sure it is clearly stated in your privacy policy.

Thank you to by Deborah Christie of POP Interactive for originating and sharing the idea of the annual checklist.

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