Spoiler alert: Businesses crushing SEO lead generation goals don’t solely rely on a killer keyword strategy. Yes, they conducted research with SEO consultants and publish custom content.
But something else works in tandem with their content strategy to take them to the top.
I can hear your boredom setting in. Do not let the lack of razzle dazzle fool you. Basic blocking and tackling makes your site shine in search results, attracts traffic, and introduces new prospects to your business.
To see why, take a minute to consider what Google does, as a company.
Why Website Maintenance Is the Backbone of a Strong SEO Lead Generation Strategy
Search is a product for Google, and searchers are its customers
Google doesn’t want their customers to encounter poorly designed websites that are slow, riddled with errors, or packed with annoying pop-ups.
SEO rankings are much more than your keywords
Google is collecting an ever-changing array of inputs about your website to determine where to display it in search results.
Exactly what Google uses in its ranking algorithm is a black box
We do know user experience and trust are critical factors. You could write a million articles about both, but that won’t make your site user friendly.
The only way to guarantee the best experience for your users, maximize your SEO lead generation potential, and position yourself to win on search is to make website maintenance services a priority.
Start with keeping your site up to date.
1. Update and Back Up Your Website
If you have a custom WordPress website, you can easily spot in your dashboard when a core update is available, or when you need to get the latest version of the plug-ins or theme you use.
There’s no single click that updates every element on your custom-designed website. In this way, your site is like your smartphone. The manufacturer releases software updates, but that does not cover the apps you downloaded. Those companies push out their own updates.
Why you want to regularly update your website, plug-ins, and theme
Running an up-to-date website enhances user experience, because the update will:
- Fix bugs and eliminate errors
- Remove security risks
- Maintain compatibility across your website, plug-ins, and theme
- Improve performance and page upload speed
- Boost functionality through newly released features
Core updates come from your web hosting service
This fixes bugs and makes improvements to the core files feature built into the web-hosting software. It covers the basic building blocks of building and managing your website, like your site content and admin access.
“Core” does not mean “complete.”
Separately, you’ll update your themes and plug-ins.
Theme and plug-in updates
Since these are not covered by your core updates, you will have to maintain themes and plug-ins separately.
Don’t pigeonhole your theme as a website design feature.
Your theme changes how your website loads and directly impacts speed, user experience, and SEO. For instance, outdated code can slow down your site.
Plug-ins add functionality to your website for users …
Unless you don’t run the latest version. Remember to be selective about which plug-ins you use. Overusing plug-ins will slow down your site and decrease performance.
Before making updates, back up your website
Updates can have unintended consequences – like compatibility issues between your plug-ins and software. Critical features could break, or clients and prospects may not be able to reach your site. Either way, it makes you look unreliable.
Minimize potential disruptions. Regularly back up your website.
Backups are best practice in general, not only for updates
If your website goes down for any reason, you know you’ll be able to quickly come back online.
2. Continually Monitor and Improve Performance
Searchers expect websites to load quickly on mobile devices and computers. Based on these expectations, Google favors fast sites in rankings.
Use free tools to monitor site speed
Take a minute to bookmark PageSpeed Insights. This free tool from Google analyzes your website and generates scores for Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO.
You’ll see how quickly pages load, performance issues, and lists of what you can do to address problems.
Another tool, Core Web Vitals, guides you through any terms you don’t know, and offers further details on how to improve performance.
Regularly audit your website for performance issues
Free tools are powerful, but not a complete audit. To root out broken links and get an in-depth report on your technical SEO, get a comprehensive audit from an SEO consultant.
You can also get SEO consultants to manage SEO and provide website maintenance services for you.
Delegate responsibility
Seeing how quickly pages load is easy. Addressing every site performance issue – speed or otherwise – takes more effort. Seek out Do it for you SEO consulting services that include performance monitoring and improvement.
Secure Your Website To Maintain Trust
A prospect will not engage with you or contact you if they cannot trust you. They also won’t find you through search if your website sends shady signals to Google.
Wait, I’m not shady!
No, you’re not. But if you don’t follow best practices for website security, or if your site is compromised, Google will decide you are a threat to users and act accordingly.
For instance, Google alerts users when a site does not use HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) encryption.
In extreme cases, Google will not send traffic to a site.
Best practices to maintain website security and build trust
- Keep your website, theme, and plug-ins up to date
- Back up everything
- Get an SSL certificate for your website
- Enable HTTPS encryption
- Use firewalls
- Limit backend website access to those who need it for their job
- Enforce strong password policies for website administrators
- Turn on multifactor authentication for people logging into your site
- Monitor your website for suspicious activity
Tip: Work with a website design company that prioritizes security
They’ll build your site correctly the first time and ensure security updates happen on time.
Work With SEO Consultants Who Provide Website Maintenance Services
You’ve put effort into developing a stunning website. Don’t let user experience issues tank your search rankings and hamstring your SEO lead generation efforts. Work with an SEO consultant who also offers website maintenance services, like KLA Group.
Our experts will help you improve your website’s search visibility and increase organic traffic to your site by developing a plan to:
- Optimize your website
- Enhance user experience
- Create content that appeals to your target market
- Maximize SEO lead generation potential
Contact us and take your website to the next level.