Do you want to Discover the power of Google marketing tools? Then stay with us, here in this blog we will discuss more about how to create a Google Business Profile. In a short period, you can unlock the potential of Google My Business (Now Google Business Profile).
The Importance of Professional Website Development for Business
In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses of all sizes. A well-designed website serves as a virtual storefront, allowing potential customers to learn more about your products or services and make informed decisions.
Want to know why SSL is essential? Here are our 5 key reasons.
Is SSL important? Do I need SSL? Do I need to fasten the seatbelt while driving? Do I need to put on protective eyewear while watching the solar eclipse? As far as the first three questions are concerned, the answer is a big ‘YES’!
Okay, let’s not get into that.
If you own a website or a blog in 2021, you need SSL. It’s as simple as that. An SSL certificate is no longer a luxury; it’s an out and out necessity nowadays.
Here are the five key benefits of using an SSL certificate.
1. SSL Protects Data
The core function of an SSL certificate is to protect server-client communication. On installing SSL, every bit of information is encrypted. In layman’s terms, the data is locked and can only be unlocked by the intended recipient (browser or server) as no one else can have the key to open it. While dealing with sensitive data such as IDs, passwords, credit card numbers, etc., SSL helps you protect against the mischievous army of hackers and skimmers. As the data is turned into the undecipherable format by SSL, hacker’s skills prove to be an edgeless sword against the unsurpassable encryption technology of SSL certificates.
2. SSL Affirms Your Identity
The second primary task of an SSL certificate is to provide authentication to a website. Identity verification is one of the most important aspects as far as web security is concerned. There is no doubt about the fact that the internet is increasingly deceptive. In 2009, a guy traveled 400 miles to meet a girl he had met on Facebook, only to discover that he was being duped by two guys who supported a rival football club. However, not all such stories are funny. There have been cases in which people have lost thousands of dollars on fake websites. This is where SSL certificate comes into play.
When you want to install an SSL certificate, you must go through a validation process set by an independent third party called a Certificate Authority (CA). Depending on the type of certificate, the CA verifies the identity of you and your organization. Once you have proved your identity, your website gets trust indicators vouching for your integrity. When users see them, they know who they’re talking to.
Think of this as verified Twitter accounts. The only difference here is that you are required to verify your identity for the website instead of Twitter account. Such verification makes sure that no imposter creates a fake website pretending to be yours. In technical terms, this is called Phishing. Thus, SSL helps users drive to your real website, saves users from frauds and enhances your reputation.
3. Better Search Engine Ranking
In 2014, Google made changes to its algorithm in order to give the upper hand to HTTPS-enabled websites. This has been evident in various studies conducted by SEO experts around the world. One such study conducted by Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko.com shows a strong correlation between HTTPS and higher search engine rankings.
Who doesn’t want to be on Google’s first page, right?
4. SSL Helps You Satisfy PCI/DSS Requirements
If you accept online payments, you must know a thing or two about PCI/DSS requirements. To receive online payments, your website must be PCI compliant. Having an SSL certificate installed is one of the 12 primary requirements set by the payment card industry (PCI).
Therefore, SSL is essential—whether you want it or not.
5. SSL Improves Customer Trust
If it were up to us, we’d have renamed SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to TTL (Trust Transmitting Layer). Fortunately, it isn’t. But that won’t stop us from singing the praises of a TTL —err, SSL certificate. Apart from encryption and authentication, SSL certificates are vital from a customer trust point of view. The easy to identify signs inform the users that the data they send will be secured. And if you’ve installed an OV or EV SSL, they can see your organization’s details. Once they know that you’re a legitimate entity, they’re far more likely to do business with you or even revisit your site.
Google Makes SSL Mandatory in 2018
To give a safer web browsing experience from 2018 onwards, Google has decided to flag the websites which do not have an SSL/TLS Certificate installed on their website. If anyone fails to comply with this rule, all the popular web browsers used around the globe like Google Chrome & Firefox Mozilla will punish them by giving a warning message of ‘Not Secure’ on the URL bar. It could be possible that in near future website may even get blocked to load on the browser. No matter which website you have, from a personal blog to any shopping portal SSL is mandatory and by not following with it may result in loss of visitors which is not something a website owner would like to face.
Wrapping Up
How safe would you feel if your browser warned you about a website being “not secure”? Because that’s what will be shown in the upcoming version of Chrome if you don’t have an SSL certificate. Do you want that? Of course, you don’t.
So, what are you waiting for? Check out our super-affordable range of SSL certificates and add an unconquerable layer of protection to your website.
What Is Website Maintenance and Why Is It so Important?
What Is Website Maintenance?
Website maintenance is the act of regularly checking your website for issues and mistakes and keeping it updated and relevant. This should be done on a consistent basis in order to keep your website healthy, encourage continued traffic growth, and strengthen your SEO and Google rankings.
Keeping a website well maintained and attractive is important to companies big and small in order to engage and retain customers. It’s easy for businesses, especially startups, to cut corners and let a few tasks slide.
Website maintenance can easily become one of those things as it doesn’t always present immediate issues. However, just like your health can fall apart if you go too long without a regular check up, so can the health of your website. Regular monitoring of your website is a must for keeping your business running smoothly.
What Are the Steps in Website Maintenance? A Quick Checklist
There is a laundry list of tasks that should be done to keep your website running smoothly. The most time-sensitive of these are website security updates and patches. Without these, your website has the potential to be an actual danger to those who click on it. With that in mind, here is a list of website maintenance tasks that should be completed regularly:
To be done weekly
- Check that all of your pages are loading without errors
- Run a backup and make sure a previous version of your site is stored
- Make updates to website software and plugins
- Check that all of your forms are running properly
- Remove any spam comments from pages and posts
- Check your pages to see if there are any broken links
- Search for 404 errors and fix or redirect
- Write one or more blog posts to keep your community engaged and encourage SEO traffic.
To be done monthly
- Check the load speed of your website and ensure that nothing is bogging it down
- Review your security scans and make sure nothing is out of place
- Analyze website statistics from the previous month
- Check your blog to see if there are any articles that could be updated
To be done quarterly
- Review your website design and structure – can be it improved?
- Check graphics and images – should anything be updated?
- Review SEO and meta titles and descriptions to ensure they are as effective as possible
- Test and tweak popups, forms, and calls to action
- Review your workload for efficiencies to see if anything can be automated
- Test your website on all devices and browsers to see if it displays correctly
- Review advertising and marketing campaigns to see if anything needs to be changed or updated.
- Restore a previous version of the website to check your backup health
To be done yearly
- Update any reference to the current year
- Review each page for content accuracy, grammar, typos, and relevancy
- Check any active email addresses and see if any are excessive and can be deleted
- Ensure that your website domain name is renewed
- Consider whether a website design update is due
- Review all of your top performing blog articles and see if they can be updated with new content
A Proper Website Maintenance Plan Is a Circle
As you can see from our checklist, website maintenance should be a consistent part of your business. It grows on itself, and if not correctly implemented, can cause some serious problems and setbacks to your potential growth and business health.
Staying on top of website health takes awareness and organization. This is particularly the case for a large site with hundreds (or even thousands) of pages. With the introduction of new tools to make website building easier, website sizes are growing each year. While it’s easy to add pages to most websites, it’s not as easy to keep all of your pages in a good state.
All that to say: keep on top of your website maintenance.
Why Is It Important to Do Website Maintenance?
Many new businesses already have a lot on their plates without worrying about constantly checking in on their website. It’s tempting to buy a domain name, throw up something temporary, and just worry about it later. There are many reasons why this is not a good idea. Maintaining a current, healthy, and active website is important for a number of reasons.
SEO
The whole point to starting a business is to have customers, clients, or an audience. To drive traffic to your website, you’ll need to keep it regularly updated.
Google wants to rank websites that have the most relevant and up-to-date information on their search engine results page . They may even de-index your website entirely if it hasn’t been updated recently enough and if they suspect it has been infected by malware. You must keep your website regularly updated with current content, news, keywords, and articles in order to rank well in search results. Regularly website maintenance is invaluable for SEO strategy.
Customer Attraction/Engagement
If your website is gaining traction and traffic, it’s important to keep those potential customers. If they aren’t able to find what they are looking for, current information and relevant content, there is a good chance you’ll lose interest quickly. In order for your website to be the useful tool you want, you’ll need to ensure it is free from typos and grammar issues, has any and all information a customer could want, and looks engaging and consistent.
Security
This is the single most important reason to keep website maintenance on your radar, particularly if your website is storing any form of customer information. If you are using a website building platform like WordPress or Wix, you must ensure that you are installing regular software updates and security patches. It can be easy and attractive for hackers to find and target websites that have sat dormant for too long.
Corporate Image
It’s becoming more and more simple to create a website that looks well-designed and professional. There is an expectation for a professional website from professional companies. If your website doesn’t deliver on the promise of professionalism, your customers will often go elsewhere.
Paying for Website Maintenance Services: The Advantages
Now that we’ve established that website maintenance is a must for websites of any size, it’s time to discuss the advantages to employing someone else to do that maintenance. You can, of course, take on these tasks yourself, but it will save time and stress to pay an agency for several reasons.
- You’ll be hiring a team of experts who take care of these tasks every day. They know what to look for and what to expect.
- You can focus on other areas of your business that need your attention.
- Hiring an outside agency is cost-effective and can scale with your company. Your package will reflect the needs of your company.
Determining If You Should Buy Website Maintenance Packages
There are several elements that go into determining whether you should purchase a website maintenance package.
- The size of your website
- The purpose of your website
- How much of your website is customized content
- How quickly is your business growing?
- How much experience do you have with website maintenance?
- Is your website currently out-of-date?
- How much time do you have to dedicate to website maintenance?
If you’ve read this whole article, you probably have a good idea if maintaining your own website is something you are currently capable of. If your website is simply sitting and taking up space on the internet, you should absolutely consider purchasing a website maintenance package. Your website should be a tool that is supporting and helping your business grow. It is a living and breathing entity that deserves your time and attention in order to fulfil its potential.
Let Us Help You
At Appsoft Infosystem offer reliable and affordable website maintenance packages with long term contracts. We offer SEO, hosting, security and updates, backups, support, and peace of mind.
Ask yourself honestly whether you are keeping your website in good health and consider contacting us. If you were to drive a car miles every day without regular tune-ups, you wouldn’t expect it to work for you long-term would you? Your website is the same. . But don’t worry; we’ve got your back.
