Whatever line of business you’re in, your website needs regular maintenance. And so a website maintenance virtual assistant could be just what you’re looking for. And that’s relevant whether you’re a solopreneur running a niche drop-shipping store, or a multinational company with a thousand-page website.
Very often, websites are beautifully designed, carefully put together and launched – and then neglected. Entrepreneurs get busy. Corporations change priorities. And the net result is a website that quickly loses visibility and ranking in searches. Essential website maintenance – and the right kind of online activity – is a critically important business function.
The Difference Between Web Design and Web Development
To set up a great website, you’ll need a skilled web designer. Your designer will also likely work in tandem with a copywriter, graphic designer, and other experts. The result? A launch-ready site that will wow your customers. On the other hand, if you’re a startup with limited funding, you might make use of a ready-made platform like WordPress or Shopify, where the design is already built in.
But it’s what you do after that, that really matters. Web development is the process of consistently ensuring that all the important elements of your website are working optimally. You could try doing this yourself – but it takes up a lot of time and requires expertise – or you could consider engaging the services of a website maintenance virtual assistant.
What a Website Maintenance Virtual Assistant Will Do For You
Your website could be the equivalent of a sleek sports car, or an elegant limousine – but either way, it’s what happens under the hood that determines whether you get anywhere. Your website isn’t an island: it’s connected to a system of constantly changing search algorithms, linked sites, and applications that constantly evolve.
A skilled website maintenance virtual assistant can help you in a multitude of ways. Here are just some of the key functions you need to focus on to stay relevant:
Search Engine Optimization
You want your website to rank well in search results and have high visibility. But building solid SEO into your site isn’t a one-time task. Your assistant will help you by:
- Doing regular, updated keyword research as well as making sure that your content stays fresh and relevant.
- Constantly revisiting functions like link building in order to increase your domain authority.
- Checking for page loading speed and streamlining content where needed.
- Keeping track of Google best practice as well as applying changes to your site to increase your visibility.
A Website Maintenance Virtual Assistant For Content Management Updates
Your Content Management System, or CMS, needs to be checked and updated regularly. If your website is using plug-ins or external applications – like payment gateways, auto-responders, and others – then CMS updates can cause compatibility issues. Your website maintenance virtual assistant will check these to ensure you don’t encounter issues or website downtime. If you’re using a ‘plug and play’ platform like Shopify or WordPress, the themes or layout templates are periodically replaced by newer versions, and you’ll need someone to monitor this too.
Image and Video Maintenance
Great images and graphics are a key element to the success of any website. Apart from the SEO value, visitors to your site respond more quickly and positively to images than they do to text. Embedded videos are also a fantastic way to increase customer engagement and SEO ranking – and emphasize the authenticity of your brand.
Your assistant will also perform several other functions related to your images and videos:
- Checking the alt text that denotes an image or video – this is incredibly important for SEO.
- Ensuring image sizes are optimized to increase page loading speed.
- Optimizing images and videos for viewing on mobile devices.
- Create and upload images that will help increase the visibility of blog posts and other key pages.
- Check that video embed links are working.
Navigation and Functionality
You want your customers to enjoy navigating your website. The aesthetics should be pleasing, the messaging clear, and the navigation effortless and intuitive. Your website maintenance virtual assistant will monitor user feedback, as well as ensuring that everything is in place to encourage people to buy from you:
- Call To Action buttons.
- Subscription or opt-in fields and pop-ups or hover bars.
- Live chat windows.
- Product purchase links.
Website Maintenance Virtual Assistant For Setting Up Landing Pages
Design website landing pages for specific purposes. These could include:
- Registration for events like webinars.
- Promoting a product or special offer.
- Opt into an email list.
- To thank people for participation or a purchase – and to offer an upsell.
Landing pages can continually be updated and are a valuable SEO tool because they refresh your content and are often linked to trending or current content elsewhere on the web.
Form Maintenance
Your website’s visitors may need to view or complete online forms:
- Essential customer information.
- Surveys or feedback forms.
- Permission forms and privacy.
- Acknowledgement of terms and conditions.
- Releases or indemnities.
An error on a form – even something seemingly harmless like an incorrect date – can create problems for your business. Your website maintenance virtual assistant will continually check these, query any discrepancies, and update them for you.
Automated Customer Interaction
Customer communication is the most important aspect of any business. Every visitor who comes to your site is looking for something – information, a product or service to purchase, or a solution to a specific problem.
In addition to live chat and a responsive contact page, you’ll also need automated email sequences for different purposes. These are commonly plug-ins that are designed to respond to customers who opt into your mailing list, make a purchase, or interact with your website in some way. Automated mails are great – but they often need constant content changes and checks to see that they’re flowing with the correct sequence and timing.
You could devote your precious time to doing this yourself – or you could leave it to your website maintenance virtual assistant, secure in the knowledge that it’s being professionally monitored.
Social Media Integration With A Website Maintenance Virtual Assistant
Social media is the marketing lifeblood of most businesses. Your website needs to provide two-way traffic:
- People finding your offers on social media need to find exactly what they’re looking for on your website. And so this means you need constantly updated landing pages and links.
- The messaging on your website should echo what you’re putting out on social media, and so your assistant will keep track of marketing campaigns to ensure coherence and a great customer experience.
- You’ll want visitors to your site to promote your business – so you need highly visible links to your social media, and to give visitors or customers the ability to share quotes or images on their own social media pages. Remember, word of mouth (or user generated content) is the best sales tool in any business!
Back It Up!
Perhaps most importantly, your assistant will regularly back up your website content. And so, if a server goes down, or you suffer a hack, you wont lose all your precious content!
Grow Your Business the Smart Way
Just a glance through this article should tell you that it’s almost impossible for you to do website maintenance consistently – especially if you’re an entrepreneur working to build your business. The answer is to outsource to a skilled web maintenance virtual assistant. You can work within your budget, know exactly what you’re paying for, and significantly amplify your web presence.
Better visibility as well as happier customers, and more sales. Sound good?
Book a discovery call today and we’ll show you how a website maintenance virtual assistant can save you time and effort – while ensuring that your website is being affordably and professionally maintained.
