Websites get out-of-date fast. To get the most from your website you really need to nurture it. It’s important for business owners to understand that maintenance is an expected part of having a website and that this applies to every website, built on every platform. There is no such thing as a maintenance-free website. In fact, the annual costs to maintain a website are typically equal to the cost of having built the website in the first place. If you spent 5 grand to have your website built, you should budget another 5 grand each and every year to keep your website functioning at its best.

There is no such thing as a maintenance-free website. Click To Tweet

Sometimes maintenance tasks have to happen because the tools used to build your website have changed and the technology has become dated or obsolete. Plugins and other features sometimes upgrade, require re-installation, or just stop working entirely. A website may become outdated because the technology in the back end may be no longer supported. The user interface could be lacking the usability and spark of your competitor’s sites. From a creative perspective, using the styles and color schemes that were timely a few years ago may now make your company seem dated and irrelevant.

Or, it may be that maintenance work is needed simply because you want to take good care of your business. Tasks like adding new images to a website, updating copy, running sales specials, or keeping the site in tune with the current season are all necessary routine maintenance tasks. While you may require a webmaster to address technical issues, every business should be able to properly care for and feed their website without relying on an outside party.

Every business should be able to properly care for and feed their website. Click To Tweet

You might be aware that I teach a course every semester at our local college on how to build and maintain your WordPress website. This is a remarkable value for the students because at the end of the semester, they walk away with a fully functional website AND they know how to use it.

But, the problem is that if you don’t keep working on your site, you might forget how to do certain things. The same is true of my website customers: I provide initial training on how to log in to the administrative dashboard and change a few things, but maintaining your website to where it is generating new leads or sales for you is an on-going challenge.

As a result, I am seriously considering offering an online training course that will give you access to all this information in a structured format. Basically, I will be taking what I teach at the college level and making it be a live, interactive online course. But I will also record each session and make those recordings available to everyone so you can access them whenever you want, forever. Forget how to change the slider to create an Easter Special? Just look it up, watch the video, and be on your way.

Sound like a good idea? I think so, but I could really use your help. I put together a short survey (less than 3 minutes to complete) so you can let me know specifically what you would like to learn in such a program. Please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2Z82865 and let me know your thoughts. (You might even get your tuition waived.) Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it!

Your website is an investment in sales and customer service infrastructure. Its value hinges on it being well-maintained. Learn how to make it your star salesperson and treat it that way.