There are many things that all webmasters must do on a regular basis to
ensure that their web sites remain useful and functional. Some of the
tasks you should be performing are listed below.
- Promote
- You must promote your web site constantly. Every single day you
should do something, anything, which attempts to get people to your
site. This is extraordinarily critical in order to ensure that people
continue to visit your site day after day. The "Advertising"
section describes many of the techniques that you can use to get your
site noticed.
- Check your links
- Another task that must be performed on a regular basis is checking
for "link
rot". This is the tendency for broken links to appear all over a
site. It is most common with external links (sites move, are abandoned
or are modified all of the time) but can occur occasionally with
internal links.
- Change Your Site
- People expect sites on the web to be constantly changing. If your
site is static and unchanging there is no reason for someone to come
back again - after all, they've already seen it so why return? One major
way to get them to come back is to change the content constantly and to
be sure that your visitors know it is changing.
- Monitor Your Site
- Subscribe to a service which checks your site on a regular basis.
This is important, as if your site is constantly "bouncing" you will
find it being removed from search engines and your visitor levels will
drop.
- Review Your Statistics
- A task you should be performing on a regular basis is to
review your statistics. At a minimum, you
should check your page counts to be sure that your site is being viewed.
At best, you need to know where people are coming from, which browsers
they are using and what they visited while they were at your site. A
webmaster who does not have access to statistics is a crippled webmaster
who has no idea how effectively his website is performing.
- Publish A Newsletter
- I firmly believe that all webmasters who maintain sites of any
significance (a reasonable amount of content) should regularly publish a
newsletter.
This allows interested visitors to be updated on events and new
materials published on the site, and gives the webmaster a method for
communicating with his audience at will.
- Stay Up-to-Date
- All webmasters need to stay up-to-date on new technologies which
they can use to improve their web site. In addition, getting
certified,
joining
organizations, continuing their
education
and attending conventions is essential to staying current and active.
- Review Your Site
- Occasionally review your site. When you look over a page, check your
grammar, spelling and accuracy. Remember that as time progresses your
articles may become stale, so be sure and recheck your conclusions and
facts. What may have been true when you wrote the article last year is
not necessarily true or important anymore.
- Check Your Site's Security
- Learn as much as you can about web site security, and ensure that,
to the best of your abilities and knowledge, that your site is secure.
This ensures that your customers (if any) and visitors information
remains confidential and safe. It also protects you and your web host
from harm.
- Protect Your Visitor's Privacy
- Post a privacy policy and adhere to it without exception. Review
your practices occasionally against your policy to ensure you are
following it to the letter.
Additional Reading
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.
