You must forget that old-school “set and forget” approach if you’re running a business site today. That’s because this strategy has been proven to have its negative impact on a digital storefront. This negligent maintenance always results in outdated software and plugins. So, you potentially have a very slow-performing website on hand. Then, you have many broken features that will always need a fix. From forms that fail to broken shopping carts, there are many such aspects that can frustrate your target audience.
Think building a website for your brand is all you need for a robust online presence? If it’s so, you might want to revisit your concepts. This is the kind of thinking that leads businesses to “set and forget” their digital storefronts. A strategy that will only ruin all the efforts that you have made so far to create a website. It’s quite the opposite of proactive maintenance, which keeps your site up and running. The approach that you badly need to stay relevant in today’s highly saturated digital world.
This guide explains why “set and forget” cannot work for businesses anymore.
5 Reasons Businesses Should Avoid “Set and Forget” Websites
The thing is, a branded website must be available for mobile users. They should be able to use it like desktop or laptop users do. When you set up a digital storefront for your business and forget it, it can potentially lose its responsiveness to all devices. Then, you are also going to have to face the detrimental security vulnerabilities that will always keep you awake. That’s because robust website security is an ongoing process, not a one-time project. All of this makes a “set and forget” strategy dangerous for your brand image.
Below are the top five reasons businesses should avoid such websites:
1. Slow Performance
You might not know that a mere one-second delay in page load speed results in about 7% decrease in sales for businesses. This is how the slow performance of a website impacts your business. And the main reason behind this consequence? This usually happens when you build your digital storefront and forget to maintain it properly.
There are multiple ways a “set and forget” website doesn’t perform as it should. The software and plugins it uses become outdated. It’s where inefficiency begins. Secondly, such a site has unoptimized media files that can significantly slow down the page load speed. Then, databases might also get bloated. It becomes cluttered with data that you don’t need.
2. Broken Features
A digital storefront has several functionalities. You know, functions that distinguish it from common websites. When a site isn’t maintained properly, these functionalities either don’t work correctly or cease to work at all. It’s what you call “broken features”. These can be broken links or forms that have stopped working. These might also be broken shopping carts or dysfunctional navigation.
A “set and forget” website also faces visual and design failures. You might have images that users cannot load. There can be a layout that has become corrupted. All your social media integrations might fail. Then, let’s not forget about outdated content like all those expired promotions. You cannot really imagine how unprofessional such a website looks.
3. Failed Responsiveness
Your website must be accessible to all your users, regardless of what device they’re using. It’s especially a critical point with respect to mobile phone users. These individuals, in fact, make a big chunk of your targeted clientele. Here’s how a “set and forget” website might fail in this regard:
- Older, unchanged designs
- Outdated content management systems
- Browser inconsistencies
- Operating system changes
- Unoptimized content
This lack is essentially going to cost you in terms of sales. Your brand will keep experiencing high bounce rates, poor search engine ranking, and a bad reputation.
4. Security Vulnerabilities
This is, undoubtedly, the most dangerous part of keeping a “set and forget” website for your business. There are thousands of cyberattackers who are eying even a simple vulnerability in your business website. Here, they find one; there, you have a cyberattack to handle. Such a website faces the following vulnerabilities:
- Vulnerable software
- Injection attacks
- Weak access
- Poor authentication
- Security misconfigurations
When you take all these security issues too casually, you might face potential legal implications. The tarnished brand image and lost customer trust are some other consequences.
5. Brand Damage
Want your current digital storefront to keep damaging your brand image? If yes, then you can go with the “set and forget” approach. You must avoid this strategy if you don’t want this to happen. Here’s how such a website can be bad for your brand’s image:
- Poor user experience
- Outdated appearance
- Inaccurate content
- Lack of activity
- Negative reflection
These are the factors that often result in a business facing a bad reputation due to its poorly maintained website. You definitely need help from an expert to maintain your website properly to avoid all these problems. You can opt for website maintenance in Dubai to keep your business site up and running by contacting a reliable service provider.
Need an Effective Website Maintenance Plan?
A “set and forget” business site cannot support your goals. It can pose a number of problems that your brand might not be able to handle. From slow performance to broken features, failed responsiveness, and security vulnerabilities, there can be a lot of issues. Get in touch with a reliable service provider now if you need an effective website maintenance plan.
