Website Maintenance and Quality Assurance

The process of website maintenance involves several tasks but one of the most important is Quality Assurance.  The level of work and the hours required would depend on the complexity and size of the website.  So what exactly is Quality Assurance?

By definition, quality assurance is a series of tasks that ensures that the website is operationally sound and every detail is in conformance with an organization’s standards. The key word is conformity both to the whole web system and particular business goals.

The two major tasks involved in quality assurance is data collection and data analysis.

Data Collection

                Data collection is all about checking and website monitoring for issues in the functionality of the website and the quality of output.  This task is overwhelmingly time consuming as the level of website complexity gets higher.  The task involves:

·         Checking for broken or non-functioning links

·         Checking for missing content or objects in every page of the website and this includes not only texts but also images, buttons, and other plug ins

·         Checking for missing browser titles

·         Checking for grammar and misspelled words in the texts

·         Checking  the file size of pages

·         Checking for missing metadata

·         Checking the compatibility of the website to all existing browsers and it may also include compatibility with mobile devices

·         Checking for proper application functions, for example, inquiry forms, order forms and check out forms.

·         Checking that legal and regulatory guidelines are being adhered to – such as privacy and copyright laws and data protection and privacy.

·         Making sure that the pages conform to the business’ or the organization’s Web Accessibility standards (if there is any in place)

·         Checking for issues in web design

               

Data Analysis

All the data collected after the checking is then compiled.  There are tools that web masters use to collect these data for more efficient and effective website maintenance.  An “Issues Log” is created.  The purpose of this log is to have a database of items that are in violation of and QA checkpoint.  These are then allocated to the developers to be addressed.  This way, the people assigned to a particular problem are able to fix, adjust or address issues in time and lower website down time.

Website maintenance may be outsourced so that the organization or company is able to allocate time and be able to focus on managing the actual business or reach particular goals.  

SEO Guaranteed Results: What’s The Catch?

There is no sure-fire way to guarantee SEO results. However, some companies claim this level of proficiency. But is it true? Can SERP ratings be guaranteed?

According to the Google Webmaster guidelines, there is no absolute assurance that a page can get top spot rankings. And although ranking high on the SERP’s do result in greater traffic to your site, it is only half the battle in online marketing.  Getting visitors to convert once they’ve reached your site is another part of it. Any you do that by maintaining you site well alongside great web design that is also user friendly. However, there are SEO companies that promise top rank and their techniques may not have anything to do with web design and proper web maintenance.

What is Black Hat SEO

Companies claiming miraculous results should be avoided because, in all likeliness, they are using illegal methodologies to attain their results. These black hat SEO tecniques violate search engine guidelines. They include the following:

• Hidden texts
• Cloaking
• Optimization software
• Keyword stuffing
• Doorway pages
• Link farms

When caught, they result in penalties from the search engine itself. In worse cases, the page can end up being completely banned from the search engine directory. If you insist on keeping your page for the long run, this can prove problematic.

What is really guaranteed?

SEO companies who use black hat SEO may perform as promised with visible results. However, when search engines begin penalizing the website for violating the webmaster guidelines, their clients are the ones who get in trouble. And they have no choice but to face the consequences. They are often left to deal undoing the SEO methods themselves.

Another repercussion includes being blacklisted from popular websites. Being removed from these sites, denying you the benefits of visibility that come from them. This results in loss of valuable backlinks  and the potential of generating traffic from visitors that use the website.

So what can be done?

If you are looking for absolute guarantees, unfortunately there is none.  But SEO does bring favorable results and there are SEO companies who have successfully helped their clients achieve top ranks in the SERPs.

SEO is also about getting your site optimized for the search engines and built for the benefit of your site visitors.  It is building the right SEO foundation by making excellent use of keywords, images and good quality and informative content that help convert a visitor into a paying client.

Web maintenance is also a key factor in getting favorable results.  Updating your site often increases interest and relevance of your website. The closest guarantee you can get to achieve best results in website promotion is hiring an SEO company that provide both SEO services and web maintenance