Website Monitoring – Performance Check and Maintenance

 

We are faced with a generation of netizens whose attention spans are measured in seconds rather than minutes.  It is a world populated people with instant gratification syndrome.  Why? It’s because in this world, next greatest experience possible is a click away.  And if you own a website that caters to the needs of this market, a back click means opportunity lost. By opportunity that means a loss in sales and profits. This is why webmasters and business owners must be diligent in website monitoring.

One of the reasons why visitors click the back button when they do not find what they are looking for, or the website does not contain what is promised. However, the most disastrous example for a webmaster is to lose sales because the site is experiencing system failures or communication failures that result in major downtime.  Even a well-built site experiences these glitches and the more elements you have on your site, the more difficult it is to monitor your website’s performance and its availability 24 hours a day.  It is a time consuming yet extremely necessary part of maintaining and owning a website.

There are several reasons why websites fail to function properly from simple bugs to script errors or network connectivity issues.  The bottom line is to know what happens so that necessary adjustments are made in real time, minimizing your site’s downtime and maximizing viewer traffic.  Monitoring website performance involves quite a number of things that an application needs for it to function properly and there are metrics that are most commonly measured as performance indicators such as response time and availability or uptime.  Here a list of the essentials.

1.       Website availability or Uptime – Monitoring your website’s uptime should be the first and foremost concern.  You are online because you want to be visible and visible you must be at all times.  It is essential for websites that are intended to reach global audience, uptime of key pages should be checked from different locations.

2.       Full Page Loading – Monitoring the functionality of each element should also be monitored, from images to videos to flash files, etc.  For viewers, the visuals matter.

3.       Broken Links – It is frustrating for viewers to find that certain links do not take them further.

4.       Sign Ups and Log-ins - Let your viewers feel that they are important, welcome them and answer their queries promptly.

5.       Page Loading Speed – As mentioned, the internet is fast paced and the loading speed determines whether your viewer would decide to explore your site further and stay longer.

6.       Query Forms and Shopping Carts – These applications should always be working well.  One keeps clients interested and the other one is of course income generating.

7.       Your site has been hacked and is flagged by search engines and anti-virus softwares.

Remember that if a website’s monitoring processes are overlooked, you may be missing out because of issues that may be easily addressed if you only you know what they are.  

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.  

What Is Web Maintenance?

In a nutshell, website maintenance is what you do after you are done with the initial development and launching of the website.  It is a broad term that involves website upkeep. It is also about ensuring the sustainability of the website as a marketing platform.

The tasks vary as websites are multi-faceted and each facet requires different fields of expertise, some are technical while others are more on the creative side.  But all these various fields are closely related to each other to keep the website running smoothly. It is the website owner’s responsibility to know how to monitor or maintain the website.

Fortunately, some of the tasks needed for web maintenance may be outsourced. For example your web designer or developer would have most likely used a content management system or CMS, which updates and manages the newly launched website. Learning how CMS works takes time and patience and if you have both then it should not be problem. But most website owners are usually not adept to technicalities and would rather spend time managing the business itself. This is where web maintenance services come in.

Here’s an overview of the types of web maintenance services being offered.

Site Availability and Functionality

The most fundamental aspect of web maintenance is monitoring, this is to guarantee that the website is fully operational and available. Part of what needs to be done is to make sure all links are functional, whether they are within the internal structure, inbound or outbound.  Plug-ins, widgets, flash players, online forms must all be checked daily if they are all working as intended.

Content Updates

Web maintenance also involves updating the content regularly. Updates would sometimes mean you just need to upload images or edit and add more content.  Or make more visual changes from lay out to adding pages and links. Page views are more likely to increase for websites that are constantly updated.

Blog entries are a form of updates that keep a website interesting and interactive especially if comments are monitored and replied to. For SEO, it is a creative way to introduce new keywords that are trending.

Website Maintenance Services

            As mentioned, website maintenance may be outsourced to a company that offers the services.  Companies that offer these services are equipped with professionals and experts that can efficiently keep your website well maintained not to mention free from hackers with ill intentions.