Launching a website or e-shop is a big milestone. Weeks or months of work are behind you, the site is live and the first visitors are arriving. It is worth knowing, though, that the work doesn’t end there. A website is a living system: it runs on a server, uses libraries and frameworks that keep evolving, and is used by visitors and search engines alike. Without care it gradually ages, slows down and the risk of security problems grows.
In this article we go through what to look after once the site is live, why it matters and how to set up ongoing care so that it doesn’t become a burden.
Why a website needs care after launch
We often hear: “We launched the site a few years ago, it works, so why touch it?” The problem is that the world around a website changes even when the website itself doesn’t. New versions of browsers and operating systems come out, new security threats appear, support for old versions of programming languages ends and search engines change their rules. A site that works flawlessly today may suffer from problems nobody knows about a year from now.
Regular care is like servicing a car. It isn’t visible while everything is fine, but it greatly reduces the risk of something breaking at the worst possible moment.
Updates and security
A modern website rests on many components: a framework, third-party libraries, a programming language, a database, a web server and an operating system. All of them receive regular fixes, and many of those are security fixes. When they are installed promptly, the risk is small. When they are postponed, known vulnerabilities remain on the site, and attackers are well aware of them.
Postponed updates also pile up. A small step from one version to the next is usually simple. A jump across several versions at once can mean changes in many places in the code. That is why it pays to update continuously and test everything before release, ideally with automated tests that confirm key features such as ordering or the contact form still work.
Security also includes other basic measures:
an encrypted HTTPS connection with an automatically renewed certificate,
strong passwords and ideally two-factor login for the admin,
protection of forms against spam and bots,
regular checks of who has admin access and whether they still need it,
security headers that tell the browser what the site is allowed to load.
Backups that can be restored
A backup only makes sense if you can actually restore the website from it. That sounds obvious, but in practice it often turns out that the backup is missing, incomplete or stored on the very server that just stopped working.
Well-configured backups follow a few rules:
Both the database and uploaded files, such as product images or documents, are backed up.
Backups run automatically and regularly, depending on how often the data changes.
They are stored outside the server the website runs on.
Several older versions are kept, so even a mistake discovered late can be undone.
A restore is tested from time to time.
Only when you know that a restore works, and how long it takes, can you be sure that an outage, a mistake or an attack won’t catch you off guard.
Error and uptime monitoring
It is best to learn about an error before your customer does. Most visitors won’t report a problem; they will simply go elsewhere. That is why tools that alert you to problems automatically are worth having.
Error tracking tools capture a problem the moment it happens, along with the details needed to fix it: which page it occurred on, in which browser and what led up to it. The developer doesn’t have to hunt for the error. Uptime monitoring regularly checks whether the website responds and sends an alert when it stops. The developer can then react straight away, not after a complaint.
It is also useful to watch for things that aren’t errors as such but signal a problem: for example, orders or enquiries stopping even though the site is running. Such an outage is often caused by e-mail sending failing, and without monitoring it can go unnoticed for a long time.
Speed and search engines
Website speed affects both visitor satisfaction and search rankings. Slow loading increases the number of people who leave before they even see the site, and Google takes speed into account when ranking results.
A website can slow down gradually. Large images, new scripts from external services, chat widgets and tracking codes accumulate. So it is good to measure performance regularly, for example with PageSpeed Insights, paying particular attention to mobile.
For search engines, Google Search Console is key. It shows which queries your site appears for, how many people click through from search, which pages Google indexes and whether it has run into any errors. It is also worth checking:
broken links and pages that return an error,
redirects after page addresses change,
page titles and descriptions shown in search results,
whether the sitemap is up to date.
Content that stays alive
A website where nothing changes for years looks inactive to visitors and search engines alike. You don’t have to publish every week, but updating content regularly pays off. Add new references, refresh the description of your services, answer the questions customers ask you in articles. Content like this helps people make decisions and brings in traffic from search engines at the same time.
That is why it matters that content can be edited easily in the admin, without having to call a developer for every change to a text or image.
Growth based on data
After launch you finally have real data on how people use the website. Traffic analytics show where visitors come from, where they leave and which pages bring in enquiries. That is far more valuable than any estimate made before launch.
You can build further improvements on this data:
rework the copy on pages people leave quickly,
simplify a form that people start filling in but don’t finish,
add content people are looking for and can’t find,
improve the mobile experience if most visitors come from phones.
Small, continuous improvements based on data usually achieve more than a complete redesign every few years.
Website care checklist
To make sure nothing is forgotten, it helps to divide care by how often each task should be done. The exact intervals depend on the size and importance of the website, but a plan might look roughly like this:
Continuously
automatic backups and uptime monitoring,
error tracking and responding to alerts,
installing critical security fixes.
Every month
routine updates of libraries and the framework, with testing,
checking forms, orders and e-mail delivery,
a look at Google Search Console and traffic analytics.
Every quarter
a test restore from backup,
measuring speed and checking the mobile view,
reviewing access to the admin and the server.
Once a year
moving to new major versions of the framework and programming language,
reviewing content, references and service descriptions,
evaluating what the website has delivered and where to take it next.
Who will look after the website
Agree in advance who will handle maintenance, what exactly it includes and how quickly problems are resolved. It is good to be clear on these points:
who has access to the server, domain and admin, and where those credentials are stored securely,
how often updates are made and who tests them,
where to report a problem and how quickly someone will respond,
how smaller changes and further development are handled.
Ideally, the website is looked after by the team that built it and knows its code. We provide long-term support for the websites and applications we develop, so you don’t have to worry about technical details and can focus on your business.
Summary
Caring for a website after launch isn’t complicated; it just mustn’t be underestimated. Regular updates, working backups, error monitoring, keeping an eye on speed and gradual data-driven improvements keep a website secure and useful for many years. If you are not sure what state your current website is in, get in touch and we will take a look at it.