10 Quick Website Maintenance Tips

By Tim Priebe
1. Keep all your images in a subfolder. If your file is something.com/index.html, then your images for that should be in something.com/images/

2. Save a template for creating new pages. Create a page that has all your website design elements, including your menu and header, but lacks content. Then, when you create a new page, start out by copying that template.

3. Use some sort of CMS for frequently updated pages/sections. For example, if you have a news page, set up some blog software to make updating it much easier.

4. For pages that may have a lot of material added in the future, set the pages up so they can expand vertically. In most cases, you don’t want your design to be set up where the page cannot expand vertically. Instead, the design needs to be set up where more content later won’t break it.

5. When referring to periods of time, use absolute terms. For example, instead of saying I wrote an article 1 month ago, I would say I wrote it in May, 2006. That way I don’t have to go back later and change the number of months. Also avoid words like “recently,” “yesterday,” and “soon.”

6. If you do update a page frequently, make a back up copy each time you’re getting ready to update it.

7. Keep a list (whether it’s posted on your website or not) of the exact pages you’ve changed, when you changed them and what you changed.

8. If you have a page with pictures, make sure you keep any new pictures the same width and/or height as the others. Which one of those looks best will vary from layout to layout.

9. If you have a prominent picture on your front page, change it out every once in awhile. Make sure the new one is approximately the same size, though.

10. Don’t use a lot of different colors and sizes in your fonts. And don’t have tons of bold and italicized words and sentences. That detracts greatly from the professionalism of your site.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com

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