Website management. Two words that make the task of managing your website sound deceptively simple. But is it?
While it can never be described as ‘simple’, it’s certainly easier if you have the right expertise on tap, ready to go, whenever you need it, 24 hours a day. The question is, do you?
Outsourcing your web management makes sense
Some say your website is your business card on the web. But often it’s so much more than that. It can be a catalogue of your products and services. Or it can be an application that allows your customers to ask questions and receive a response when you’re not available. It may be an online shopping portal. And of course, it can showcase your contact details, office hours, and the team that makes your business great.
Most businesses lack the time, resources and breadth of expertise to manage their websites properly. And if you want to keep your website live, working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, that’s exactly what you need. In short, your website is your most valuable employee. Working constantly, invisibly, generating business, sales and profits for you.
Your website should be a living thing
Which is why a lot needs to go on behind the scenes to make sure it performs reliably, consistently. Website managers take care of everything from complex technical tasks, website maintenance, security, data backups and more. They keep it slick, smart, perfectly polished and working like a dream. And who doesn’t need that?
Here’s a quick snapshot of what a great website manager can do for you:
Host your website in a dedicated, super-secure building
This specially designed building is called a data centre. Dedicated connections are monitored day and night, ensuring your website has constant access to the internet so it keeps working around the clock. And because this building is bound by Australian Government security standards, you can rest assured your website and data is safe and secure 24/7.
Provide super-fast, proactive server management
A virtual environment lets your service provider maintain your website with virtual servers and networks. And being virtual, your site can be moved quickly if an imminent hardware or security issue is discovered. Not only that, extra resources can be allocated when monitoring shows that your website is under heavy use, so it keeps working perfectly. And here’s something really beautiful: there’s no noticeable impact or inconvenience to your website or customers. Nice.
Monitor availability and performance
We constantly monitor for any impending technical glitches. Power issues, low disk space, heavy usage, and more are monitored 24/7 by our highly responsive tech team who are ready to act on anything that may threaten your site. Nothing is left to chance.
Take care of your backups
We’ve all heard stories of people who haven’t backed up their computers and lost their data. Years of data. And it’s happened with companies like Pixar, who almost lost Toy Story 2 when someone typed a command in the wrong folder and deleted 90% of the movie. Of course, a company like Pixar had backups, but the backup system had failed.
Thankfully, our monitoring service prevents such backup failures. So you can be sure our nightly backups of your site and data happen without a hitch. And for greater peace of mind, we don’t keep it onsite with your servers. It’s moved offsite so that your data lives in two locations.
And to further reduce the Toy Story 2 nightmare, we also…
Perform disaster recovery testing
We simulate a disaster and make sure that the switch to our redundancy equipment is seamless. Not only that, we ensure we can rebuild and replicate your current environment, quickly. It’s the only way to be sure our disaster recovery plans work if ever required.
This involves:
- Rebuilding your web server
- Restoring your website applications
- Restoring your most recent backup
- Testing to make sure every is working as it should, including website, applications, databases, portals, and other parts of your fully integrated website.
Smart website management isn’t magic and it’s not “implement and forget”
While we could continue to list every task we web managers perform, we think you get the picture. (Trust us. It’s a long list.)
Let’s just say, a lot of work goes into making sure your hardest working employee continues to serve your business, your customers and boost your profits all day, every day.
If you have questions regarding your website, or website management and maintenance then get in touch with us.
Salam Digital is a strategic digital agency in Toronto, ON. Our websites help businesses from all industries run their operations, meet customer needs, market and sell their products, and most importantly, make a profit.