But, in an age where even brick-and-mortar stores are often dependent on online sales, this probably isn’t a task you embrace. After all, you do everything possible to avoid online downtime. Why would you jump into something that practically makes it an inevitability? In addition to the initial cost of website upgrades, you also risk losing significant profits for each day your website is under maintenance.
But you don’t have a choice in the matter, so what exactly can you do about it? The good news is that there’s no need for website upgrades to leave your business behind if you consider the following key tips for survival during this difficult period.
# 1 – Trust the Task to Experts
The longer your website improvements last, the more money you stand to lose. That’s a fact, and it’s something that means you’re going to want to shorten this process as much as possible. Implementing a decent upgrade plan will help to some extent, but you may also want to avoid taking a DIY approach.
Remember, you’re a business owner, not a tech mogul, and even if you can use a Squarespace template well enough, you’ll probably take a fair amount of time to implement even small website changes. That’s why you would be better off contacting web design and SEO experts long before you even consider getting started with this task.
Professional SEO-centric web designers will not only tell you what upgrades your website needs, but they’ll be able to implement those changes with far less disruption to your business overall. You may even find that they can help keep areas of your website up and running at all times, thereby minimizing losses.
# 2 – Take a Granular Approach
Speaking of keeping some areas of your website open, it’s also always worth taking a granular approach to online updates. While it may technically be easier to shut down your entire site and take things in one fell swoop, doing so is likely to result in struggles, both from lost profits and because consumers who search for you online during that time will probably form a pretty off-putting impression that keeps them away for good.
To avoid that, you should try taking a granular approach to even full-site upgrades wherever possible. By tackling individual pages or website elements instead, you should find that you can largely keep your page up and running, even if it operates at a limited capacity throughout the maintenance period.
The main thing to bear in mind here is that, if you do find a way to keep your website up and running, you’ll probably want to put some kind of caveat to let new customers know what’s going on. A simple ‘website under maintenance’ banner at the top of each page ensures that even new customers understand the process, instead of simply seeing an unprofessional or entirely missing webpage that sends them straight into your competitor’s arms.
# 3 – Choose an Appropriate Time
If you choose to upgrade your site in the lead-up to Christmas, you’re likely to experience significant losses, as well as stress and time constraints. None of this will be conducive to your company or project, which is why you should also carefully consider when to implement an upgrade.
The ‘best’ time to upgrade will typically be your quieter periods, such as January/February. Similarly, if you’re a seasonal brand, such as a swimwear retailer, then winter would be a better time to accomplish tasks.
Admittedly, this won’t completely negate any disruption, but it does ensure that profit losses are kept to a minimum. The only downside is that this also means completing potentially expensive improvements during periods of inactivity. However, proper financial planning should still ensure that this is possible.
# 4 – Maintain What You Can
You want to upgrade your website, not start from scratch and discard everything you’ve built so far. Hence, you should work to maintain priorities like SEO ranking, URL structure, and high-performing content as much as possible.
Luckily, working with experts can be a significant step in the right direction, as they’ll take steps to keep your site safe during every stage of the upgrade. Even if you’re going things alone, you should always take precautions, including regular backups and inclusive testing before launch. If, for any reason, you can’t maintain things like URL structure, it’s also vital to put redirects in place to ensure minimal disruption.
# 5 – Boost Online Profits With Your Relaunch
Admittedly, you’ll want to avoid flooding a brand new website launch with a whole load of traffic, but it could pay to find ways to boost your online clicks and profits in the weeks and months following your website improvements.
Options that include online-only sales or special discounts are a great option here, as the profits from these initiatives can help to cover any losses you experienced during your upgrade. Equally, if you’re not in a position to reduce prices, it could be worth offering online-only initiatives, which could include specialist merchandise with each purchase, or even simply downloads of relevant content, such as styling guides or product advice.
Conclusion
Website upgrades aren’t for the faint of heart, but they are a key part of ongoing business success. So, instead of fighting this priority, you should find ways to embrace it without sacrificing profits. We hope that each of these top tips helps you on that path, and ensures a great-looking website for way less worry than you might’ve had otherwise!