Trying to learn the ins and outs of website management? Need tips and tricks to help things run smoothly?
Many like yourself want to improve their webmaster skills but aren’t sure where to begin. It’s not as easy as it looks, and online methods are always changing. Fortunately, we have a few suggestions to guide you!
In this article, we’re going to outline 5 website management tips and tricks every webmaster should know. You’ll learn a few secrets that will put you steps ahead as a web manager and owner. Better take notes, because you’ll regret skimming over the hacks we’re about to reveal!
Website management hacks
Begin with a plan
Before you begin your work as a webmaster, it’s important to have a plan. This is especially true when dealing with new websites, as new sites need a foundation to build off of. They need a logical link structure that’s easy for users (and Google crawlers) to follow. An organized sitemap also helps lay the groundwork for your site SEO, so it’s important to have this in mind from the beginning.
Things to consider:
- How will your blog posts be categorized?
- How will your pages link together?
Of course, there’s more than one answer to each question, but planning ahead will help you avoid silly mistakes.
Outsource difficult tasks
When things get difficult, you can always outsource work to freelancers. This is best when you need occasional help and don’t have the funds to hire full-time (or even part-time) support. You can hire people you know or consult with freelancers on websites such as Upwork.
We look for assistance online whenever we run into errors, bugs, and other website management tasks that are better suited for specialists, and our experiences have been great so far. When we run into coding issues we can’t resolve on our own, it costs us less than $15 to hire someone to fix it.
Backup your website regularly
If you want peace of mind knowing your website is safe, it’s critical you perform regular backups. Many webmasters do a standard monthly backup and preventative backups before making major site changes. This is the bare minimum, as some website management experts recommend you to do weekly backups or more!
A trick to making quick work of backups in WordPress is through backup plugins. One of the best is UpdraftPlus, a free tool that also comes with a premium version for those who need the extra features. You can choose to save your files in cloud storage or on your computer’s internal drive with the press of a button, and it works with Dropbox, Google Drive, and many other popular services.
Learn to code as you go
One of the greatest inventions in modern website management and building is the front-end builder. In the past, you had to memorize lines of code to build webpages, but these days, you can use drag and drop plugins to manipulate code for you. While coding isn’t as critical for beginner web design as it used to be, it’s still a highly valuable skill.
If you aren’t familiar with basic HTML and CSS, try to practice a little here and there. Knowing simple lines and commands can help you correct site errors on your own, saving you money spent on freelancers. We paid for bug fixes in the beginning that could have been resolved with a line or two of code, and now we know better. Use websites such W3Schools to get a feel for the basics, and it’ll pay off in the long run.Â
Balance your SEO tactics
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important aspects of website management. If you want your website to rank high on Google search engine results pages, you need to manage your website with search optimization in mind. Many beginners learn this and end up spending a lot of time developing on-page SEO, all the while ignoring off-page SEO.
Off-page SEO refers to outreach tactics aimed at helping build backlinks to your website. This is an advanced website management strategy that people pay high dollar for, and you can save money by learning about it yourself. Using keywords on your webpages to boost your SEO score is a great starting point, but you should try to balance it with off-page SEO aimed at building relationships–and links–elsewhere on the internet.
Conclusion
As you learn more about website management and become familiar with different site types, you’ll become an expert webmaster capable of handling anything the internet throws at you. The key to success online is persistence, so don’t give up if things don’t go your way immediately. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and of course, if you need assistance: reach out to PeachTown.