The online stores are open 24 hours a day and the sales go on without the need for any staff on hand. Online stores may not require managers but it does not run hands-free. The websites need to be managed to provide a regular upkeep which is crucial for their success.
The practice of maintaining and updating a website over time is called website management. The aim of this is to keep the website attractive, safe and easy to find. The key elements are security, accessibility, technical performance, on-page SEO and design of your website. These elements help to offer a seamless user experience.
These elements are critical to maintaining a well-functioning E-commerce store. In E-commerce businesses, the website is an integral part of the customer’s journey. The customers should be able to view your offerings, make purchases, leave feedback and get customer service. Without proper management, your customer will not be able to achieve this.
Key Elements
1. Online stores need to prevent hacks just like physical stores need to avoid break-ins. This ensures that the customer data is safe like address and credit card information. The most commonly used certificate is the SSL certificate. In this, all the URLs begin with ‘https’ which means it is using a secure protocol. This certificate should be renewed as required.
In case of a hack, you can get your website back to normal if you maintain backup files of your website. Website vulnerabilities occur when the websites are not kept up-to-date. These updates should be done regularly.
2. The web has standards for accessibility and supports the use of the internet for people with disabilities like blindness, deafness and learning disabilities. The physical stores have to follow the standards of accessibility like wheelchair access. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to be used are:
- All the text alternatives should be provided for non-text content. Ait-text should be provided for images, transcripts for videos, and captions for audio.
- There should be enough contrast between the text and background colours. Avoid using colours as the only way to convey the information.
- The form elements should be labelled clearly and error instructions should be easy to understand.
- You should ensure that these standards are in place if your website is updated over time.
3. You should ensure that the pages of your website load quickly and without any errors on devices. You can follow best practices like mobile-first HTML/CSS, ensuring that the images are properly sized and fixing broken links.
4. On-page SEO is a subset of SEO and the practice of optimising your website to make it rank higher in the search results. It helps to optimise your website so that the search engines easily discover and understand your content.
5. Managing your website is not just a technical practice. A website can have a modern and user-friendly interface and be visually appealing. This is equally important for online success.
You can hire a creative agency to help you manage your website and keep it up-to-date.