Website Success
A secure website protects your investment of time and money, makes it easier to manage and helps build a profitable asset.
Securing your site is not just about having strong passwords or secure e-commerce. It also means protecting the domain name, finding capable and trustworthy developers, keeping recent backups and protecting yourself legally, among other things.
In our first lesson in Website Success Course, we begin with a website checklist of information that all site owners and managers should have saved securely in a paper file. It includes information such as where the domain name is registered and who the primary contacts are. All too often, we hear of people who let their domain name expire and have a difficult time getting it back. Sometimes, other people have registered the domain and will hold it hostage until you pay them a bounty. Your site goes down and your email stops working. Avoid this!
How to Update Website Content
Other site owners cannot update the site because they don’t know how to access the site files or access the Content Management System (CMS). We show you how to find and document the ways your site’s content is managed. Being able to confidently revise your site’s content and Calls To Action (CTAs) is CRITICAL to the success of your site. There are dozens of reasons why!
It’s much easier to do than it used to be.
Another problem that we often see is not knowing who has built or revised the site. You may or may not want them to work on your site in the future, but you should have a variety of vendors in your Rolodex, including people who will design the look and feel of the site/blog, program key functionality, develop or curate content and market the site. You should always ask site developers for all files related to building the site. These include the ‘art files,’ often developed using Photoshop of Illustrator, and any files used in site content; photos, logos & icons, video, text files, downloadable files and sometimes user names and passwords.
Website owners and managers need to identify people with the skills and expertise to build a successful online business.
The company you host your site with should keep backup copies of your entire site, but that isn’t always the case and having your site backed up more ways than one offers better reliability and peace of mind. We’ll show you how to maintain current content.
Developing a Website Project Plan or Strategy
All of this critical information is assembled in pages of a Word document that members receive in many of the lessons in the Website Success Course. These pages become the site’s custom project plan, and ultimately the Operations Manual.
We also show you how to manage and protect access to your site using free or inexpensive solutions.
These are all core aspects of developing the foundation of a successful website.
Later in the Website Success Course, we’ll talk about the importance of legal disclaimers and FTC compliance. Avoid fines and minimize exposure to protect your asset.
It’s “Like a Boss” website management and security!
Next: Evaluating and Auditing Your Website.