Let’s Start With an Analogy

You probably own a car. Whether you realize it or not, you maintain it yourself all the time. You add gas to the tank. You clean the windows. You probably add air to the tires now and again.

However, when it comes to an oil change, while you probably could do it yourself, you choose to have a specialist do it. They have the equipment and know how, and they can recycle the oil so you don’t have to deal with it. It just makes sense.

When it comes to other maintenance tasks, there are likely some which you simply don’t have the knowledge or the tools to do.

Maintaining Your Website is Like Maintaining Your Car

Let’s face it: the basics of working with a website are pretty easy Chances are you’re capable of doing some maintenance yourself. For example, you may know how to change text and pictures on your own but you may not know how to install a specialized script. And, sometimes, when you want to change something, it might not make sense for you to perform the change yourself–you’re too busy maybe you don’t have the right equipment.

FastWebUpdates.com Focuses on Improving Website Maintenance

Our goal is to make website maintenance easier, faster and less expensive. How do we do it? Our simple strategy is to focus on doing the basics of website maintenance really well.

First, we have the right combination of software and knowledge to maintain most websites. Software includes products from Adobe, Microsoft and Macromedia. Knowledge includes extensive experience with almost all website technologies: HTML, PHP, Flash, ASP, JSP and much, much more.

Second, we focus on completing your changes in about one business day. All work is completed in our Oak Park (Chicago), IL, office by regular employees. Email, phone or fax your changes to us, and you’ll see progress on your website quickly.

Finally, we work with you in the way that’s right for your website. In some cases, this means we do everything. In others, it means we handle just the heavy lifting–things that are too time consuming for you to work on. Whether you have us change words and pictures or update scripts and hosting, our goal is to work with you in the way that fits well with your operations.

Why You Should Care

#1. Lower Price. Our standard prices are about 20% less than other professional web services organizations. In a recent survey, the average hourly rate for website maintenance was $64. Most of our customers pay over 20% less, just $50 per hour.

#2 Advanced Technology. New software comes out all the time. We regularly purchase the most recent versions of leading edge software so you don’t have to. Our extensive investment gives you access to the latest versions at a reasonable price.

#3. Better Communication. Communication is the backbone of any customer service operation. Website maintenance is no different. When you contact us with changes, you’ll often deal directly with the person in charge of completing them.

#4. More Stability. We’ve had the same phone number since January, 1996. Whether you need an update every week or every year, you’ll be able to get in touch with us quickly and easily.

2005 is coming to a close. Now is a good time to do some quick preventive maintenance on your website to make sure it keeps running smoothly in 2006. Here are our top 10 recommendations with the what, why and how of getting them done.

#1 Domain Name Registration

Domain name registration is a pretty simple process. But did you know it can affect your search engine ranking?

Many search engines (Google, for example) now factor how long your domain is registered for into their ranking algorithms. Domain names registered for a year are considered more likely to be spam websites and don’t receive as high of ranking as those registered for several years. So you need to register them for a few years out.

You also need to make sure the registrant information–including your name, company name and email address–are current. What usually happens is that this information gets out of date somehow and when you need to make a change, you can’t. Taking the time to correct any errors now will make your life easier down the road.

Finally, what are you paying for registration? For a “.com” address, you should be paying $10 per year or less. If you’re paying more than that, you need to have a solid reason why. From a technical perspective, the sub $10 registration you get a GoDaddy.com and the ~$35 you get from VeriSign do exactly the same thing. (Shameless plug: we offer a GoDaddy.com affiliate with .com transfers at $8.24 per year. Other TLD’s have different prices. Visit DomainsOnIce.com for more info.)

Important: One often overlooked area is DNS management. If you have to make a change in hosts, you’ll need to point your domain name to new nameservers, but you can only do that if you know where you’re registered. All modern registrars have automated, self-service sites that let you handle everything you might need to do–you just need to know where you’re registered and the username and password required to access your account.

To do: Make sure your domain name is registered through at least 2008. Write down your registrar along with all registrar access information (URL, username and passwrd).

#2 Original Working Files.

Your site probably has a variety of non-text files on it. These could be images, Flash files, databases, etc. The published versions of these are usually created from more complex original working files. For example, an image with text on top of it is usually made with a program like Adobe Photoshop. While the end result is difficult to edit by itself, the original file is specifically designed to be easy to edit. Without these original working files, switching to another designer can be very expensive.

You first need to check with your web designer about who owns these original working files. Is their policy that you–the customer–owns them or that they do? If they do, will they sell them to you? For how much? Some web disigners have a policy to never provide these to the client. If your web designer is one, you’re better off knowing sooner rather than later. At FastWebUpdates.com, our position is that these original working files belong to the customers and we provide them on request.

Whether or not you need to actually have your original working files in your possession depends on your relationship with your provider. If they’re prone to drama, you’re better off getting them sent over periodically.

Important: included with the idea of original working files are any special fonts required. If, for example, your site is based on “Tenacity Condensed,” (one we just ran into) you need to a) know and b) have the font available for your next designer.

To do: Contact your web developer and ask about rights to your original working files. Find out if you own them and decide if you want your designer to send them to you periodically. If you don’t own them, find out what it would cost to acquire them. It will be easier to get a hold of them now than it will be later.

#3 Look for SEO Roadblocks

A website designed in 2002 is not necessarily in good shape when it comes to working with 2005-6 era search engine robots. It’s time to take a look at your design and implementation to get an idea of what might be getting in your way. For example:

• Is critical text presented as an image? If so, robots can’t read it and won’t index it. If it’s text, replace it with text.
• Are you using a Javascript menu generator without either a site map or standard text links? If so, robots can’t read it and won’t index your site. It might be time to replace those stunning rollovers with a bit of plain text.
• Speaking of site maps — you do have a site map, don’t you? — now is the time to make sure it’s up to date and ready to go. Visit PinGoat.com for help (or have us do it for you).

To do: review your website with an eye toward SEO.

#4 Remove Excess Files, Databases and other Detritus.

Website maintenance produces digital leftovers. You add new files, change existing files and remove others that are no longer needed. It’s wise to create backups of files as your go, and you may even want to hang on to them for a couple of months. Eventually, once critical backups become a waste of space–flotsam that mucks up your HTML directory adds overhead to the website maintenance process.

Are you a digital packrat? Don’t worry about deleting the files. Just download them a disk somewhere in case you need them.

To do: FTP (either alone or with your website maintenance provider) into your site and look for files you’re not currently using. Remove them to your local machine or delete them entirely.

#5 Script Version Review

Most websites have some sort of script on them–many have several. Scripts range from code that sends email to complex applications, like a forum or a wiki. Whatever scripts you have on your site, chances are good that there is an updated version available. Upgrading usually fixes bugs, adds features and improves security. In general, if you have a version that’s 6-12 months old, it’s worth checking to see if an update is available.

One popular script that’s a must to update is phpBB. phpBB came out with a nice new version in July which fixes a few irritations. If you’re still running an older version–the dreaded version 1.x, for example–you’re in for a pleasant surprise.

To do: make a list of scripts on your site and the installed version and check their websites for an updated version. Review the changelog for the difference between the installed and current versions. Where it make sense, install the update. Pay special attention to scripts that you’ve modified. Be sure you don’t overwrite these modifications when you update your site.

#6 Hosting Configuration and Expense

Let’s start with the boring stuff: configuration. Think of hosting configuration like desktop PC configuration. Ever notice how different one PC can be from another? Webhosts can be different from each other as well. If you’re hosted by a large company, hosting configuration probably isn’t an issue. If you’re hosted by a smaller company, you need to check that their hosting is built around standards and not a custom configuration. (For our customers: we’re completely standard.)

Why should you care? If your host has “done you a favor” and tweaked their server, you will have problems when you move your site to a new host. Notice I didn’t say “if”. Computers wear out, site owners decide to upgrade or downgrade hosting, etc. You will move, and, if you have a custom configuration, it will be painful. Chances are that you never needed a custom configuration–it was probably just an expedient way around a small problem. Ask your hosting provider about special configurations. You don’t necessarily need to change your setup, but you’ll at least know what you’ll have to do when moving your site.

Next: money! In the grand scheme of things, hosting isn’t very expensive, and the process of changing from one host to another can often be somewhat time consuming. However, if you’re paying more than, say, $25.00 a month for hosting, you should know why. For example, maybe your hosting is non standard (Tomcat, ColdFusion), or maybe you just have a lot of traffic (2gb+ per month). If you can’t come up with a good reason, it’s time to start looking around for an alternative.

Most small business hosting providers offer a solution in the $10-15 per month range that’s sufficient for the average website. If you need SSL, expect to pay a bit more. Solutions that are less than $10 a month–GoDaddy.com’s $3.95 special is an example of this–often come with restrictions that can make basic functions like sending email from a form slower and more difficult.

Oh look–time for more shameless promotion! FastWebUpdates.com offers standard hosting at $149 a year and SSL compatible hosting for $199 a year. There are HDD and traffic limits to these accounts, but, so far, none of our customers have run into them.

To do: write down your hosting provider’s name and contact information. Be sure you have your username and password for both the control panel and FTP account. Are you paying more than $25 per month? If so, take a moment to identify the reason and to decide if it makes sense to continue.

#7 Stealth Content

Some contract web developers will add hidden content to your website as they’re doing work. No matter what anyone tells you, it’s not standard practice and it can reduce the effectiveness of your website. How? Well, most stealth content is designed to somehow improve the search engine ranking of either your website or some other website. Both strategies can actually harm your search engine ranking.

Stealth content designed to benefit your site–keywords presented in the same color as your background, for example–once worked but has the opposite affect today. Google, Yahoo and MSN all say they’ll consider banning a site that uses stealth content to improve its own search engine ranking. Getting banned is a huge pain in the butt. You can expect to see referrals to your site from the engines drop instantly, and getting unbanned can take months.

Stealth content designed to benefit someone else’s site usually comes in the form of links from your site to theirs. In the Google formula, this can result in a dilution of your page rank. Google’s page rank formula specifically lowers your page rank based on the number of outbound links. While the page rank formula is only 1 of 100 factors they use to display results, are you really in business to promote someone else’s website?

Unfortunately, the only way to find out if you have this is to check. Carefully. Look for text that’s the same color as your background, or on a div with a z-index lower than your main page. Or look for an image map with coordinates going to sites that you’re not familiar with. If none of this makes sense, hire a third party to do a code review on your site.

To do: Review your site for content that you didn’t ad. Do you see something you don’t expect? If so, you need to determine what it is and decide whether to delete it or not.

#8 Email Hosting

Is your email hosted on the same machine as your website? If they are and one fails (due to, for example, hardware failure) you’re at risk of loosing both. We recommend separating the two. (Don’t worry–you can keep your domain name for your email; people who email you will never know its on a different machine.) Having a separate server means that an email spam attack is less likely to disrupt your website, and, likewise, a denial of service attack on your website is less likely to disrupt your email.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself: I have a small site. I’m not at risk for these. Keep in mind that a typical webserver will host 30-40 sites, most of which you will never know about. But if one of them is at risk, your site is also at risk. Separating these two concerns is good practice.

Here’s another shameless plug: check out BestEmailEver.com for info on dedicated email hosting with high end anti-spam and anti-virus.

To do: consider separating your email and hosting. Consider the risks of keeping them together and the cost of separating them. Now imagine what it would cost for a day or two without both. You may decide it’s worth it.

#9 Password Review

When was the last time your changed your FTP, control panel or other password? If it was some time ago, and you’ve given it out a few times since then, it’s a good idea to go ahead and change it.

To do: update all of your passwords to something reasonably secure. Be sure to not use a word, include at least 8 characters, a mixture of lower and uppercase, include punctuation and numbers.

#10 SSL Review and Management

SSL certificates are a lot easier to deal with today than they were just a few years ago. For one, they’re less expensive–certs that were commonly sold for $199 are now available for $50 or less. But you still have to pay attention to when they expire and, when you move hosts, you’ll have to get a new one.

To do: review your SSL certificate’s expiration date. Make arrangements for a new certificate at least one more before the current certificate expires.

Who do you want working on your website?

If you had your choice–which you do–you would probably want a team of smart people who work quickly. For puposes of this article, “smarter” can be measured academically and “faster” can be predicted by experience. We’ll address the third distinction at the end of the article.

Are we smart?

Yes. Reid Carlberg leads the team. Some academic qualifications for your consideration:

• Most recently (June, 2005), Reid was awarded a master of science degree in software engineering from DePaul University. He graduated with distinction.
• He has a bachelor of arts degree from Kenyon College. He graduated magna cum laude with highest honors.
• His GMAT scores? Higher than 96% of other test takers.
• His SAT scores? Higher than 97% of other test takers.
• His high school GPA? OK, not that good. The lowlights? A “D” in AP European history and “C-” in Physics. But that was 1987, so we hope you can cut him some slack.

Are we fast?

You bet. Some recent examples spanning a variety of our customers:

• A law firm had us update their site. 13 pages with changes, one new page and several updates graphics. Less than three billable hours, complete within one business day.
• A consumer product company called us to update their images, shopping cart and a video. About two and a half billable hour, completed within two business days.
• A tech start up called us for a significant site rewrite and lead tracker. We created a completely original system in about two billable days and completed it in about one week.
• A manufacturer called us for an automated communication system with their largest customer. We created a completely original system to match their unique needs within about two billable weeks, delivered an running in about one month.

Our experience spans websites and applications in many industries: retail, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, catalog and pretty much everything else.

Are we better looking?

Well, that’s up to you. As a good friend–an Argentinian who runs a mortgage brokerage here in Chicago–likes to say, “Who is it who wrote the book on taste?”

Important!

In case you don’t already know this–it’s not a great idea to hire your website developer based on whether they’re “better looking”. But a website developer with a sense of humor will probably make the whole process a bit easier.

I’ve been playing with WordPress as a new blogging solution. It’s pretty darn good. The template system is useful and the code is pretty accessible so it’s easy to get in and make it do what you need it to do.

We have been working on a transfer form Agora to Zen Cart for a client. We’ve done a few Zen Cart implementations, but this one is requiring a bit more in the way of custom code. Zen Cart’s built in classes weren’t quite enough, so we created a couple of new classes and added what we needed to the mix. Super fun: hijacking the cart for any member of a particular category.