Webmaster Service
Why consider using a webmaster service? For many companies, a website is the most important marketing tool they have. Making sure the website is working properly should be a high priority. However, most businesses are simply too busy, short-staffed, or lack the internal expertise to keep the website maintained properly and working at its potential. A good webmaster will make sure a website’s content, design, and technology are all working well together.
Webmaster: Content
Webmasters are responsible for the content on the website. This content needs to adhere to many SEO requirements such as keyword density, reading level and keyword usage within meta, alt, url and file names. The keywords cannot be “stuffed” as doing so will actually hurt a page’s ranking. Typically, webmasters work with the marketing to make sure the content delivers the product or service value propositions via text and images. Website content must also support social media efforts with campaign-specific landing pages.
Webmaster: Design
A website’s design is more than just the colors, fonts, images and layout. Design also includes adhering to good user experience principles. A webmaster works closely with designers to translate their design into a working webpage. Sometimes, though, designers may need to concede their design slightly to account for better website functionality, speed and technology constraints. A webmaster must also address font usage, optimize images and make sure code is clean and fast-loading. Minimizing the use of separate CSS files, deferring javascript and using SEO friendly code such as schema.org is important.
Webmaster: Technology
A webmaster’s responsibility also includes the proper use of technology such as a content management system (i.e.: WordPress, Drupal, Concrete5, etc.) and the servers that host the website. Technology includes implementing the correct security measures to prevent hackers from taking control of the site. A hacked website can not only be embarrassing for a company but also dramatically affect their current search engine rankings because hacked sites get seriously penalized. Other considerations include, for a WordPress site, not using too many plugins, choosing a strong and well-supported theme, and locking down the WordPress administrative area. Depending on the company and business objectives, sometimes using IP blocking may also help with security measures.
With so many issues to consider, a vast majority of small businesses are simply not able to properly manage their own site. Using a trusted, third-party company may be the best option so the owners and management can concentrate on building the company and not worrying about their most important marketing and sales tool.
Learn more about emarcom’s active website management services here.