As a Virtual Assistant, you’ll rely heavily on your website when it comes to client acquisition and retention. Your site needs to be as efficient, seamless, and reliable as the services you provide to reassure clients that you can successfully support your business.
But to do that, your website requires constant care and attention.
But why? I hear you cry!
If you have a WordPress website – which is still the best platform out there for VA websites, due to the flexibility it allows for customisation, Google loving it AND being easy to update content yourself – then you have, a custom-built Ferrari on your hands.
And like any car, you need to look after it to keep it running in tip top condition!
Here are the minimum tasks you need to undertake to keep your website running smoothly!
DAILY TASKS
1. Have dedicated back up system in place. Don’t rely on your host storing back ups of your website on the server. Have at least one back up else where – you can use a WordPress plug in to automate this for you and save a copy of your website somewhere you control eg Dropbox, AmazonAWS or even to your own email inbox. Do that DAILY! [I create 3 daily back ups for WP Fiddly bits clients – this makes me sleep easier! [Think this won’t happen to you? It did for thousands of 123-reg customers.]
2. Uptime Monitoring. No website is every online 100% of the time – but if your website goes down you need to know ASAP so you don’t lose potential customers or trust with your current clients. You can install software to your website to let you know if your website disappears unexpectedly. This will enable you to check with your host if it’s an intermittent issue at their end or one that will require you to step in and trouble shoot!
3. Security Monitoring. Unfortunately hackers and malware are still around and thinking up ways to damage your website. Fortunately there’s a lot of software out there such as Wordfence and IThemes you can place on your site to help keep the bad guys out. You should check this for patch updates daily. Ideally, your Host should have server level security in place and 2FA to deter potential hackers.
WEEKLY TASKS
4. Plugin and theme updates. As technology evolves, so does the software used to create and maintain your website. You should check for plugins and theme updates weekly and have a schedule for updating them to make sure your website continues to run smoothly. Sometimes these updates are security related – a weakness may have been exploited by hackers – so you need to keep on top of this. Other updates may be required to keep a piece of functionality running on your site or to ensure one plugin does not disrupt the functionality of another. Before you update plugins make sure you have taken a manual update just before so you can roll back to a working copy of your website if you encounter errors.
5. Visual checks – sometimes updating your site can affect the display of your website – like an image suddenly stops showing or a page layout shifts. It’s a good idea to be familiar with how your web pages should look like so you can spot any differences immediately. Schedule a quick look round your website for anything that doesn’t look right each week.
6. Malware scans – Although you should be monitoring your website daily for any security issues, you should also schedule a deep scan weekly to detect any malware. You can use dedicated websites to do this for you such as Sucuri.
MONTHLY TASKS
7. Monitor Traffic & Search Engine Rankings – your website should be sending you potential customers throughout the month, but to know how effective your website is, you need to know your numbers! Get Google Analytics 4 [free] installed on your website and then use an online tracker to monitor your keywords [the searches you want to be found for] and your rankings every month. Mom, Ahrefs and SERanking are all examples of online keyword monitoring websites. Many have low cost or free starter memberships available. My clients have this done for them every month in the form of a report emailed with a list of the work we’ve done. What you don’t know you can’t improve!
8. Clean Database – surprisingly your website database accumulates a lot of extra data up over the month, such as revisions, spam comments, deleted comments, etc. Removing this unnecessary data will reduce your database size, speeds up your backup process and makes your website speedy too. You can use an optimisation plug-in to do this for you like WP-Optimize.
9. Test Loading Time – how fast is your website? You should aim for a loading time of less than 2.5 seconds. Check your speed here: https://gtmetrix.com – using an optimisation plugin such as WP Rocket and/or a performance plugin such as PerfMatters will help you keep your website loading quickly. This is really important as Google prefers fast websites.
10. Search for Broken Links. Use a broken link checker such as the free tool Sitechecker to identify any broken links so you can fix them.
11. Check for Search Console Errors/Issues. Search Console [formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools] is a free way to “look under the hood” of your website and see if there are any additional errors you need to sort out!
If this long list seems daunting, then there is an easy and practical solution!
Tailored website support plans can provide you with all of the above and more. They act as a solid support system, ensuring your website runs smoothly, functions effectively, and provides a great user experience for your clients.
AKA, a website support plan takes care of your website so you can focus on taking care of your clients!
Here’s why an effective website support plan is such a fab investment for your business…
The Benefits of a Website Support Plan
Optimum Performance
When users are searching for a reliable, organised Virtual Assistant, the last thing they want to come across is a slow website filled with broken links and errors. Instant bad vibes!
The best way to provide the perfect first impression for your potential clients is to always have your website functioning at peak performance levels. Investing in managed hosting and having a solid website support plan in place ensures that your website remains up, fast and free from errors at all times.
No glitches, no downtime, and, most importantly, no negative impact on user experience!
Guaranteed Security
As a Virtual Assistant, you’ll handle a lot of data. And, as with all data, security should be your number one priority.
Having a website support plan in place can give you that peace of mind. A good website care plan will ensure that top-level security is installed and running at all times to help eliminate the risk of data breaches or hacking.
Enhanced User Experience
Your Virtual Assistant clients are the heart of your business. You want to provide them with the best experience possible, and that starts with the very first click through to your website.
A website support plan will always work with your users in mind. Investing in support for your website means investing in monthly updates and checks, reassuring you that everything is in full working order and your customers are experiencing the website the way it was intended.
No broken plugins, no dodgy links, just happy clients having a seamless website experience.
Growth Opportunities
Most great website support plans go beyond focusing on the tech bits and bobs. They also work to help grow your business with online marketing. From keeping tabs on your analytics to making suggestions and implementing improvements that keep users interested and engaged, investing in a website support plan means investing in the future success of your business.
The Virtual Assistant world is a competitive one – website support plans are designed to set your business apart from the rest.
Your Website Support Plan
If you’re looking for a reliable, efficient, website care plan, my business, WP Fiddly Bits may have the solution. With WP Fiddly Bits, you choose the plan that best suits your business, and the team takes care of the rest.
With a tech-whizz website team available around the clock to provide expert managed hosting, you can rest assured that your site will continue to run smoothly. We also provide you with all the important data you need to understand your website’s performance, like visitors, where they’ve found you and your search engine rankings.
Website support plans often have a range of price points too – usually starting around the hourly VA rate for a whole month of ongoing support!
Behind every successful Virtual Assistant is a robust website support plan – and a team that cares about your business – get in touch with us to implement yours today.
Alison Rothwell is the Director of WP Fiddly Bits, a boutique web development agency specialising in the Virtual Assistant niche. You can reach Alison to make a direct call booking here.