8 Best Website Maintenance Practices for Manufacturing Companies

In today’s digital age, your website is more than just an online brochure; it’s a critical tool for attracting leads, building trust, and showcasing your manufacturing prowess. For manufacturing companies, a website that’s constantly optimized and impeccably maintained is essential to staying competitive. Neglecting your digital storefront can lead to lost opportunities, frustrated customers, and a tarnished brand image. This guide delves into the eight best website maintenance practices that will ensure your manufacturing website remains a powerful asset for your business.

1. Regular Website Backups: Your Safety Net

Imagine this: You wake up one morning, ready to tackle the day, only to discover your website has vanished – corrupted files, a malicious attack, or a server malfunction. Panic sets in, and you’re left scrambling to recover months, or even years, of valuable content and customer data. This is where regular backups come to the rescue.

Why Are Backups Essential for Manufacturing Websites?

• Data Recovery: In the event of a data breach, server failure, or accidental deletion, backups allow you to swiftly restore your website to its previous working state. This is crucial for minimizing downtime and potential revenue loss.
• Peace of Mind: Knowing your website is securely backed up provides invaluable peace of mind. You can confidently make website updates and modifications, knowing that a safety net exists.
• Business Continuity: If your website goes down, you lose access to your marketing channel, lead generation, and customer communication. Backups ensure business continuity by allowing you to bring your site back online quickly.

How Often Should You Backup Your Manufacturing Website?

• Daily: If your website has frequent updates, such as new product listings, blog posts, or customer inquiries, a daily backup is essential.
• Weekly: If updates are less frequent, weekly backups may suffice. However, avoid going longer than a week between backups.
• Before Major Changes: Always create a backup before implementing any significant website changes, such as installing a new theme, plugin, or software update.

Where Should You Store Your Backups?

• Offsite: Avoid storing backups on the same server as your website. Use offsite storage solutions, such as cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3), or a dedicated backup service.
• Multiple Locations: Consider keeping multiple backups in different locations for added redundancy and protection.

Steps to Implement Regular Backups:

1. Choose a Backup Solution: Select a backup method that suits your needs and technical expertise. Many website hosting providers offer automated backup solutions, or you can use a dedicated plugin or third-party service.
2. Automate the Process: Set up an automated backup schedule so you don’t have to manually back up your website every time. This will ensure the process is done regularly, even if you forget.
3. Test Your Backups: Regularly test your backups by restoring your website in a staging environment to ensure the backups are working correctly. This proactive approach will help you avoid unwelcome surprises.

Regular backups are the bedrock of good manufacturing website upkeep. They act as your safety net, protecting your website and your business from unforeseen circumstances. This is a cornerstone of factory site care in the digital world.

2. Software and Plugin Updates: Keeping Your Website Secure and Functional

In the digital realm, keeping your website software up to date is like maintaining the machinery in your factory. Outdated software and plugins are like rusty cogs, leaving your website vulnerable to cyber threats and performance issues. This section explores the critical need for regular software and plugin updates, particularly for industrial websites.

Why Are Software and Plugin Updates So Important?

• Security Patches: Software and plugin updates often include security patches that address vulnerabilities and prevent hackers from exploiting them. These updates are a protective barrier against malware, viruses, and data breaches.
• Bug Fixes: Updates often fix bugs and glitches that can cause website issues, including broken features, slow loading speeds, and display problems. These bugs can lead to user frustration and potentially drive customers away.
• Performance Enhancements: Many updates include performance enhancements that make your website load faster and function more smoothly. This is critical to user experience and search engine ranking.
• New Features: Software updates and plugin updates often bring new features and functionalities, allowing you to take full advantage of the latest technology and features.

What Needs to be Updated Regularly?

• Content Management System (CMS): Keep your CMS (such as WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla) updated to the latest version. The CMS is the heart of your website, and it’s essential to keep it secure and up-to-date.
• Themes: Regularly update your website theme to ensure compatibility with the latest CMS version and security standards. Theme updates also provide bug fixes and performance enhancements.
• Plugins: Keep all of your plugins updated to the latest version. Plugins provide additional features, but they can also be a security risk if they are not updated.
• Server Software: Ensure your server software is up-to-date, including your operating system, web server software, and database. This is usually handled by your hosting provider but it is something to monitor.

How Often Should You Update?

• As Soon As Updates Are Available: When a software update or plugin update is available, it’s best practice to update as soon as possible. Don’t delay these updates for too long.
• Set Up Automatic Updates: If possible, enable automatic updates for your software and plugins. This reduces the chance of forgetting to update and ensures your website remains secure.
• Monitor Update Status: Periodically check the update status of all software components to ensure they are up to date. Many CMS have dashboards that show the status of updates.

Steps to Implement Regular Updates:

1. Backup Your Website: Always backup your website before performing any software updates, in case something goes wrong.
2. Update in a Staging Environment: Whenever possible, test updates in a staging environment, before deploying them on your live website. This will allow you to identify any problems and rectify them before your website visitors are affected.
3. Monitor Website Performance: After updating, closely monitor your website’s performance to make sure everything is working correctly. If you notice any issues, revert to your backup and report any issues to the developer.

Keeping your website software and plugins updated is an essential part of industrial website maintenance and is key to maintaining a functional and secure digital presence for your manufacturing company. It’s not just about adding new features, it’s about protecting your website and your business, ensuring your website is a powerful tool, not a potential liability. This meticulous approach to updates is vital to proper factory site care.

3. Content Audit and Refresh: Keeping Your Message Relevant

Your website is a living, breathing entity, and as such, it needs regular care to remain vibrant and effective. A content audit and refresh is an important process for keeping your message current and resonating with your audience. For manufacturing companies, it’s particularly vital to ensure your website accurately reflects your capabilities and expertise.

Why is Regular Content Review Necessary?

• Accuracy: Manufacturing technology, processes, and products constantly evolve. Outdated content can mislead potential customers or misrepresent your capabilities. Ensure that your website reflects your current offerings.
• Relevance: As your business grows, your target audience and ideal customers will change. Periodically review your website content to make sure it aligns with their needs and the evolving industry.
• SEO Performance: Search engine algorithms prioritize fresh, relevant content. Content that is old and outdated may hinder your site’s ability to rank well in search results. Regularly updating your content will improve your search ranking and visibility.
• Engagement: Stale content can lead to a drop in website engagement. Refreshing your content with updated information, new ideas, and improved visuals can keep visitors engaged and encourage them to stay longer on your site.
• Brand Consistency: Make sure your website content reflects your brand voice and is consistent with other communication channels. Inconsistent messaging can confuse customers and dilute your brand image.

What Should Be Included in a Content Audit?

• Pages and Posts: Review all website pages, blog posts, and articles. This should include home pages, product pages, about pages, case studies, and blog posts.
• Images and Videos: Check the quality and relevance of all visual content. Ensure your photos are high quality and your videos are still relevant.
• Downloads: Verify that downloadable files, such as brochures, spec sheets, and white papers are accurate and up to date.
• Calls to Action: Review all calls to action to make sure they are clear, compelling, and effective. Are you using the right language to encourage your visitors to take the right action?
• SEO Elements: Analyze meta descriptions, title tags, and keywords to ensure they are optimized for your target keywords and properly placed.

How Often Should You Conduct a Content Audit?

• Annually: At a minimum, conduct a comprehensive content audit annually. This allows for a thorough assessment of all your website content.
• Quarterly: A lighter review can be done quarterly to focus on recently added content and to identify areas where small improvements can be made.
• After Major Changes: Conduct a content audit whenever your company undergoes major changes such as a rebranding, a new product launch, or a shift in target markets.

Steps to Perform a Content Audit:

1. Inventory: Create an inventory of all your website content, including page URLs, titles, and publication dates.
2. Review: Go through each piece of content and evaluate it for accuracy, relevance, clarity, and effectiveness.
3. Identify Issues: Highlight content that is outdated, inaccurate, poorly written, or not performing well.
4. Plan of Action: Develop an action plan to fix the identified issues. This could include updating content, rewriting, deleting or replacing content.
5. Implement Changes: Make the necessary changes, paying attention to SEO best practices.
6. Monitor: After changes, monitor your website performance using Google Analytics or other web analysis tools.

A thorough content audit and refresh process is more than just cleaning up your website, it is about making sure your website continues to be the best version of your business. For manufacturing companies, keeping content relevant is crucial for showing current expertise, maintaining industry authority, and ensuring your website drives results. This dedication to your website’s content is essential to responsible manufacturing website upkeep.

4. Performance Optimization: Speeding Up Your Website

In today’s fast-paced world, website speed is crucial. Slow loading times can lead to frustrated users, higher bounce rates, and a loss of potential customers. For manufacturing websites, where potential clients often need quick access to information, speed optimization is even more critical.

Why Is Website Speed Important?

• User Experience: A fast-loading website provides a better user experience and improves customer satisfaction. Visitors don’t have the time or patience to wait for a website to load slowly.
• Search Engine Ranking: Google and other search engines use page speed as a ranking factor. A slow website can negatively impact your search engine ranking, making it harder to be found by customers.
• Conversion Rates: Slow loading times are linked to high bounce rates. If your website is slow, visitors are more likely to leave, resulting in lost leads and potential sales.
• Mobile Experience: With the increasing use of mobile devices, website speed is crucial for a good mobile experience. Many potential clients will be browsing on mobile devices and need quick access to your website.
• Competitive Advantage: In a competitive market, website speed can set you apart from your competitors and make a positive impression on potential clients.

What Factors Affect Website Speed?

• Image Sizes: Large, unoptimized images are a primary cause of slow websites. Ensure that your image sizes are compressed for web use.
• Code Bloat: Inefficient code or excessive use of scripts can bog down your website. Keep code clean and optimized.
• Hosting: The quality of your web hosting can significantly impact website speed. Choose a reliable hosting provider that prioritizes performance.
• Plugins and Scripts: Too many plugins and external scripts can slow your website. Evaluate the necessity of each one and try to minimize them.
• Caching: Enable caching to improve website speed by serving static content rather than loading it repeatedly.

How to Optimize Your Manufacturing Website for Speed:

1. Image Optimization:
   • Compress images using tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or compressor.io.
   • Use optimized image formats like WebP for better performance.
   • Resize images to their display dimensions, don’t scale down large images within the browser.
2. Code Optimization:
   • Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files to remove unnecessary characters and reduce file sizes.
   • Avoid unnecessary scripts and plugins.
   • Use a content delivery network (CDN) to deliver static content faster.
3. Hosting Optimization:
   • Choose a hosting plan that is suitable for your website needs.
   • Consider using a dedicated server or virtual private server (VPS) for better performance.
   • Ensure your server is located near your target audience for faster access.
4. Leverage Browser Caching: Enable caching on your web server to store frequently used files in a user’s browser cache.
5. Use Caching Plugins: If using a CMS like WordPress, consider using caching plugins like W3 Total Cache or WP Fastest Cache for improved speed.
6. Website Speed Monitoring: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to monitor your website speed, identify issues, and implement improvements.

Improving website speed is a continuing process that should be included in your industrial website maintenance schedule. It is not a one-time fix but a commitment to providing the best possible user experience. It is a necessary part of factory site care and is essential for ensuring that your website is fast, efficient, and engaging for potential clients.

5. Mobile Friendliness: Meeting the Needs of Mobile Users

In today’s world, mobile devices are an integral part of our daily lives, and this is just as true in the manufacturing industry. Potential clients, engineers, and partners are likely browsing your website from smartphones and tablets. Therefore, making sure your manufacturing website is mobile-friendly is no longer optional, it is a necessity.

Why Is Mobile Friendliness So Important?

• Increased Traffic: Mobile internet usage continues to grow exponentially, making up a significant proportion of web traffic. Ignoring mobile users means losing out on a large portion of potential leads.
• User Experience: Mobile users have different needs than desktop users. A website that is not optimized for mobile can be difficult to navigate, leading to frustration and high bounce rates.
• Search Engine Ranking: Search engines prioritize mobile-friendly websites in search rankings. This means that if your site is not mobile-friendly it will be difficult to rank well in Google and other search engines.
• Competitive Edge: In a competitive market, a mobile-friendly website can set you apart from competitors. Potential customers are more likely to engage with companies that prioritize ease of access and user experience.
• Accessibility: Ensuring your site works well on different mobile devices promotes accessibility, opening doors for anyone to learn about your business.

What Makes a Website Mobile-Friendly?

• Responsive Design: A responsive design adapts to different screen sizes, automatically adjusting layout, images, and text to fit the device.
• Touch-Friendly Navigation: Menus, buttons, and other interactive elements should be designed for touch input rather than a mouse cursor.
• Easy-to-Read Text: Font sizes should be large enough to be easily read on mobile screens without requiring zooming.
• Fast Loading Speed: Mobile users often have limited bandwidth, so websites should load quickly, even on slow mobile connections.
• Optimized Images: Images should be compressed and optimized for mobile to load quickly without sacrificing quality.
• Vertical Layout: Mobile browsing is typically a vertical experience, so content should be displayed in a way that flows well vertically.

How to Ensure Your Manufacturing Website is Mobile-Friendly:

1. Use a Responsive Theme or Framework: Start with a responsive design framework that adapts to all screen sizes. Many CMS platforms offer mobile-friendly themes.
2. Test on Different Devices: Check your website on a variety of mobile devices and browsers to ensure proper display.
3. Optimize Content for Mobile: Keep your content concise and easy to scan on smaller screens, using headings, subheadings, and bullet points.
4. Optimize Images for Mobile: Compress images to reduce file sizes, use optimized formats, and consider lazy loading to improve loading times.
5. Prioritize Key Content: Ensure your most important content is easily accessible on mobile devices without requiring excessive scrolling or navigation.
6. Enable Touch-Friendly Navigation: Use large enough buttons and clear menus that are easy to click on touch devices.
7. Speed Optimization: Follow all the speed optimization tips provided in the performance section to ensure fast loading for all devices.
8. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test: Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check your website and see if any additional adjustments are needed.

Mobile-friendliness is not an optional extra for a modern website, it is a fundamental aspect of a positive user experience. For manufacturing companies, a mobile-friendly website is critical for engaging with potential clients and showing that your company values accessibility. Addressing mobile issues is vital for good manufacturing website upkeep.

6. Security Monitoring: Protecting Against Cyber Threats

In today’s world, where cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, a website’s security cannot be an afterthought. For manufacturing companies, a security breach can lead to devastating consequences, including data loss, reputational damage, and financial loss. Therefore, implementing comprehensive security monitoring is a crucial aspect of protecting your website and business.

Why Is Security Monitoring Essential?

• Data Protection: Manufacturing websites often contain sensitive data, including customer information, proprietary designs, and internal documents. Security monitoring can protect this data from theft and misuse.
• Prevent Cyber Attacks: Continuous security monitoring can detect potential cyber attacks, such as malware infections, brute force attacks, and SQL injections, before they cause serious damage.
• Maintain Business Continuity: Security breaches can take your website offline, disrupting business operations. Proactive security monitoring minimizes downtime and ensures you stay open for business.
• Compliance Requirements: Many industries, including manufacturing, are subject to compliance requirements that mandate secure handling of sensitive data.
• Brand Reputation: A security breach can significantly harm your brand reputation. Customers are more likely to do business with companies they perceive as secure.

What to Monitor for Security:

• Malware Infections: Monitor your website for malware and viruses, which can compromise your website and infect your visitors’ devices.
• Brute Force Attacks: Detect and prevent brute force attacks, which attempt to gain access to your website by repeatedly guessing usernames and passwords.
• SQL Injections: Monitor your database for SQL injection attempts, which can be used to access sensitive data or compromise the website.
• DDoS Attacks: Detect Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, which flood your website with traffic, making it unavailable.
• Unauthorized Access: Detect and block unauthorized access attempts to your website’s administration panel or backend systems.
• Security Logs: Monitor security logs to identify suspicious activity and potential security breaches.
• File Integrity Monitoring: Monitor your website’s files for changes that indicate a security compromise.

How to Implement Security Monitoring:

1. Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF): A WAF can protect your website from common web attacks by filtering traffic and blocking malicious requests.
2. Implement Security Plugins: If using a CMS like WordPress, use security plugins that offer malware scanning, firewall protection, and login security features.
3. Regular Malware Scans: Conduct regular malware scans using trusted security tools.
4. Implement Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS): Implement an IDS to monitor your network for suspicious activity.
5. Monitor Security Logs: Regularly review security logs for any unusual or suspicious activity.
6. Limit Login Attempts: Limit the number of failed login attempts to prevent brute force attacks.
7. Use Strong Passwords: Enforce the use of strong passwords for all user accounts.
8. Two-Factor Authentication: Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for an added layer of security.
9. SSL Certificates: Use SSL certificates to encrypt traffic between your website and visitors.
10. Stay Updated: Keep all software and plugins up to date with the latest security patches.

Security is an ever-evolving landscape. A proactive approach to security monitoring ensures that your manufacturing website is protected from the ever-present threat of cyber attacks, maintaining the integrity of your business and data. This consistent and strategic focus on security is a cornerstone of industrial website maintenance.

7. Broken Link Management: Keeping Your Website Intact

Broken links are like potholes on a road – they disrupt the user experience and can make your website look unprofessional. For manufacturing websites, ensuring that all links work correctly is essential to providing accurate information and leading potential clients to the correct pages. This section explores the need for broken link management as part of comprehensive website maintenance.

Why Is Broken Link Management Important?

• User Experience: Broken links lead to frustration and disappointment. A user who clicks a link expecting to find information, only to encounter a “404 Not Found” page, is likely to leave your site.
• SEO Performance: Search engines penalize websites with broken links. Too many broken links can negatively impact your website’s search engine ranking.
• Professionalism: Broken links can make your website appear neglected, outdated, and unprofessional, impacting your brand image.
• Information Accessibility: If critical product pages, downloads, or resources are linked with broken links, it prevents potential clients from accessing the information they need.
• Internal Navigation: Broken links within your website’s navigation can confuse users and make it difficult for them to find what they are looking for.

Types of Broken Links:

• Internal Links: Links that point to other pages within your website.
• External Links: Links that point to other websites.
• Image Links: Links that point to images that are no longer available.
• Download Links: Links that point to downloadable files that have been removed or moved.

How to Manage Broken Links:

1. Regular Link Checks: Implement regular link checks using tools like Google Search Console, Broken Link Checker, or Screaming Frog.
2. Identify Broken Links: Use these tools to identify all broken links on your website, noting their locations and types.
3. Update or Remove Broken Links: Either update the links to their correct destinations or remove them if they are no longer needed.
4. Use Redirects: If a page has been moved, use a 301 redirect to guide users to the new location. This is also beneficial for SEO purposes.
5. Contact Website Owners: If an external link is broken, try to contact the owner of the website to inform them of the broken link.
6. Regular Site Monitoring: Make sure to run regular checks on your website links to catch any broken links early and address the issues.
7. Training Your Team: If you have multiple people making updates to the website, make sure they understand the importance of updating broken links.

Steps to Manage Broken Links:

1. Choose Link Checking Tools: Pick the tools that best suit your needs and budget. Many link-checking tools are available as free or premium options.
2. Schedule Regular Checks: Set up a schedule to check your website for broken links. This can be done weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the size of your website and frequency of updates.
3. Analyze Results: Examine the results of each link check and create a list of broken links.
4. Update or Remove: Update broken links to point to the correct locations or remove them if they are no longer needed.
5. Verify Changes: After making changes, verify they are working correctly and that your links are pointing to the correct locations.
6. Monitor Changes: Continue to monitor your site regularly to make sure the broken links don’t return or new ones appear.

Broken link management is a simple but essential part of maintaining a healthy website. By making sure that all your links work properly, you will create a better experience for your website visitors. For manufacturing companies, ensuring links work properly ensures the proper delivery of key information. It is a basic part of factory site care.

8. Active Website Management: Ensuring Continuous Optimization

While the previous seven practices are vital for maintaining your website, Active Website Management takes website maintenance a step further by ensuring continuous, proactive optimization to meet your business goals. Active Website Management is not just about fixing problems, it is about actively making sure your website is performing as well as it possibly can.

Why is Active Website Management Important?

• Performance Tracking: Active management includes continuous monitoring of website performance using analytics tools. This helps identify strengths and weaknesses, allowing for data-driven decision-making.
• SEO Optimization: Continuously refining website content, keywords, and technical SEO aspects to improve search engine rankings and visibility.
• User Experience Enhancement: Regular analysis of user behavior to identify areas of improvement for usability and user experience.
• Conversion Rate Optimization: Actively working to improve website conversion rates, including optimizing call-to-actions, forms, and landing pages.
• Staying Ahead: Active management means your website is constantly updated to keep up with changing technology, industry trends, and customer expectations.
• Proactive Problem Solving: Issues are addressed before they negatively impact website performance and business objectives.
• Adaptability: Active Website Management makes sure that your website is prepared for change and can quickly adjust to new challenges and new opportunities.

Key Components of Active Website Management:

• Analytics and Reporting: Regular monitoring and analysis of website analytics data (e.g. Google Analytics) to measure performance and identify areas for improvement.
• SEO Strategy: Continuous optimization of your website for search engines, including keyword research, link building, and content creation.
• Content Strategy: Developing and executing a content calendar to keep your website updated with fresh and engaging content.
• User Testing and Feedback: Actively seeking and analyzing user feedback to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions.
• Conversion Optimization: A process of continuously improving website elements, such as calls to action, landing pages, and forms, to improve conversion rates.
• A/B Testing: Testing different versions of a web page to find the best version in terms of user engagement and conversions.
• Performance Monitoring: Constant monitoring of website speed, uptime, and functionality, and addressing any issues quickly and efficiently.
• Website Updates: Regular updates to the CMS, themes, and plugins to ensure compatibility, security, and efficiency.
• Regular Backups: Implementing a proper backup strategy with regular website backups to prevent data loss.

How to Implement Active Website Management:

1. Set Clear Goals: Define clear objectives for your website, including lead generation, brand awareness, and sales.
2. Use Website Analytics: Regularly check your website analytics to track key performance metrics.
3. Develop an Action Plan: Create an action plan that identifies specific actions you will take to reach your website goals.
4. Schedule Regular Updates: Schedule all of your maintenance tasks and stick to your schedule. This makes sure your tasks don’t get put on hold.
5. Focus on User Experience: Make sure you focus on the user experience when you are making updates. It’s easy to get caught up in what you want on the website but make sure it is also user-friendly.
6. Be Proactive: Anticipate issues that can cause problems for your website and take a proactive approach to stopping issues.
7. Continuous Improvement: Make sure that your process is not static, continue to improve and evolve your processes.
8. Expert Assistance: Consider working with an experienced digital agency or team for help if your team does not have all the resources to manage your website.

Active Website Management is not just about having a website, it is about making sure your website is a powerful tool that helps you meet your business goals. For manufacturing companies, active management ensures that your website is not just a digital brochure, but a dynamic marketing and sales tool that keeps your business competitive and thriving. This is the ultimate expression of manufacturing website upkeep, and crucial for factory site care.

By implementing these eight website maintenance practices, manufacturing companies can transform their websites from neglected online assets into powerful business tools that attract leads, enhance credibility, and drive growth. The investment in proper website maintenance is an investment in the future of your business.