5 Website Maintenance Tasks for Peak Performance Output

Performance Optimization for Enhanced Speed and Load Time

Google hates nothing more than websites with slow-loading speeds and higher bounce rates. It uses core web vitals like Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift to measure a website’s performance. LCP tracks how long it takes for a website to load, FID measures responsiveness to clicks and CLS gauges the stability of the layout as the page loads. 

Using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can help you identify which areas of your website development need improvement. To make sure your website performs well, aim for the following benchmarks:

• LCP of under 2.5 seconds.
• FID under 100ms
• CLS score below 0.1.

To improve your loading speed you can optimize your images using WebP format instead of PNG/JPEG. You can also use image compression tools like TinyPNG  or Smush to reduce file sizes without compromising on quality. All you have to do is upload your images to these tools: they automatically compress the files while maintaining visual quality. 

For better responsiveness, reduce and defer non-critical JavaScript and remove unused CSS to prevent them from blocking the main thread. You can do this by identifying and deferring JavaScript that isn’t essential for the initial page load, using the “async” or “defer” attributes on script tags. With this, the scripts load only after the main content is visible to the user.

For a lower CLS score, you can make sure all elements on the page have reserved space, for instance, images have defined dimensions. Also, make sure fonts are properly loaded by using font-display: swap in your CSS to prevent invisible text flashes (FOIT).

 

Regular Security Audits & Malware Scanning

Cyber threats like SQL injection, DDoS attacks, and cross-site scripting can leave your website development efforts in vain. Every day around 30,000 websites are hacked, most of which are small businesses. This results in Google blacklisting your site, because of which you can face significant traffic loss and worsened performance. 

This is why it’s critical to use SSL certificates to encrypt data transmission and ensure secure connections. You can do this via HTTPS with services like Let’s Encrypt or Cloudflare SSL. Also, implementing a Web Application Firewall from providers like Sucuri, Imperva, or Cloudflare can help filter out malicious traffic in real time. For added security in the login process, you can activate two-factor authentication on your site’s backend, using plugins like Google Authenticator.

 

SEO Audits & Broken Link Fixing

Broken links or 404 errors are a nightmare for any website owner. When the Google bot identifies excessive crawl errors on a site, it considers it a sign of poor website maintenance. This results in your website being penalized by Google, lowering your search engine rankings which negatively impacts your SEO performance. 

The best solution to this is regularly monitoring your site for broken links using tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Broken Link Checker. All you have to do is visit these tools’ websites, run a site audit or link crawl, and review the reports to identify any broken or redirected links. Once found, fix or redirect them to relevant, active pages in real-time. This proactive approach will help maintain your website’s health, improve SEO performance, and prevent frustrating user experiences caused by dead ends or 404 errors.

 

Database Optimization & Cleanup

It’s common for databases to collect useless data overtime, which results in slower website loading time and reduced performance. This affects query efficiency, making your site feel sluggish, ultimately increasing your bounce rate. To sort this out, optimize your database by deleting expired transients aka temporary data stored in your WordPress database that is no longer needed. 

Tools like phpMyAdmin or plugins like WP-Optimize can help you clean up overhead and optimize database tables. Additionally, limiting post revisions and auto-saves by adjusting settings in your wp-config.php file, helps reduce the overall size of your database. Don’t forget to remove spam comments and unused data using plugins like WP-Sweep to keep your database lean and efficient.

 

Mobile Testing & UX Testing

Since over 61.5% of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices, it’s only fair that Google has shifted to mobile-first indexing. This means websites with good mobile responsiveness are ranked higher by Google. On the contrary, a poor mobile experience leads to higher bounce rates, as users get frustrated easily if a site doesn’t load quickly on their phones.

To enhance mobile usability, start by using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Once you identify UI issues you can fix them by adopting a responsive design approach. This includes ensuring the content isn’t too wide for the screen, buttons that are not close enough for accidental clicks or the font is at least 16px for better readability. You can also implement Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to improve load speeds for mobile users.

Here’s a pro tip: You can use tools like BrowserStack or LambdaTest to test your site across multiple devices and browsers. By fixing such issues, you will not only satisfy Google but your visitors too.

 

Techlancers: Your Go To Website Development Company in Dubai

Websites aren’t meant to be forgotten once they’re made live. They require routine maintenance, which keeps them running at peak performance. It’s understandable that as a business owner you have a million things to worry about other than website maintenance. Thats where we come in. 

If you’re looking for a website development company in Dubai that takes care of all these maintenance tasks, Techlancers has got your back! With our years of expertise in website development, we ensure that your site keeps performing well, and ranks higher on search engines.

By investing in a regular website development in Dubai, you ensure your online presence remains strong, fast, and secure. Don’t let small issues snowball into big problems. Keep your site in top shape with these essential maintenance tasks.

Need expert help? Contact us today and let’s optimize your website development strategy for success!