Building a website is almost like owning a car — you need to maintain it regularly to make sure it runs smoothly.
The problem is…most people don’t know that. Right now, 73% of websites that are currently running on the internet are outdated & vulnerable to outside threats.
Just like the rest of the tech industry, web design and maintenance trends change at breakneck speeds. No matter how well you design your website when you launch it, it is critical to keep up with regular maintenance with website maintenance services.
In this article, we’ll take a look at everything you need to know about the world of website support in 2022.
What is Website Maintenance?
Website maintenance refers to the process of keeping your website running smoothly. Several different factors go into this, including making sure:
- Links are working properly
- Images are loading correctly
- Correctly formatted pages
- The website is running like you want it to
Just like any other machine or piece of technology, it won’t just run perfectly by itself forever. Regular maintenance is important to make sure your website visitors have a good experience.
Why Are Website Maintenance Services Important?
There are several reasons why maintaining your website is important. Let’s take a look at a few.
Reflects the Quality of Your Business
It’s important to keep your site looking fresh and modern. If your business’s website looks out of date, it can give a bad impression on new visitors. Potential customers might think your business isn’t professional if it isn’t properly maintained.
Provides a Quality Customer Experience
Quality maintenance makes sure your website functions properly. This equals a good experience for your customers. If your website is difficult to navigate, has slow speeds, or is full of errors, customers are likely to give up quickly and move to another site.
It doesn’t take much to turn them off of your site. Keeping proper maintenance will ensure that your website is running smoothly and can lead your customers to what they need.
Website Security
Lastly, and possibly most importantly, is for high security. Outdated software and plugins can create a major security risk, leaving you and your customers’ data vulnerable.
Unfortunately, many companies don’t consider the security of their business until it’s too late. If your website gets hacked, you can lose customers and even get into legal trouble.
Proper website maintenance will keep your business locked tight without you needing to worry about any cyber attacks.
New Trends in Website Maintenance in 2022
New web development trends have already begun to develop quickly in the post-pandemic years. Developers are beginning to shift their focus to enhancing the user’s experience with new technology.
Let’s take a look at some of the newest trends in 2022.
Website Development
Website development continues to evolve and shift rapidly. To be sure that you’re on top of your website maintenance, it’s important to know what changes will occur in the development of websites.
Progressive Web Applications (PWAs)
Progressive web applications are newer, more advanced versions of existing web applications. They feature a more mobile-centric app experience as well as faster loading speeds and offline operations.
PWAs aren’t a completely new technology, but they haven’t yet made a huge splash in the web development industry. But as the global internet population continues to trend toward using their mobile devices to access websites, PWAs will have a bigger role in the year to come.
Here are a few benefits of PWAs:
- Seamless maintenance and updates
- Low storage and power consumption
- Hassle-free installation
- Fewer development expenses
Several industry titans have already begun adopting PWAs, such as Twitter, Starbucks, and Uber. Experts believe that they will replace normal mobile apps in the future.
Right now, Javascript, CSS, and HTML are the standard tools used to develop PWAs and have made it easier to access users’ offline cache. This helps create a better digital customer experience for users.
AI-Enabled Chatbots
In 2022, it’s expected that AI chatbots become even more nuanced and sophisticated in learning user behaviors through:
- Machine learning
- Information retrieval techniques
- Natural language processing
This will be a big step in improving the customer experience. It will also help companies collect data, solve issues, and answer questions in a more efficient and streamlined process.
Many big companies are already serving customers with AI chatbots. They use platforms such as Whatsapp, Skype, and Facebook Messenger.
This will pose new challenges for website support services to keep an eye on.
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Accelerated Mobile Pages were first launched by Google in 2015. These provide mobile users with super-fast online experiences. This can help business owners decrease bounce rate. It can also improve core business metrics such as conversions through its website.
It remains one of the most popular technologies used for mobile worldwide on over half of the most popular 10,000 websites.
Single-Page Applications (SPAs)
Single-page applications are JavaScript-based web apps that load one HTML page in a browser. It constantly and dynamically adds and updates the content as needed — without the need to refresh the page.
It is one of the most significant trends in web development. Many have already begun adopting SPAs, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google.
These single-page applications are cost-effective and easy to create. They also use up less space on servers and can give users information more efficiently without having to move from page to page.
Optimized Voice Search
Intelligent virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa have grown rapidly since their inception in 2011. Experts forecast rapid growth as more tech giants enter the market with products like Google Home and Apple HomePod.
People aren’t just using these intelligent assistants as smart speakers, though. More and more users are using these devices for voice search. Because of this, voice search results will begin to rank higher on search engine result pages.
Companies should keep this in mind as they optimize their products and content strategy to fit the needs of voice search in 2022.
WordPress Development
WordPress continues to dominate the market by powering 40% of all websites. Because WordPress is an open-sourced platform, new features are continually being added to meet users’ needs. Managed website services should continue to be aware of how it evolves over time.
In 2022, Gravity Forms announced the arrival of Full Site editing. This will allow users to use the block editing functionality on the entire website — not just on posts and pages.
It is scheduled to be introduced in WordPress v5.9. It will be a major change in how sites are managed and created moving forward.
Serverless Architecture
Serverless architecture runs on cloud technology. It allows users to run code on almost any type of application or backend service without any administration. This means that they don’t need any managing, provisioning, or upgrading of servers.
Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are already making use of serverless architecture. This market is expected to grow rapidly from $7.6 billion in 2020 to $21.1 billion in 2025.
Many more products will begin utilizing this technology, such as IoT apps, APIs, and chatbots.
Mobile-Friendly Development
As we mentioned earlier, mobile devices account for over half of the traffic generated worldwide and are only poised to grow further. Because of this, a mobile-first development plan is crucial.
The definition of the term “mobile-friendly” is constantly evolving into something more complex.
In 2022, important features will include:
- Utilizing geolocation to give users personalized experiences
- One-click ordering for eCommerce apps
- Incorporating biometric authentication (such as voice recognition or fingerprint scanning)
These should be a focus for website support teams as well.
Dark Mode Standardization
Dark mode and low-light options for websites continue to grow in popularity. In 2022, websites offering dark mode user interfaces will be a growing trend.
Twitter and Facebook have already implemented this feature and make it easy for users to switch between light and dark modes.
As this trend becomes a standard throughout websites and apps, maintenance teams will need to make sure that these UIs continue to work smoothly throughout every aspect of their websites.
Security
In this day and age, it remains true that no industry is safe from being targeted by cybercriminals.
According to Cloudflare, DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks almost doubled every single quarter in 2020. This has led to significant downtime, major loss of revenue, and damaged reputations for businesses.
Shifts towards application-based multi-factor authentication have already started to protect customer and company data. There will also be a rise in other less-traditional methods to improve security as well.
The global security market is skyrocketing and is forecasted to reach £275 billion by 2028.
The Public Sector
As the world continues to become more digitized, the public sector is following suit by moving more vital services online. The general public will be expecting even more guarantees that their data and security are protected and transparent.
Some public bodies are already on the move. They are utilizing the ethical hacker community to reassure citizens of the security of online services. Most likely, others will follow this trend as well.
Remote Workers
Right now, over 50% of knowledge workers are remote. These (maybe permanent) changes are affecting the ways teams work together. It has caused companies to have a much greater reliance on the public cloud, highly-connected supply chains, and new cyber-physical systems.
All of these are new “surfaces” that leave organizations vulnerable to new attacks. Innovations beyond traditional security approaches are needed when it comes to security monitoring, detection, and response to risks.
These new homeworking circumstances have more teams working online using Zoom, Teams, and Skype, which leaves workers open to scams.
Related to this, identity systems are more regularly coming under attack. Using employee credentials is becoming a primary way that attackers are beginning to infiltrate networks.
Because of this, security awareness training for employees will be a major point in the future for companies. It will be important for users and companies to not take a “one-size-fits-all” approach to cybersecurity, but rather understand that some employees will be at greater risk than others.
The Log4Shell Crisis
Log4Shell is one of the most critical security flaws discovered in the last decade. It was found through a bug bounty program, which allows developers to find and resolve bugs before widespread public incidents occur.
It was located in the widely used Log4j Java logging library. in 2022, this vulnerability will keep cyber experts occupied as it is critical to protecting every layer of IT systems.
Internet Speed
Last year, Google rolled out its “Core Web Vitals.” In essence, Web Vitals was an initiative by Google to give quality signals to help give a great user experience on the internet. This included website speed, performance, and many other factors.
Managed website maintenance services will need to pay attention to these areas. Support teams should understand Core Web Vitals and how they affect SEO, as the changes in rules could affect their current rankings.
They must understand how to get websites performing at maximum efficiency while balancing the needs of their business, like their branding and messaging.
Core Web Vitals is now an important pillar in Google’s search algorithms, thus businesses need to understand them and how they affect the bottom line.
Key Takeaways
As you can see, website maintenance is a constantly-evolving beast that must consider several different factors. Minor changes in neighboring industries can mean major changes to how your website is kept.
Website maintenance isn’t just about improving your online presence — it can ultimately help your bottom line. By choosing the correct website maintenance services, you can build your business more efficiently without ever having to worry about your website’s issues.
If you’re looking for a dedicated web support team that will keep your website running smoothly and updated, make sure you check out our services!
Digital Marketing Agency in Gloucester and Cheltenham
Softdata is a leading digital agency and AI Services provider based in Gloucester and Cheltenham.About us: Softdata is a premier digital software agency and digital marketing provider, based in Gloucester and Cheltenham. We offer a range of digital services including web design, bespoke software development, SEO, Paid advertising, conversion rate optimisation, web hosting, and AI consultancy services. Our team is dedicated to providing the best solutions tailored to the unique needs of our clients.
If you would like to discuss your needs with a Digital Specialist, we offer a Free Initial Consultation without cost or commitment. Meetings can be held at our offices, via video conference, or by telephone. Our telephone number is 01452 502 508.
Softdata is located at: Softdata Internet Limited, 80 Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2NZ.