How to maintain an e-commerce website

When a company makes the decision to create an e-commerce platform, it has the idea that the project is over once the development is complete and the website is online. But this is not the case, since once the e-commerce is fully operational, it is necessary to carry out periodic maintenance actions to ensure that the platform always works optimally.

It is essential to constantly monitor the behavior of the site, since in this way errors can be detected in the navigation or in the transactions made by the clients. "Careful monitoring of the e-commerce site keeps its credibility and reputation safe and intact", they added in an article on the Digital Connect portal.

All the maintenance actions of an e-commerce website have the main purpose of offering an exceptional user experience, so that each user who enters can search, find and buy what they are needing at the moment.

Maintenance actions of an e-commerce platform

Platform Update

There are various e-commerce platforms in the market, such as Magento, Shopify, Drupal Commerce. Each of these systems releases regular updates for platform improvements and one way to keep your online store optimal is by installing these updates as soon as they come out.

“With each new version, developers include patches for security vulnerabilities, bug fixes, and new features. By not updating regularly, you put your site and your customers' data at risk from hackers using loopholes in outdated plugins. You will also miss out on the improved performance and new features", they said in an article on the Jetpack portal.

Analytics 

Monitoring the analytics of your e-commerce platform is important, to detect any irregularity in time. For example, if one day the traffic drops drastically, it means that something in the e-commerce is failing and it is time to address the problem. Tools such as Google Analytics, for example, not only allow you to see the volume of traffic but also the origin of your buyers, which are the devices through which they most access your online store, etc; All this data is used to better guide business strategies and properly maintain your website.

Security

The most important aspect of all e-commerce is security: users must feel safe when browsing and making transactions in their e-commerce, so it is always necessary to install new security plugins in the e-commerce portal, to be more protected against cyber threats.

Check for broken links

The positioning of an e-commerce platform is of the utmost importance since, as it is well positioned in search engines, users will find this website easier. But for the positioning to be optimal, the state of the links must be optimal. Tools like Google Search Console are very useful as they allow problems such as broken links, unindexed pages, page load errors, among other aspects, to be detected early. All this allows to improve the quality of the content that is being offered to the public.

Check upload speed

And, speaking of loading speed, there are tools that allow you to do this type of evaluation. Today, users seek immediacy when browsing the Internet, and a slow e-commerce website provides a negative experience. That is the last thing a businessman or entrepreneur wants. Periodic maintenance of the e-commerce platform should also include an evaluation of the load.

Marketing initiatives

Not only the technical part needs maintenance in an e-commerce website, it is also useful to refresh all the initiatives of the marketing team. "Trying new marketing initiatives, such as sending email campaigns, implementing promotion modules on your site, or optimizing your checkout flow, helps drive traffic and keeps your site fresh and new," they noted in an article on the Brilliance portal.

Have a team of available developers on hand

All of the above sounds great, but what if I don't have a software team on hand? You must be aware that, once the e-commerce is finished, you must always have a team of e-commerce developers available to support you when you need to do maintenance or solve any problem.

You can hire e-commerce developers on different talent platforms on the Internet or seek help from a technology partner, who will select and provide you with the best software profiles for your project.

At Rootstack, we have +10 years of experience supporting companies from different industries in their digital transformation. Contact us!

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