Protecting Your Digital Investment

Nope. Not even close.

Now’s the time to protect your investment. We sat down with our Creative Director Rafael Gomez to get the facts on maintaining your website.

Your website is often the first impression a potential client or customer has of your brand. It’s your digital storefront, your credibility check, your 24/7 salesperson. But just like any investment, it needs regular care to stay in good shape and deliver long-term value.

UPDATE

Your website has a lot of moving parts. In the case of a WordPress site, there’s the WordPress core, themes and templates, plug-ins, image resizers, yada yada yada. All of these components require ongoing updates and maintenance to keep your site secure, fast, and functional. If you ignore them, you’re basically putting out a welcome mat for hackers or broken features your customers rely on.

And beyond the backend, your front-facing content should never be static. Your website is alive. It should grow and evolve just as your business does. Keeping content fresh not only gives users a reason to come back, it also tells search engines that your site is relevant, which helps with SEO rankings.

These regular updates can include:

• Posting new blog content
• Revamping key messaging to showcase any updates in services or company goals
• Regularly adding new case studies or testimonials to highlight customer satisfaction
• Refreshing your homepage visuals to better reflect your current branding or seasonal campaigns
• Archiving outdated resources or pages that no longer serve your users

Even something as simple as adjusting headlines or tweaking your services page can improve clarity and keep things feeling up to date.

OPTIMIZE

Let’s talk performance. A beautiful site is great, but if it takes forever to load and frustrates users, all that design work goes to waste.

Oversized, high-resolution images are one of the biggest offenders. While they might look great on your desktop, they can crush your load time, especially on mobile devices. Optimizing your images by resizing them to the appropriate dimensions and compressing them without losing quality can make a noticeable difference in site speed.

But image optimization is just the beginning. Optimizing your user experience (UX) is also key. The easier it is for users to navigate your site and find what they’re looking for, the more likely they are to stay, engage, and convert.

Here are a few examples of site optimization in action:

• Compressing and resizing large images before uploading to prevent slow page loads
• Using web-friendly formats like .webp or compressed .jpgs instead of giant .png files
• Reorganizing your main navigation to prioritize high-traffic or high-value pages
• Adding internal links to guide users naturally from one page to the next
• Simplifying contact forms by removing unnecessary fields
• Removing unnecessary pop-ups and distractions to improve mobile usability
• Implementing caching and CDN services to serve your content faster

And don’t forget to test things regularly. What worked a year ago might not work now. As user expectations evolve, your site should too.

Your website isn’t something you “set and forget.” It’s a living, breathing piece of your business. You’ve invested time and money into it. You should be proud of that investment. Keeping your site up to date and performing well should always be a priority in protecting your digital investment.

Don’t let a stale site slow you down. From plug-ins to page speed, Black Twig handles the details so you don’t have to. Get in touch with us to keep your site in shape.