Web design isn’t a build-it-and-leave it affair—though many companies treat it that way.
It’s much like fitness: If you stop working out, you’ll get weaker.
If your website isn’t built well initially and updated regularly, a lot can go wrong, causing you to lose web traffic and potential clients.
New sites must be designed and built to start out “healthy.” That includes mobile optimization, of course, but the site should also be free of cumbersome widgets/plug-ins, large photos or files, and broken links. It also helps to have some solid content in place so visitors to the new site have something to look at, and so Google has something to start listing on search-engine results pages (SERPs).
But a clean build isn’t enough because site-health analysis criteria change all the time. That means the great site you started with might not be up to par anymore. As core website and plug-in updates are pushed out, and as content is added, sites need regular maintenance.
One very simple example is dead or broken links. The more there are, the worse your website health score will become. And link rot is just the most obvious example of site deterioration.
Another example that isn’t so obvious: plug-in updates. Some website providers set plug-ins to update automatically. In theory, this is great. But you don’t know if the new update will cause your website to break. Alternatively, some website providers do not update plugins at all, which comes with its own set of problems. Without updates, over time, plugins will break and no longer be compatible with your website.
If you aren’t manually updating and testing all website updates regularly, you can’t know if all the upgraded parts of your site are playing well with the other parts.
The solution to all these issues: a gym website company that constantly (and manually) updates, tests and upgrades its sites so they’re scoring high marks in all the critical website health areas (all the time.)
That would be Gym Lead Machine.
Had a Check-Up Lately?
With bodies, vehicles and websites, you’re asking for trouble if you always wait until a problem shows up. Constant check-ups and regular maintenance can prevent disasters and ensure everything is in prime working order.
Wouldn’t you rather change the oil in the car before smoke is pouring out of the engine?
So have you spoken with the person who built your site lately? In the last year? At any point since it was built? If the answer is no, it’s likely you have a host of issues cropping up. You might not see these problems, but the search engines do, and an old website might be affecting your traffic.
If you’re with Gym Lead Machine, don’t worry. You don’t have to do anything but keep selling gym memberships and PT packages. We’ve got your back.
Our developers and quality assurance team are performing an array of diagnostics and check-ups for you regularly. Every update to our clients’ websites is tested manually before it’s pushed out to clients. We do this every single month to ensure there are no surprises when updates go live. On top of that, we run diagnostic checks on our sites every quarter to see if the criteria for ranking has changed.
You can be confident that your site has all the latest features and upgrades that ensure it will please users and search engines alike.
So how does GLM test the health of your website?
GLM uses GTmetrix.com to evaluate our sites. GTmetrix kicks out a rating, which is an accumulation of things like page load speed, largest content, total blocking time, cumulative layout shift and other key metrics that influence search engines and user experience. If a GLM site ever scores below 90 percent, we diagnose the issue and adjust what we need to immediately.
GLM also take proactive measures to ensure our sites stay above 90 percent. All of our templates start with ratings around 98%. Like we said earlier, it’s better to fix things before they break than wait for a crash on the day you launch your new ad campaign.
If you’re a GLM client, you can be confident that your gym website is on the cutting edge—and always will be.
And if you’re not a GLM client, ask your web designer how often your site is analyzed and upgraded. Or talk to us about upgrading your site today.