Basic web maintenance isn’t something a lot of online entrepreneurs think about. In fact it can be quite a mundane task for most. However, it is important to keep your website ticking over smoothly.

Here are a few reasons why maintaining your website is important:

# Attracting the search engines – Search engines are important to the livelihood of your online business, but they don’t like “dead” websites. Websites which have been left static without updates or fresh content are a no-no in the online world. Another thing search engines don’t like is broken links.

Site should reflect you.

Ultimately, if you do everything right, but your site is just like every other well-made site, you still may not be able to make money off it. Your site needs to have something unique that reflects who you are and what you can provide and honestly why they should go to your site instead of others.

Make things easy to find.

Everyone wants things fast, and adding a search box or an easy site map will help them find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. I personally think that a site search box was one of the best things invented. I use it frequently on other sites and blogs.

Keep it current.

Besides the danger of having out-of-date information, pages that are updated more often get visited more often, and give you a better chance of keeping more customers. Updating your pages also helps with your search engine optimization and page ranking.

Add RSS feed.

Many people keep themselves updated by using RSS feeds instead of checking websites constantly. I personally love using my google feedreader. By adding a RSS feed, you can not only catch these users, you can also tailor feeds specifically for their interests.

Be readable.

Not only do you need a font that’s readable and colors that don’t hurt the eyes, but it’s also extremely beneficial to have correct spelling and grammar. Customers aren’t likely to stick around if they think you’re lazy or don’t know what you’re talking about. Verdana and Tahoma are two common fonts that are very easy to read.

Be consistent.

Make each page the same format, font, color, etc to keep visitors from getting confused at where to find what they’re looking for. It’s easier on the eyes for reading as well.

Don’t branch out too much.

It’s best to focus your website on one area or product. If you offer several different products or types of products, you need to have several websites to promote them so visitors aren’t bombarded with things they don’t want. This is called niche marketing.