Running an online store on the BigCommerce platform provides business owners with powerful e-commerce functionality, but it also requires diligent maintenance to ensure optimal performance. As the backbone of your sales operations, keeping your BigCommerce store in peak condition necessitates routinely evaluating and tuning key elements.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore a maintenance checklist covering vital areas to review periodically. Staying on top of these items will help you avoid issues, deliver a quality customer experience, and maximize sales.

Content

Fresh, high-quality content keeps customers engaged and drives organic traffic. Set reminders to:

Conduct keyword research monthly: Identify new relevant keywords and update existing pages with emerging search terms. Place important keywords prominently on-site.

Audit content quarterly: Scrutinize pages for problems like thin or duplicate content, broken formatting, dead links, outdated products, etc. Create additional pages where there are content gaps.

Add new blog articles 1-2x monthly: Well-written blogs boost expertise and authority. Vary article topics to appeal to different audiences. Promote the best-performing posts.

Review site search terms weekly: See what visitors are seeking on your site. Create content that answers those queries.

Check links monthly: Fix or remove broken links so customers reach what they click. No dead ends equal a better experience.

Site Speed

If your online store loads slowly, customers will quickly click away to faster competitors. Avoid technical issues dragging down performance by:

Monitoring site speed daily: Use tools like Pingdom, GTmetrix, or Google PageSpeed Insights to catch problems early. Set performance budget thresholds.

Optimizing images monthly: Compress oversized files. Use modern image types like WebP. Lazy load lower-priority visuals.

Caching dynamic content: Cache elements that query the database, like category pages, layered navigation facets, etc.

Enabling GZIP compression: Reduce file sizes sent over the network through compact GZIP text encoding.

Minifying CSS/JS code quarterly: Deleting whitespace and comments makes code more compact for faster delivery to browsers.

SEO Visibility

Great content only generates sales if customers can find your store. Stay visible in search engines with:

SEO audits quarterly: Diagnose issues harming discoverability like thin pages, structured data errors, lack of alt text, etc.

Technical SEO checks monthly: No crawling obstacles from site errors, page timeouts, blocked resources. Submit XML sitemaps.

Local SEO upkeep ongoing: Business info consistent across directories. Respond to reviews. Post on Google My Business.

Link building continuously: Ethically earn links from other sites to improve authority and rankings. Prioritize contextual, much-shared, evergreen content.

Rank tracking weekly: Monitor keyword positions to gauge campaign effectiveness and react to changes.

Security Hardening

Getting hacked can cripple your store. Harden defenses by:

Patching software monthly: Install vendor security updates for BigCommerce, payment systems, shipping providers, and all connected apps.

Changing passwords quarterly: Require strong credentials. Use a password manager. Enable MFA where possible. Limit access.

Scanning for malware is ongoing: Run frequent automated vulnerability probes. Check for viruses, suspicious files, or unauthorized code changes.

Monitoring logs regularly: Inspect access logs for anomalies. Set security event alerts for signs of attacks.

Backing up daily: Create regular backups of code, databases, and files. Test restoration to ensure recoverability.

Customer Support

Providing quality assistance when shoppers need it cements loyalty. Evaluate if you:

Answer tickets quickly: Respond to inquiries within 24 hours whenever possible. Automate common requests.

Monitor chat performance: Chat response times under 1 minute. Accuracy over 90%. Sufficient coverage during peak periods.

Review call metrics weekly: Measure call volume, wait times, duration, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores.

Analyze CS data monthly: Identify pain points from complaints. Improve self-service FAQs accordingly. Train agents on frequent issues.

Interact on social media: Be proactive and highly responsive, assisting customers online. Public tweets show you rapidly address problems.

Testing and Optimization

Continuous improvement requires regularly checking the customer journey for opportunities to convert more visitors. Routinely:

Review analytics data: Identify underperforming pages. Diagnose why visitors bounce early. What messages resonate in on-site search?

A/B test quarterly: Trial layout changes, different calls to action, adding reviews or trust badges, etc.

Audit journeys yearly: Sign up as a new user. Make test purchases end-to-end. Ensure smooth, glitch-free experiences.

Check mobile quarterly: Use Google Mobile-Friendly test. Preview all site templates on phones and tablets. Fix awkward UI elements.

Survey customers annually: Get feedback on their satisfaction levels and suggestions for improvements. Incentivize participation.

Diligent focus on each facet outlined above constitutes a solid game plan for keeping your BigCommerce store running optimally year-round. Though hands-on and time-intensive upfront, establishing maintenance routines pays dividends through greater sales, lower cart abandonment, and reduced customer support costs over the long term.

Partnering with a technical digital agency intimately familiar with the BigCommerce platform can also prove invaluable. The experts at Anchor Group have assisted numerous merchants with designing, launching, and expanding their online BigCommerce stores. With extensive experience creating high-performance architectures tailored specifically to each client’s business, Anchor Group eliminates the stresses around hosting infrastructure, uptime monitoring, debugging errors, data backups, version control, testing, and applying platform upgrades so you can concentrate solely on your core operations.

Why Choose Anchor Group for BigCommerce Development?

When seeking an agency for managing the technology empowering your e-commerce business, specialized BigCommerce development shops like Anchor Group offer valuable advantages over generic web design firms or solo freelancer developers.

Deep Platform Expertise

Having built and grown many successful BigCommerce implementations, Anchor Group brings proven methodologies refined over the years, specifically for the platform’s unique architecture. Whether launching a new store or migrating an existing one, our team understands the intricacies and pitfalls to avoid. Custom site enhancements are designed holistically around BigCommerce’s strengths and limitations for robust performance.

Full Service Beyond Builds

We handle the entire technology stack end-to-end, not just front-end code. From hosting and DNS configuration to database and server optimization, we proactively monitor all infrastructure 24/7 with alert response teams. If anything fails, we fix it, including painstaking diagnosis to prevent future incidents. We also continually patch, enhance, and test to accommodate changing business needs.

Focus on Innovating, Not Maintaining

Our managed services cover necessary platform upkeep so you can concentrate on operating your business without technical distractions. We proactively install vendor upgrades, apply security patches, clear caches, compress images, deduplicate content, fix broken links, generate sitemaps, and handle countless other tedious maintenance chores.

Custom-Crafted for Your Brand

Rather than templated sites, Anchor Group designs fully bespoke online presences specifically matched to each client’s brand identity and DNA. This includes UX optimized checkout flows facilitating frictionless purchases alongside cutting-edge visual designs that make your products irresistible.

Conversion Centered Optimization

Driving continual improvements in key metrics like sales conversion rates, average order value, and checkout abandonment represents the guiding focus influencing all design decisions. We bake pervasive testing into site development from the start, using tools like Optimizely and Google Optimize to trial layout options, calls-to-action, content placement, and other variables to incrementally boost performance.

The specialist BigCommerce architects at Anchor Group stand ready to help your e-commerce venture flourish through technology excellence. Contact us today to explore how our services can amplify your online sales growth.

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