Unit 19 Lesson 1 Website Maintenance Methods PDF

Unit 19: Sustaining an ICT Project Lesson 1: Website Maintenance Methods Contents Engage 1 Introduction 1 Objectives 2 Explore 2 Explain and Elaborate 5...

Unit 19: Sustaining an ICT Project Lesson 1: Website Maintenance Methods Contents Engage 1 Introduction 1 Objectives 2 Explore 2 Explain and Elaborate 5 Website Maintenance 5 Tasks in Website Maintenance 7 Extend 9 Activity 1 9 Activity 2 11 Evaluate 12 Wrap Up 16 Bibliography 16 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Engage Introduction Fig. 1. An illustration of website construction In the previous lessons, we have discussed the development of ICT projects that aims to promote awareness and further action for societal issues. Having a website would help these projects in achieving their objectives. You must also regularly maintain it to continuously serve its purpose. Website maintenance might be easy to think of, but it may take so much of your time as you monitor the activities, functions, and other stuff of your website. Furthermore, to serve your objectives properly, the website must be in its best condition as it can be accessed all over the world. How do we maintain a website? Who are the people involved in the process? Why should we do a website maintenance check? 1 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Objectives In this lesson, you should be able to do the following: Explain the nature of web maintenance. Identify the people involved in web maintenance. Explain the process of web maintenance. DepEd Competency Generate a report on the performance of their ICT Project for Social Change on the basis of data gathered from available monitoring tools and evaluating techniques. (CS_ICT11/12-ICTPT-IIs-22) Explore 15 minutes Nowadays, most people own a smartphone and we bring this more often since we use it for different online and offline activities. In this activity, you are to give 5 things you do to maintain the performance of your mobile phone. Write your answer in bullet form in the box provided below. 2 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods 3 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Guide Questions 1. How often do you do these tasks to maintain the performance of your smartphone? 2. Why do you think it is important to maintain the performance of our smartphones? 3. What is the difference between mobile phones that are well-maintained and those that are not? 4 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Explain and Elaborate Website Maintenance Regular maintenance of a website ensures its operational stability and that its functions accordingly. Maintenance schedule should be performed on its layout, design, content, accessibility, and runtime. On that note, somebody must perform it as it cannot be done by only one person. Fig 2. Illustration of a programmer working on a website A website maintenance team is responsible for carrying out all these maintenance tasks. The members and their roles may vary according to the simplicity or complexity of the website and its operation. A smaller website with a simple layout and functionality can be done by one to two persons while a bigger and complex website may need three or more members. Most website maintenance team may have the following positions: Website Maintenance Team Leader - The person responsible for giving instructions to members and facilitating the overall process of website maintenance. 5 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Publishing Representative - The person or group of people responsible for checking and proofreading of contents that are already published and will be published. Quality Assurance Representative - The person or group of people responsible for checking and maintaining the front-end (e.g. links, images, browser titles, spelling and grammar of content, metadata, and file sizes). Feedback Monitoring Representative - The person or group of people responsible for gathering and analyzing feedback from website visitors such as queries, complaints, comments, and suggestions. Website Performance Representative - The person or group of people responsible for maintaining the runtime, accessibility, loading speed, as well as the frequency of the website visitors. Infrastructure Monitoring Representative - The person or group of people responsible for checking and maintaining the hardware and software used for web hosting, and the security of the site. Change Control Representative - The person or group of people responsible for changing and updating the website accessibility and functionality. Importance of Website Maintenance Whatever web hosting services and tools are used in creating a website, it is very important to enforce regular security updates and website maintenance to avoid technical issues and problems. The following are the possible scenarios that would happen if there are no security and maintenance updates performed on the website. Getting Hacked One reason why websites must be updated is to avoid getting hacked. Regardless of the website’s simplicity or complexity, hackers often target outdated websites. There is a great possibility that an older website will get hacked because it has less secure coding and modules. 6 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Risk of Damage to the Integrity of the Website Skipping version updates is not advisable because eventually, it would just force the team to perform the new updates. There will be a longer wait time and more risks once that it is decided to update a website over a long period of skipping updates. The more often the website is updated, the less possibility that problems will arise. Wasted Time and Money Updating the website provides the latest functionality thus, improving the website. If the team fails to make updates once it is available, it would most likely turn into a much larger effort once they decided to do it in the future. The team will need more time to update the website which will possibly result in a longer inaccessibility of the website that might affect traffic and sales. Unusable Features and Poor User Experience Web updates provide new features and advanced functionality. The team should implement the update as soon as possible to get these improved features. Using an outdated version of the website would affect the overall user experience since it is a lot different and slower than the latest version. Decreased Speed Every new update has its target performance improvements that will help the website to have a faster response. In most cases, the website becomes slower if the allocated storage capacity and bandwidth are too small for the update. If a website takes too long to load, visitors would often choose to close it thus, affecting the website’s efficiency. Task in Website Maintenance The following are some tasks needed to maintain the website which should be followed by the web developer, the web maintenance team, and the web hosting company. These tasks are classified based on the schedule it should be done. 7 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Annual Website Maintenance Task Perform User Testing The people and the way they use a website changes over time. Usability testing is conducted annually to make sure that the website continues to attract people and traffic. The test should cover all browsers and device types can be used to access the website. Quarterly Website Maintenance Tasks Make Test Purchases Most websites have a purchasing function. If it does not function properly, there might be a big loss of profits until the problem is fixed. Every quarter, have someone make a few test purchases on different devices and browsers to check if there are issues or problems to be fixed. Test out all the Forms on the Website Any contact form plugins on a website should be working properly. Check and go through the process of filling out all the forms on the website while using different devices and browsers to test if they are working properly. There might be valuable information to be missed if any of your forms are not functioning right. Fix Any Broken Links If somebody clicks on any link on the website that leads to a 404 page, it means that the link is broken. There are some instances that you might encounter this kind of issue, so make sure that these broken links do not stay long on the main page. Check for broken links that can either be removed, replaced, or updated. Monthly Website Maintenance Tasks Check for Security Updates Securing the website from potential hackers is the major priority for anyone who runs a website especially those who are dealing with customers’ private data. It includes checking 8 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods the platforms, plug-ins, and scripts if they are up to date. This task should be done whether the website is low-profile or high-profile. Regularly Backup the Website Backing up saves the website and its contents from future trouble. The team may invest in a backup system that will save the work of this task. They can also choose to perform an updated backup of the website at least once a month. Weekly Website Maintenance Task Review the Key Metrics Make sure that the website is accomplishing its goals. Review how it is working and identify which part or element needs improvements by logging in to check the analytics at least once a week. It is essential to keep track of the website’s growth. Extend Activity 1 Website maintenance can either be done by a team previously involved in the creation of the website or another new team that is hired to do these maintenance tasks. If you are going to choose, which do you think is more efficient between the two? Explain your answer on the next page. 9 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Guide Your essay will be graded using this rubric: Criteria Description Score Content The student was able to provide clear 5 pts statements and ideas answering the question. Organization There is a logical progression of details and 3 pts clear transitions between ideas. Language The use of correct spelling, mechanics, 2 pts grammar, and word choice are evident. Total 10 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Activity 2 Classify the following website maintenance tasks. On the space provided before each number, write A if it's done annually, Q for quarterly, M for monthly, and W for weekly. __________ 1. Updating the website’s design __________ 2. Test the website’s accessibility on different browsers __________ 3. Tryout page load speed __________ 4. Examine if all forms are working properly __________ 5. Renew the website domain’s license __________ 6. Inspect the backups __________ 7. Reflect on visitor’s comments __________ 8. Check for outdated web contents __________ 9. Process requests on emails __________ 10. Review the website’s analytics Guide Annual maintenance tasks evaluate the overall website achievement of its goals while quarterly maintenance tasks keep the website secured. Monthly maintenance tasks are focused on user experience. Lastly, weekly maintenance tasks check activities vital to the stability of the site. 11 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Evaluate A. Answer the questions completely in your own words. 1. What is website maintenance? 2. How is assigning the appropriate members for each task important in the overall process of web maintenance? 3. Give one advantage of maintaining a website for an ICT project. 12 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods 4. Is there any disadvantage of maintaining a website for an ICT project? Explain your answer. 5. Why do you think it is necessary to do annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly web maintenance tasks? 13 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods B. Read each scenario carefully. Provide some points on how website maintenance would help solve each problem. 1. The creator of the website accidentally deleted all the web content. What website maintenance should have been done beforehand to bring back all the contents? 2. A visitor commented that the design of your website is old fashioned. What should you do to address this problem? 3. The web maintenance team conducted a speed test on the loading time of their website and noticed it is too slow. What should be done to resolve this issue? 14 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods 4. A website has been hacked by an anonymous person. What task in website maintenance would prevent this from happening again? 5. There are too many links on a website that displayed “Error” once clicked. What task is needed to resolve this problem? 15 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods Wrap Up ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Regular maintenance of a website ensures its operational stability and that its functions accordingly. Maintenance schedule should be performed on its layout, design, content, accessibility, and runtime. These maintenance tasks are carried by a website maintenance team. The size of the team depends on the simplicity or complexity of the website and its operation. Maintaining the website is important not just to ensure its functionality but also its security. Website maintenance is done either annually, quarterly, monthly, or weekly. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Bibliography “5 Reasons Why Website Maintenance is Important.” Traktek Partners. Accessed July 25, 2020. https://www.traktekpartners.com/post/5-reasons-why-website-maintenance-importa nt. Brandall, Benjamin. “Web Maintenance: A Process-Driven Guide with 4 Handy Checklists.” process.st. Accessed July 25, 2020. https://www.process.st/web-maintenance/. Diffily, Shane. “Website Maintenance.” Diffily. Accessed July 25, 2020. http://www.diffily.com/book/website_maintenance.pdf. Hicks, Kristen. “Your 7 Step Guide to Website Maintenance.” HostGator. Accessed July 25, 2020. https://www.hostgator.com/blog/guide-website-maintenance/. 16 Unit 19.1: Website Maintenance Methods “How to Maintain a Website.” Web Page Mistakes. Accessed July 25, 2020. http://www.webpagemistakes.ca/maintain-website/. Kucheriavy, Andrew. “Your 10-Step Guide to Website Maintenance.” Business Collective. Accessed July 25, 2020. https://businesscollective.com/your-10-step-guide-to-website-maintenance/index.ht ml. 17