It’s one thing to just put up a website, but really, what is the responsibility of a website owner? For many who are newbies at creating and maintaining a website, its important to remember a few things. Simply building a website won’t cut it. There’s a lot more involved and even for a business owner, it means that some time will need to be spent on maintaining a website.
The Responsibility of a Website Owner
You are responsible for how your website is seen and how people react to your website. If you are someone that gets in the trenches of drama, then expect backlash and have a means to gracefully respond. Even the most controversial sites have a line set that they will not cross because it will alienate their own target audience. Make sure you’re chalking the line where you won’t cross in order to make sure you’re not selling yourself out or going overboard.
Brand management is extremely important as it can be the difference of a whole community turning their backs on you, or happily embracing you.
You are responsible for your own success. Don’t blame your lack of success on your website. The website is a tool that you can use as leverage in marketing your business. If you’re not engaging with your visitors, don’t have proper, clear, and effective calls to action, and not sharing your content out there where people can frequently be found, then don’t expect to make sales, acquire newsletter subscribers, or attract followers who will eagerly spread the news of your business.
If the website you have is not performing well, consider getting a website review by a professional or getting a site re-design that is planned around a more effective website conversion strategy. It’s important that you as a website owner take a more active stance in how your site is received by your target audience. The Internet itself has millions of people on it every day at all hours of a day. While failure is possible, you’re ability to choose how to get over it and plan your next strategy makes the difference of a business that sinks or swims.
You are responsible for your website’s security, as well as responsible for the security of those visiting your website. Malware, code injections, defacing, and more are a real problem for webmasters. It doesn’t matter if you’re operating on a static HTML site, ASP.net, custom PHP, or even a popular content management system like WordPress. If you’re not keeping your site’s software up to date, you’re risking your hosting account’s safety, your own safety, and at times, your website visitors’ safety. If you’re not keeping your web hosting account’s password and any connections like FTP or SFTP or SSH secure and hard to decipher, then you’re risking your website’s hosting safety, as well as that of yourself and your visitors.
I agree with you that you shouldn’t blame your website for the lack of your success. It is like blaming that bank for not having enough money. It makes sense to hire a professional if your site is not performing.
Nile, great post and good timing given the recent attacks on WordPress. I would agree you can’t blame your website if if it is not working and your advise is spot on. You also have to look at the quality of your copy as content is so important for your readers.
Many Thanks
Andy
Actually you are responsible for your blog to create new content often.
You’re absolutely correct in saying we are responsible for our own success. Sometimes i simply want to sit back and barely publish a new article on my own site, but then i remember why im doing this. A lot of it is for fun, but its also my business and thats a fact we just cannot ignore.
Anyway, thanks Nile.
Hi Nile,
Really valid points you raised, its owner’s responsibility to offer good user experience so that they continuously visit on your blog and also show interest what you have to offer.
Nice and very informative post
It is true that our website’s performance and success depends upon the website owner. Having a site and just posting some stuff doesn’t do any good. Managing and optimizing the site will help in improving the performance of the website and can lead to top of SERP’s.
The above post explains few points that should be taken care of by any responsible website owner. I think the main things are diverting traffic towards your site through unique and informative posts and articles, engaging the readers to visit your website again and again , promoting your posts in social media and other places for better marketing will surely help your website.
Thank you for sharing.
Three timely reminders, Nile! I especially appreciated the last one, about security, in the light of Kim Castleberry’s post this week. I have found myself with too many websites in the past, and have, unfortunately, neglected most of them, breaking all three of your rules! I chose to take some time today updating several of them for security reasons and have more work to do in the other areas (including consolidating them!)
Thanks for sharing
Alan
No doubt maintaining a website is the job’s owner. When you have many websites is quit tough job and you might need to hire some stuff or consider selling some of them.
Well said Nile!
Last week Leslie Denning wrote about the “P” word, now your sharing the “R” word with us!
And far too many otherwise sincere marketers, would simply prefer to skip that part of the equation and cut straight to the it must be Google or the seller of the themes fault.
Or better yet, it must be the guru’s fault! After I paid my money, these courses should just magically jump off my hard drive and take care of any ongoing maintenance and or income generating issues.
Yea, wouldn’t it be nice if things really worked that way.
You speak a truth, that unfortunately, some among us no only don’t wish to here, but simply refuse to
accept!
It’s all about the “R” word! Well said Nile!
Yes another essential necessary post. Newbies like myself value informative posts that help us. These are some of the only ways we can gain knowledge of the does and don’t as new webmasters..
Hi Nile. This is spot-on post. I’m working hard at doing what you suggest here. Keeping everything up to date, syndicating does take some time, but it’s worth it on the long run. I just wish people would stop promoting the myth that if you throw up a website you’ll become an instant millionaire.
It takes consistent work to be your own webmaster. I’m outsourcing some of it, but I think it’s very important for me to keep my finger in the pie. Ummm … pie … sorry, got off track there. 🙂
All the best,
Leslie
You’re exactly right. You can’t blame your website for not bringing success because the website is an extension of your work and your decisions. If your website isn’t working then the right course of action is to make changes to your website.
I’d like to think this is basic common sense, but one never knows. Nevertheless – well said Nile and I couldn’t agree more about where the accountability lies for a website.
I am agree with this blog because i am creator of website and i know that the success and lack of any thing of website is dependent on the website owner
I to agree that lean is the best way to go. I would also add that there is a high need for creating content that matters to the reader as well as the blogging community in general. I just love a site that is filled with valuable nuggets and just draws you in to subscribe.
“You are responsible for your own success” — noted 🙂 But you know, things never go the way it go for others. For other bloggers. their plan works the way they expected.. but in my case.. 🙁
Wonderful article as always Nile, among the three matrics the most important thing would be the second point in your article. Over the course of my career, I’ve been obsessed with best practices. Be they best practices for writing code or for separating responsibilities, I’ve always had dreams of running that well-oiled marketing and technology machine. Websites are strategy-driven projects. This means they’re more about communication than technology. Roles are needed for planning, content development, site building and stewardship. And I’m glad you’ve come up with solid ways to measure the responsibilities of a website owner.
Great write up indeed!
I truly agree with your point that we are ourselves responsible for our success. You have mentioned some the best points above.
Truly appreciate your efforts in delivering such useful stuff 🙂
Hi,
Maintaing a website is the owners job. owner has to maintain quality content and absolute information in the website. Regularly follow the sites and upadte the information innovatively. Don’t share the fake news & content.
I agree – I AM responsible for my own success And I work hard to make sure I am doing all I can.
I totally agree that a person is responsible for their own website, If we don’t put in the work then we won’t see results. Great post!
It’s also the responsibility of the website owner of any security breach. In NYC Under the new law, the Attorney General may seek injunctive relief against any business entity for violating the law. In such action, the court may award damages to consumers for actual costs or losses incurred by a person entitled to notice, including consequential financial losses. If the court finds that a business violated this article knowingly or recklessly, the court may impose a civil penalty of the greater of $5,000 or up to $10 per instance of failed notification not to exceed $150,000.
This is why every small business owner should have cyber liability insurance and this goes for blogger’s as well. To protect yourself and business.
Very insightful and wise comments. I definitely agree that the website owner is responsible for everything, especially content.
That’s all true. I agree 100% about how hard it is to run a website
Great informative post. Wonderful tips too!
Everyone should be responsible for their websites especially content. We should choose our contents wisely and own our posts.
I love your posts. They’re simply honest, direct and helpful! I agree to everything you said especially the security issues! I hate viewing sites with security issues! I came across a dozen of them already! And just awhile ago, I received a warning from visiting a business site! Imagine that, business pages! Seriously?! They should better be aware of it!
owning a website is a lot of work. Anyone who thinks they can start a website and then just show up on the top of google has no idea what they are talking about.
These are great tips. I’m planning to build a website.
Being a webmaster has a lot of responsibilities and these are only some of them. The more we acknowledge those responsibilities, the more efficient and safer the world as a whole can be.
If the website is not performing well and the owner has too much on his hands, I suggest hiring a web site manager to manage and assist in the activities. It will be better to invest in such workforce than try the hardest without actually knowing how to do it.
Oh yeah, it isn’t a walk in the park. It can be so hard to maintain and I can’t stand when others don’t take care of their site
I agree that we are at fault/praise for our own success. Its what we make of it 🙂
Great post! Thank you for the tips!
If you are not responsible for your own website who is? I would think if you want people to keep stopping by you would make it interesting enough for them to want to come back or stay. I love your view and the tips.
Great information. Thanks for sharing, this is very helpful.
I agree you definitely get back what you put in when it comes to running your website. If you want the success you need to put in the time and work.
These are some great tips. I just ran into a malware issue and had to pay a pretty penny to get someone to fix the problem. How much should you be paying a month for security for your site. Like through Site Lock?
I love the way you just smacked around website owners so they could see that they’re responsible for their own success. You’re smart lady and you obviously know what you’re doing. I genuinely like your style and straightforward attitude.
I totally agree that we are responsible for our own successes and our failures. I think we need to remind ourselves of that from time to time.
This is so true. Having your own website is not just for the heck of it – there are so many things you should consider and take into mind at all times.
I love this post! It’s so true- you’re responsible for your own success!
I fully agree with you, as a blogger and website owner we have certain responsibility which we must fulfill.