Automation has become the backbone of modern business operations, and website management is no exception. Businesses can streamline workflow, eliminate errors, and improve productivity by automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks. At STAUFFER, we understand the importance of automation and use it in our work to maximize our success. Automation cuts mundane tasks from our workflow in many arenas, including CMS, software development, QA, and marketing.
In this article, we’ll discuss the five must-automates that every website owner should consider and the one thing that should never be automated.
The Must-Automates
1. Data Backups
Backing up your website data is critical for preventing data loss due to hardware failure, cyber-attacks, or human error. Manually backing up your data is time-consuming and prone to errors. Automating the process ensures that your data is backed up regularly, and in some cases, it can be scheduled during low-traffic hours to minimize impact on website performance.
“Generally speaking, data backup automation is provided by the hosting services,” says STAUFFER’s engineering manager, Roger Tanyongkul. “Majority of our client’s hosting services are provided by Pantheon, and it’s as easy as flipping the “switch” on. Nevertheless, you should always double-check with your hosting provider to ensure that they provide data backup automation.”
2. SEO Monitoring
SEO is a crucial component of any website’s success, and monitoring your website’s SEO performance can help you track page rankings, keyword performance, and competitor analysis. Automating this process can help you identify SEO opportunities and issues in real time, allowing for prompt adjustments.
Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs can help automate the SEO monitoring process and provide valuable insights into your website’s performance. Failing to automate SEO monitoring could lead to missed opportunities or delayed responses to issues, resulting in lower website traffic and rankings.
3. Social Media and Content Distribution
Social media and content distribution drive engagement and reach for your website. Automating social media posts and content distribution can ensure that your content is consistently posted across multiple platforms and analyzed for engagement metrics.
Tools like Hubspot can help you schedule and automate your social media and content distribution. Failing to automate this process could result in missed engagement opportunities and inconsistent posting, leading to lower engagement and reach.
4. User Experience Testing
User experience is critical for website success, and continuous improvement in this area can lead to increased engagement and conversions. Automating A/B testing, heat maps, and user journey analyses can help you gather valuable insights into your website’s user experience without overwhelming your design team.
Tools like Reflect can help you automate user experience testing and improve your website’s performance. Failing to automate user experience testing could result in missed opportunities for improvement and a stagnant user experience, leading to lower engagement and conversions.
We recently spoke with our QA Manager, Allan Soriano, and Fitz Nowlan, co-founder of our preferred UX testing app, Reflect, about the importance of QA automation and a robust QA team; read more about UX testing and why we use Reflect here.
5. Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing is a powerful tool for communicating with your website’s users and driving conversions. Automating email marketing campaigns can help you segment your audience, personalize messages, and schedule campaigns for maximum effectiveness.
Tools like Hubspot can help you automate your email marketing campaigns and improve their effectiveness. Failing to automate email marketing campaigns could result in inconsistent messaging and missed conversion opportunities.
But You Should Never, EVER Automate:
Your humanity! That uniquely human spark of creativity and critical thought is the heart of your identity and cannot be outsourced to automation. This includes, but is not limited to, AI. Content creation, chatbots, and digital assistants are and will continue to be valuable tools moving forward, but they aren’t humans and cannot create or think like we do.
Translating “creativity” into things is a greater challenge. While AI is an excellent tool, it isn’t good at storytelling, design aesthetics, or ethical considerations. Critical clients should be wary of AI for ethical or moral alignment with their brand. AI won’t provide empathy or have a nuanced understanding of things like inclusivity, accessibility, or privacy, which they will expect. Finally, engaging storytelling and design. AI breaks down here, too. Good prompts help a ton, but AI still needs a monitor to keep it human.
Complex customer interactions need human interaction. They are critical touchpoints that require intimate connection with your team. Everything from customer service to marketing to content creation all need humans at the helm,
Automation can bring significant benefits to website management, from improved productivity to enhanced user experience. You can streamline your workflow and improve your website’s performance by automating the five must-haves we’ve discussed. However, it’s essential to remember that automation should never replace creativity, empathy, or human oversight.
At STAUFFER, we can help you automate your website management tasks while developing your brand’s creative content to connect with audiences in ways that inspire and move them on a human level.
