A webmaster is a person with all the technical skills and know-how to help create and maintain a website. They are also the people who have the expert knowledge to help a website perform better in search engine results. From meta tags to descriptions, search engine optimisation to building high-quality backlinks, all of these things can make a huge and positive impact on website visibility.
By not bothering with them or, worst still in many ways, getting it wrong, a website may be underperforming or penalised by search engines.
After completion of a Webmaster Course, you will find your skills are in demand. Thus, this is how you become the go-to webmaster…
#1 Build a portfolio
Like many other creative skills, showing that you can deliver what you say you can, is essential. Therefore, as you work your way through your Webmaster Course, be constantly thinking about building a portfolio of work too.
You can do this in numerous ways, such as starting your own website, blogs and so on as well as working with businesses to expand your experience.
#2 Which platforms, design and content programs etc. do you use?
There are many different kinds of programs and online software that a webmaster can use to build and maintain a website. The idea of telling people what you use is also a way of showing prospective clients why you think these are the best.
A client may not have the same in-depth technical knowledge and so the idea here is not to bamboozle them, but to show them what kind of results they can expect with certain pieces of kit etc. As a webmaster, you are taking on the responsibility of ensuring the website is performing to the best of capabilities on the web – and you need to show people and explain to them how this is done.
You’ll need to keep up to date with Google’s constant algorithm changes
#3 How you understand search engine optimisation
Also known as SEO, search engine optimisation is the thing that people know they need with a website but are unsure how or what this looks like.
SEO is constantly shifting and changing too. Google for example, announced in 2015 that there was to be an algorithm change which could affect how websites were ranked. In many ways, this was to do with content but for a webmaster, it may also mean looking at the background ‘running’ of a website too.
#4 Creating uniqueness
Every business wants their website to stand out and for the right reasons. More and more, businesses are asking for social media connections, video, feeds and banner ads etc.
Being able to seamlessly integrate these within a website is key to being a successful webmaster. Understanding how to do this but also what value they bring is something that will be expected of a top-end webmaster.
#5 Maintaining security and privacy
The issues of cyber-attacks, hacking and privacy are all hotly debated. When customers use a business website, they expect it to be as safe as possible, with their information and data securely stored.
Stories of hacks and security breaches are embarrassing thus, an online business needs to be confident that they website is up to scratch when it comes to security. These hacks and breaches can not only lead to issues with customers and reputation but with fines and issues with legal agencies.
As a webmaster, you will need to be confident that everything that can be done to maintain website security is in place, as well as being up to date. You also need to show that the have the ability to deal with issues as they arise too, which leads nicely on to point six…
#6 Be responsive
Being responsive is possibly the biggest skills and resource of a webmaster. Things can change online in a blink of an eye which is why as a webmaster, you will need to be constantly vigilant of how a website is performing.
Issues and problems can hit a website at any time. What could have been working perfectly well at 10 am may now be causing an issue at 7 pm. For many businesses, allowing the problem to continue is not an issue, thus a webmaster may find that the hours they sometimes keep are erratic and late.
With companies and businesses crying out for effective website management, it makes financial sense to become skilled with a Webmaster Course from NCC Home Learning.
Nick Cooper
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