Life today moves faster than ever before. Whereas in the past it would take weeks — even months — for news to travel across borders, today it takes a mere few seconds. Because of this, knowledge and information also evolve much faster. We are constantly discovering new things every day and changing our perceptions of what we thought we knew. As a result, information must constantly be updated every day to reflect these developments and to ensure that all data remains grounded in reality.
For a business, this is especially relevant, given that any strategic planning moving forward must be grounded in data. Without the correct information, business leaders cannot know how to make the right decisions for the company. If a wrong decision is made, this could prove to be very costly.
Today, one of the most common tools required of a business is a website. The website is where anyone can head to in order to find out what the business is all about, and from there, decide whether or not to make a transaction with that company. As a result, websites must always be updated in order to reflect the current status and details surrounding the business.
However, historical data is still valuable for businesses. Hence, even as your website is updated, it is important that the historical information remains on record. In order to do so, you would need to archive your old website. Its archive involves recording and preserving the entire contents of a web page, making collating historical data simpler and much more efficient.
Here are some more benefits to archiving an existing web page:
Preserve historical records
Being able to capture how your website looked like originally can be quite tricky. Taking screenshots of each page is an option, but this is very time-consuming, not to mention that screenshots can easily be manipulated. Furthermore, screenshots are static, meaning that it will be much more difficult to capture the website experience, such as clicking on links to see where they will direct.
Website archiving software allows you to preserve your historical information as it was originally displayed on your website. Thus, you are able to capture this online information accurately for future reference.
Protect your data
It is not unheard of for websites or software systems to fall victim to a virus or system errors. Once this occurs, you may be faced with the possibility of having your website shut down or losing all the data that was listed on the site. Given how easy it is to delete or alter online information, it is important that you preserve and protect your existing website data. Just in case something leads to losing your online data permanently, at least you will always have a backup archive that can help you easily pick up from where you left off.
Provide a path forward for your business
A website archive is a snapshot of the historical journey of a business. Thus, you can always look back on the data and information here as a point of comparison to see whether or not your business has improved.
Furthermore, an old website provides you an idea of what the market was like in those conditions. By seeing how the market has changed, you are able to tailor your initiatives to suit the current market trends, thus giving you a competitive advantage in the present business landscape. This makes web archiving a great tool for business managers who are always seeking to improve their company’s performance.
