Digital delicacy is often a threat to digital businesses across the web due to their high-value corporate assets. Issues often arise with link breakages, website abandonment, and obsolete site formats that might make them inaccessible in the future.
One solution to these issues is web archiving, which involves collecting website content and preserving it in digital archives. Web crawlers or software are used for extracting and saving the content.
There are several advantages associated with website archiving that most people don’t understand. Let’s check out and learn more about some of these advantages and how they can be useful.
Prevents the Loss of Digital Assets
Digital assets are highly vulnerable due to the significant amount of content they contain from blog posts, web pages, videos, social media posts, podcasts, and many more. Once lost, organizations and entrepreneurs can incur high costs to replace these assets while some are irreplaceable.
However, the late at which data is archived is low compared to the rate of its creation and uploading to the web, and this is lethal. For example, in 2019, Myspace, a social media site, lost content uploaded by users before 2016. The case of Myspace means that the site lost millions of photos, videos, songs, and content.
The Myspace incident is an example of the fragility of web assets. But with digital website archiving, businesses can avoid the loss by having their web assets preserved in a lasting digital archive.
Website Archives can be a Learning Resource for your website
Website archiving is not only useful when preserving web content; it can also be used in the future as a learning resource for your organization. Website archives allow the navigation of web pages the same as when the website was still live.
This allows staff to revisit deleted web pages and other content and is useful if you need to revisit a particular marketing strategy used in the past. It is also essential as it allows you to access essential content that had previously been deleted from the site. Such content is also useful for internal staff training on your business operations and expected results.
Web Archives can Protect Businesses against Complaints and Claims
In certain scenarios, content that businesses post on the web may lead to complaints and claims by those affected by the information. Digital organizations require great accountability during these scenarios, and that’s why web archiving is powerful.
Businesses can retrieve content from their digital archives and prove the point they intended to make in their defense. Ignoring the importance of website archiving could lead to web pages being lost and the claimant gaining a competitive edge during court hearings.
Allows you to comply with Regulatory Demands
Some industries are strictly required to keep stringent records of all their communications, transactions, and any changes on their website. An example of these is the financial services websites, according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
To comply with such regulations and others, it is essential to archive your website in a time-stamped, tamperproof, and ISO-compliant format. This way, these web archives are structured for investigations, audits and are legally-admissible in case of any issues.
Web Archiving is one Way of Enabling Paperless Offices
Traditionally, people had been storing used but useful documents in their offices as a way of preserving them. But this comes with its disadvantages as it requires accurate labeling and document arrangement in case of future needs.
Another disadvantage is that paper document storage requires extra space, which increases your rent, not forgetting the possibility of damage by fire or even loss.
With digital web archiving, your web pages do not require printing and storage in bulky paper format. This means you save on printing and storage costs.
With web archiving, your documents are safer from damage and loss than storing your web pages in paper format.
Web Archiving Provides Data for Future Analysis
More recently, organizations have been relying on big data analysis using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve their business processes. Data can be used to analyze consumer journeys through interactions held with customers in the past.
Such analytics help you understand the loopholes in consumer acquisition and retention and address them appropriately. These analytics can also provide insights into how consumers view your products and services through the feedback they give.
This is another reason why website archiving is a wise decision for your business. Data analytic experts might find it hard to retrieve information stored in paper format.
On the other hand, data stored in digital archives is easy to retrieve and analyze, and this is a critical strategy in modern businesses.
