What is a webmaster and what do they do today?
The word “webmaster” sounds like the early days of the internet, and for good reason: that is when it was born. Yet the role is still key for any business with an online presence. Here is where it comes from, a few curious facts and what a webmaster does for your business today.
Where the word comes from
In the early years of the web, in the early 1990s, every site needed someone to keep it running: writing the pages, configuring the server and responding when something broke. That person came to be called the webmaster, combining web with master in the sense of the person in charge.
Curious fact: the webmaster@ address is almost an official standard
In 1997 RFC 2142 was published, one of the technical documents that define how the internet works. It recommends standard mailboxes for certain services: postmaster@ for email, hostmaster@ for domains and webmaster@ for the web. That is why many websites still have a webmaster@ address to reach whoever runs them.
Another one: Google had its “tools for webmasters”
The free tool Google uses to report how it sees your website was called Google Webmaster Tools for years. In 2015 it was renamed Search Console. Bing, on the other hand, still keeps the name Bing Webmaster Tools.
What a webmaster does today
The web has become far more complex, and so has the webmaster’s job. Today it covers, among other things:
- Technical maintenance: updates, performance and bug fixing.
- Security: HTTPS certificates, protection against attacks and backups.
- Content: publishing news, articles, price or opening-hours changes.
- SEO: keeping the website fast, accessible and easy for Google to understand.
- Infrastructure: hosting, domain, DNS and email.
- Measurement: reviewing statistics and proposing data-driven improvements.
A website without a webmaster is like a shop with nobody to open the shutters: it may be beautifully decorated, but it serves no one.
Does your business need a webmaster?
If your website is a business tool (it brings you enquiries, sells or keeps your customers informed), yes. What rarely pays off for a small business is hiring someone full-time just for that. That is what external webmaster services are for: a team that looks after your website when you need it, at a predictable cost.
At webmasterwww we have been doing exactly that since 2012. If you would like us to look after yours, get in touch.