Many people aren’t aware of the benefits of website maintenance (or the dangers of no maintenance) but having a good web developer to update and maintain your website is something one should not only seriously consider, but DO!
All kinds of software require updates to keep them working properly and performing at their best—just think of your computer or phone operating systems and apps. Your website is no different.
Avoiding website maintenance can be likened to not regularly servicing your car. You wouldn’t be able to drive your car for very long if you didn’t maintain it; the same process is true for your website. Your website should maintained so it is always live, ready to connect and engage with your audience and presenting your business at its best. Website maintenance is integral to this.
Why you must remember to look after your website
If you are not having website maintenance carried out monthly, you may be unknowingly throwing money out the window. Many website owners don’t check their website to see how it’s functioning and therefore missed website issues or downtime can lose you potential customers. People don’t often hang around for long on a website when they find things wrong with it; they’ll be straight off to one of your competitors to use their services instead.
What are the benefits of website maintenance?
The benefits of website maintenance are unfortunately missed by many people.
Your website’s performance, security, load time and uptime is all dependent on the WordPress software and plugins functioning as they should—and being on their most recent compatible version.
Making sure that your website grows with you and your goals requires fresh content, analytics monitoring and design changes; this is all dependent on you having someone making sure all updates to the website are carried out in an experienced and error-free way.
The biggest benefit of maintenance though? Peace of mind that your investment is being cared for.
So, what do I offer?
I offer a selection of monthly WordPress Care Plans to suit different needs. In these Care Plans I take great care to first backup your website and then thoroughly check it for any issues after the updates are carried out. A record is kept of the plugins which are updated so if there ever is an issue I can see which plugin version was changed and then revert back. Also included in my monthly plans are performance results, security scans, uptime monitoring and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) ranking reports.
Could you just do it yourself? What are the dangers?
You could update the WordPress core and plugins yourself—but would you really feel confident in doing this?
Maintaining your website yourself has the potential of costing you more than you may think, and it could even end up leaving you without a website. If you were to just update the website from your WordPress admin, you wouldn’t have a backup or a record of what was carried out. If one of the updates then caused a problem soon after it would be difficult to know what changed and how to fix it. At best, you may end up having to revert to a very old backup and in the process lose content, customer and sales data and much more.
Another scenario is that you may forget to update your website and then be faced with numerous updates next time you log in. You could update them all and then the website breaks—what do you do then? You’re on your own using time that you need to more wisely spend on other areas of your business. Where do you turn (other than Google and even then you need to find the right answer and understand what to do with it)?
Going back to the car analogy, if your car was broken would you try and fix it or would you take it to a trusted professional?
Spend less for peace of mind rather than more on fixing problems
The biggest benefit of a website maintenance Care Plan is your peace of mind. Having someone whom you trust to take care of everything is a real weight off your mind.
Inexperience and neglect can damage the look and functionality of your website, as well as your SEO ranking and reputation. When that happens, you have a choice to make. One: you try to fix it yourself, which may cause further damage. Or two: you pay the (often hefty) price for someone to fix it. Just like your car, it costs more to fix it than it does to maintain it properly.
Let me help
Spend your valuable time doing what you do best and secure an experienced web professional to update and maintain your site properly, thus saving you money, lost visitors and potential lost sales.
If you would like peace of mind that your investment is being professionally looked after, then contact me to take out a Care Plan for your website.
You can read more details about my WordPress Care Plans here.
