When we hear the term ‘Website Maintenance’, we often don’t know what to think. What is it? Why do we need it? What does it do?
Like getting your car serviced, it is an easy thing to ignore. As long as nothing goes obviously wrong, it is easy to think that everything is in excellent shape. If we don’t take steps to pre-empt problems though, by the time we detect them, there are often serious consequences.
We’ve compiled a short list of the issues and the business benefits of website maintenance to ensure your online house is in order.
If any part of your business relies on a website, these are issues you’ll want to know about.
1. Security
Those who want to steal your data are always innovating. WordPress is always taking steps to protect you against their attacks. It’s an arms race between good and evil, legitimate business and crime, and it all hinges on your site being updated and current.
By regularly updating security measures and scanning for any breaches, you protect yourself and your customers from those who would steal important data like credit card information, customer names and addresses, and confidential business details.
To learn more, read my guide about how to secure WordPress sites from hackers.
2. Performance Monitoring
Our tolerance for delay on the Internet is almost zero. We want sites to load instantly, and a wait of three seconds is enough for us to think a site is dysfunctional, or substandard. And well… it is.
In addition, by making sure your site kicks back the requested pages and data in the blink of an eye, you know that you’re getting the upload and download speeds you’re paying your provider for, and that your site is optimised to use as little of your bandwidth as possible. Fast and efficient. That’s a message your customers can appreciate. It’s a message we can help you deliver.
3. Monitoring Website Uptime
If a website goes down, it’s the same as if a tornado picks up your store and drops it in Oz… it’s effectively gone. Non-existent.
To prevent this, 24-hour monitoring is recommended. You or your maintenance provider can solve the problem, but only once you know there is one. An Aussie site, down all night, means that the American customers had a day without access, just an error page. So much for making money while you sleep!
We offer 24/7 monitoring and know immediately if there is a problem.
4. Daily Backups
Important information is kept on your site. If something goes wrong and it’s lost, the consequences can be substantial. Imagine making a contact for a major contract and losing it due to a crash. Even if you know the potential client’s contact information, call them to get the details again, before the contract is even signed. It can kill a big deal right there. Your customers and partners need to know they can trust you with their financial and other information.
It doesn’t make sense to keep only one copy in only one place.
By backing up your data, we remove the risk of having to start all over again. Your customer lists, product information, and other data are not at risk.
5. Scanning for Broken Links
Another event that deflates our sense of a high-quality site, is a 404 message. This comes up when we click for information and the link doesn’t go anywhere. It’s broken. Now, the customer’s anticipation of seeing that great product, or of receiving that key information, is deflated. They instead stare a dead end in the face. In most cases, that’s enough for them to move on to another site.
With dozens, hundreds, or thousands of links on your site, some may be broken. Find them. Fix them. We can help.
6. Audience and Visitor Analytics
The best way to make your marketing money hit the mark is to know exactly what’s working and who is responding. Moving resources from areas that are making little or no impact to areas that are generating solid leads and sales? That’s a no-brainer. But it’s only possible if you have access to that information. Audience and visitor analytics is where to find it.
We get this information and make sure you understand what it means.
7. SEO Ranking Analytics
The Web is a big place, and getting to the top of a list of 100,000,000 results is an important part of online marketing. We can help get you to the top of those lists, and keep you there from week to week. Getting businesses found online is what we do best.
8. Updating Software
WordPress is an innovative company, and software updates, theme updates, and plugin updates are released regularly – sometimes quite rapidly. These updates are a mix of security updates and functionality updates. To keep your site secure and running at its best, updates should be made every week.
Returning to our car servicing analogy, this is the equivalent of making sure the tyre pressure is right, checking the oil, and filling up the windscreen washer fluid. Little jobs that are easy to overlook or procrastinate, but that keep your site secure, looking sharp and functioning well as technology advances.
9. Support
New products? Find a typo? Ready for an overhaul of your look or structure? Those are big jobs to take on by yourself – especially alongside running your business day-to-day. Having someone on hand to take that burden on can help a lot, and ensure that it gets done quickly and well.
10. Weekly Maintenance Reports
No one likes to pay for a service and never be sure if that service is being done. You’ll also want to be made aware of any problems that occurred and were solved, or any potential issues that you might want to consider to increase sales or open up new marketing opportunities.
When we cover maintenance for our clients, we provide a weekly report that details everything done in the previous week and, where applicable, strategies or intentions for the week to come.
Need help?
Like with servicing your car, some people learn how to maintain their own WordPress website. Others, who either lack the desire, expertise or time to do it themselves, hire others to make sure small, inexpensive problems don’t turn into larger, more expensive ones.
If you would like to discuss how I can help you ensure that your site is secure, up-to-date and always running smoothly, feel free to reach out about my website maintenance plans or send me a message if you have any questions.
