What Exactly Is A Website Maintenance Plan?
It’s safe to say that your website is a valuable investment, which should be treated according to care. You wouldn’t expect to purchase a home and not plan to do any maintenance on the place until it started to fall apart. It’s the same exact thing with your business website. Once it is up and running, it needs to be constantly monitored, updated, and optimized to keep performing as well (or better) than the day of your launch.
A website maintenance plan is essentially an ongoing strategy that keeps your site protected and optimized for its best performance, and is generally performed by a dedicated specialist. Important elements such as the User Experience (UX), security, and software updates all fall within the scope of website maintenance.
Having established what a maintenance plan is, let’s delve into why it’s so important for your WordPress site.
” A website maintenance plan is an ongoing premium service to keep the website up-to-date. This usually includes the website’s WordPress core, plugins, and themes. Plans can also include other services. ”
Why Does A Website Need Ongoing Maintenance?
In order to be successful and help grow your business, your website needs to run seamlessly – that is where regular website maintenance comes in. Here are the ways in which your website and business will benefit most from a maintenance plan:
Your Site’s User Experience:
First off, your website’s conversion rates rely heavily on the quality of your UX. Delight your audience through each portion of your website, and they could become loyal paying customers. Give them a less-than-perfect experience fraught with slow-loading pages and broken links, and you’ll send them running for the hills never to return.
Implementing routine maintenance gives you the ability to identify any potential issues your users may be faced with, and smooth them over before any of them arise. This can be a matter or a faulty plug-in, outdated code, or any other modification.
You might also find that, with changes in technology, your audience may come to expect a certain new feature or functionality. With a regular maintenance plan, you’ll be able to upgrade your site to match the evolving tastes of your audience.
Your Site’s Security:
In the year 2018, websites with a WordPress content management system accounted for nearly 90% of all hacked sites. For most of them, the lack of maintenance figured heavily into making them vulnerable to attacks.
This is a serious problem on many levels. Namely, your failure to protect your site as well as your customers could result in serious damages and loss of trust and clientele. Not only are you putting yourself and your reputation in danger, but you’re also exposing anyone who visits your site to risk.
A thorough maintenance plan will keep your WordPress site better secure and protected against hackers and malware, likely saving you a considerable amount on potential damages that would arise if your site’s security is compromised.
” If you are serious about your website, then you need to pay attention to the WordPress security best practices. ”
Your Budget
This conveniently brings us to the next point: you’ll be saving a lot of money in the long run by investing in a maintenance plan for your WordPress website. Not only will you avoid a potential security breach, as we mentioned above, but you’ll also be saving yourself costly repairs, lost revenue, and personal time.
While there is an initial cost associated with the maintenance plan, it is likely minimal to the savings or gains your business can stand to make. Not to mention, you’ll enjoy a better functioning website and business, less downtime, increased trust in your brand, and a boost to your bottom line.
What’s Included In A Website Maintenance Plan?
Most WordPress maintenance plans can be catered to your needs, meaning, you’ll never have to pay for services you don’t require. Having said that, it’s important to pay attention to the services included in the plan once you’re ready to commit to purchasing one. While every business and website will have its own unique needs, here are the basic features of most website maintenance plans:
- Ongoing Maintenance on Your Website and Server: These routine tasks usually include security updates and updates on the most recent software, as well as ongoing optimization to keep your website lightning-fast and ranking well on the search engines.
- Upgrades to Your Existing Site: Your website shouldn’t be a static object, but an evolving thing that grows with your business and its audience. These upgrades can include technical adjustments, new SEO elements, improved CTA’s or any such new features.
- Coding Updates: Unless you’re a trained professional, attempting to alter the code in your website can result in disaster. Luckily website coding falls within your maintenance plan and can be done to update any number of features or make any fixes necessary to your site.
- Emergency Help: Despite your best interests, mistakes and accidents happen. Inevitably during the lifespan of a website, something goes awry; and when that happens, your maintenance plan can come in to save the day. You’ll get to work with a team that already knows your system and will be better equipped to make necessary fixes to resolve your issues.
- Performance Analytics and Reporting: If you’re going to invest time and money into your website, you should also know how it’s performing for your business. Most website maintenance plans will monitor your site, provide you with the data, and help you analyze your site’s performance to better update it in the future.
Choosing The Right Partner For Your Website Maintenance
When choosing your WordPress website maintenance partner, it’s important to select one that can act as a natural extension to your existing team. The right professionals will take time to get to know your business and your unique mission. It’s important to look for transparency as well as open communication. If at any point you feel like you’re not getting the information you need, you’re better off looking elsewhere.
Keeping your website maintained is essential to running a website!
A WordPress maintenance plan is essential for any business running a website, but especially those running WordPress sites, which tend to be more prone to security breaches. Yet, a website maintenance service goes beyond security and technical updates – it actually helps grow your company’s bottom line. It may not seem like a glamorous investment, but it’s certainly one that will keep your website and brand looking and running in tip-top shape.
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