Just like any software, websites require maintenance to keep the site functioning properly. Avoiding website maintenance is like avoiding regular services on your car. To keep your website running smoothly, just like your car, regular maintenance is needed. Your website should always be live, ready for clients or customers and presenting your business at its best.
Websites Are Not “Set and Forget”
If you don’t have website maintenance carried out monthly, you may actually be wasting money. When visitors go to a website and find things not functioning correctly they quickly move onto another site. Many website owners don’t have time to check to see if their website is running smoothly. Missed website issues or downtime can lose you potential clients or customers.
The Benefits of Website Aftercare
Many people don’t realise the benefits of site maintenance:
The website performance, it’s load time, downtime and uptime, is all dependent on the WordPress software and plugin functioning correctly and on the most recent versions.
The website growth, it’s fresh content, analytics monitoring and design changes, are dependent on you having someone to make sure all updates are done smoothly without errors.
Maintenance Workflow
At Peterson & Co we take great care to backup the website, update the software then check the website after our updates for any issues. Our software keeps a record of plugins we update so if there is ever an issue we see the source of the problem straight away. We also include in our monthly maintenance report performance and security scans. If in the event we ever catch a software issue, it becomes a support ticket and we address it before you ever know there’s a problem.
Dangers of DIY Maintenance
Maintaining your site yourself could cost you. If you only update from your WordPress dashboard, you won’t have an update history. If an update to a plugin created an issue a couple weeks later, it would be difficult to know what changed and how you should revert back without restoring an old backup (and possibly losing content changes to text and images, sales orders or contact entries).
It Costs More to Fix Than to Maintain
Inexperience and neglect can damage the design and functionality of your website. When this happens, you have a choice to make. You try and fix it yourself, this could mean further damage. Or you can then pay for someone experienced to fix it. Like your car, it costs more to fix it than it does to maintain it properly. Regular oil changes help keep your car running properly, regular site maintenance helps keep your web site running properly.
Call in a Professional
Let us deal with what we know best so you can focus on your business. You wouldn’t try to fight a court battle without a lawyer. So why try to maintain your website if you’re not a professional? By securing an experienced website professional to update and maintain your site correctly you are actually saving potential lost sales and visitors.
If you’re interested in a Website Aftercare contract, contact us to learn how we can keep your site up-to-date, secure, and running smoothly.
Get in touch with us for a consulting session. We can get to know each other and see if we are a good fit for an ongoing partnership.