Web site maintenance is an integral part of updating and keeping your site working properly. Many people don’t realize the benefits of site maintenance, but having a good web developer update and maintain your site is something one should not only seriously consider, but DO!
When a Site is Not Properly Maintained
Without proper site updates and maintenance, your content gets old, your domain name may expire which means one day suddenly your site is just plain gone! Consider yourself lucky if you catch it in time before someone else snaps up your domain name! Links get broken, images disappear, content gets old, and your rankings fall off the face of the search engines.
These are just a few issues that can happen if you don’t have someone keeping an eye on your site. It’s like not having regular oil changes done on your vehicle. You wouldn’t drive your car very long if you didn’t look after its maintenance, would you? Well, the same process is true for your web site. Our purpose here is to make sure your site is always live, ready for customers and presenting your business at its finest.
What do we do?
At WO, we take great care to first back up the website, check the website, update, then check the website again for any changes. Our software keeps a record of plugins we update so if there is ever an issue we see what plugin version was changed and revert back.
“Just 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 keeps your web site running properly.”
Do You Save Money Doing It Yourself?
In order to save money, some people want to update and maintain their own site. Yes, it’s done but no it doesn’t always save you money. Maintaining your site yourself could cost you more than you may think. If the client just updates from their WordPress admin, White Orange wouldn’t have that record. We update client’s site once a month so we can take the time to devote to checking their website thoroughly (either the 15th or the 30th). Also included on our monthly maintenance report are the performance and security scans. If in the event we ever catch a plugin issue, it becomes a support ticket and we address it before you, our client ever knows there is a problem. We also take care about which plugins we are updating and single out large updates (like Woocommerce) as its own task for additional quality control.
If you don’t have a website maintenance contract, you may actually be throwing money out the window by not providing proper maintenance to your site. When you go to a web site and find things wrong with it do you stick around? I don’t, I move on to a working site. If your site is the one I just left because it wasn’t working properly or designed well, you’ve lost a potential customer.
It Costs More to Fix Than to Maintain
Inexperience and neglect can damage the look and functionality of your web site. When that happens, you have a choice to make. Either you can leave it as is, try and fix it yourself, in which case you may do further damage. Or … you can then pay the (sometimes hefty) price for someone experienced to fix it. Just 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 keeps your web site running properly.
Experience Can Save You Money
Your business is yours – you know what’s best for it. One of our jobs is to help you do what’s best for your website which reflects strongly on your business. You know your product, we know ours. Why not deal with what you know best and let us deal with what we know best? Would you try to fight that court battle without a lawyer? Try to fix your damaged heart valve or heal your sick child without the benefit of medical advice? Then why try to maintain your own website if you’re not a professional web designer?
By securing an experienced designer to update and maintain your site properly you are actually saving money in lost sales and visitors. You’ve no doubt heard the old cliche “you have to spend money to make money” and this is so true when it comes to your web site. Your goal is to impress your visitors, get them to come back and if you have products to purchase, you want them to buy from you. Well, you can either keep your site updated and properly maintained or if you prefer to not do this, you can simply give your business to your competitors.
The Choice is Yours
If you’re interested in securing a maintenance contract for your web site, contact us to learn how you can have a professional web designer keep your site in proper working order. It’s really not as expensive as you may think!