Today, a well-designed and functioning website is a crucial part of any business. In fact, for most companies, the website plays a leading role in 90% of sales – WordPress maintenance guide
Building that site is not that difficult these days. You can decide to do it yourself or you can hire a developer. With all the available templates, plugins, and other functions, with some effort and creativity, you will soon have something that is at least acceptable.
And after that? When the site is ready, is that the job is done? No. In fact, then it only begins.
By maintaining your website properly, you ensure that the website remains online, safe, and stable. If you don’t take good care of your website, you run the risk of your website going offline and losing important data. But above all, you risk the trust of your customers in your company.
Why “Set and forget” is not an option
Maintenance is necessary for everything. Also for a WordPress website. WordPress is constantly changing. And not only the content management system itself, the plugins, functions, and themes also receive regular updates. Malicious hackers are aware of this. Software that is not up to date is the most common cause of hacked websites.
Maybe you’re not too concerned about it. You may think that your website is of no interest to hackers. Unfortunately, your site is also a target.
Any website can be the target of a hacking attempt. Most hacks are automated and do not target a specific website. The scripts used for this are looking for vulnerable sites, often with software that is not up-to-date. In most cases, the attacks are so sophisticated that you cannot even detect them. That’s why keeping your site up to date is so important for security.
Good maintenance is preventive and thus prevents damage. Many people don’t act until a problem actually arises. People don’t believe anything can go wrong until they see it go wrong. Even if they are aware of the potential risks of an unmanaged site, they may believe that fixing a problem after it happens is cheaper than subscribing to a monthly maintenance plan.
I can tell you that is usually not the case. The cost of repairing a site with problems is almost always (much) higher than the cost of a year of WordPress Super Service. Especially if you also include the damage caused by the problem in your calculation.
For example, an eCommerce business loses thousands or even millions in revenue by being offline and basically stops until the site is up and running again. If the downtime is too long, the company can suffer a lot of damage, causing the loss of customers and business partners. Let’s face it, none of us want to do business on an unstable and unpredictable website.
Do-it-yourself maintenance?
Online you can find many sites and tutorials where you can read that it is certainly possible to do the maintenance of your website yourself. And that is also possible. You can read all the articles and follow all the available tutorials to get the necessary knowledge. There is a good chance that you will do reasonably well.
But still, I think it is better to have it done by a professional who also knows which plugins are crucial for your website, which themes often cause problems after an update, and whether the latest version of WordPress is already stable enough for your company website. And what you should do if a problem does arise.
Another thing to consider: how much time and effort do you have to put in this yourself? What does it cost you per hour? Can’t you spend your time much better, for example on your customers?
Another advantage of a maintenance plan: you have a professional on hand who can help you with much more than just the technical aspects of your site. You can expect a good web professional to act proactively. That he watches you and points out possibilities or shortcomings. In other words, a website coach.
What is included in a maintenance package?
A good maintenance package consists of three pillars: updates, backups, and security.
Updates
Updating WordPress, its plugins, and themes. And that is not simply pushing a button. Anyone could.
When updating a website, it is important that you have knowledge about the software you are updating. For example, if major updates become available for WordPress or major plugins such as WooCommerce or Elementor, I often wait until the next update, so that any bugs have already been resolved.
Backups
Backups are very important and the basis of any maintenance package. I make a full backup of your site every week and then make a daily backup of any changes. The backups take place at night, so they do not affect the performance of your website during the day.
Important: don’t rely solely on any backups from your hosting company. This is also where something can go wrong, causing you to lose your site and your backups. Or maybe there is a conflict with your host. It is very nice if you have the files of your website yourself.
Security: protection against malware
Your site will be scanned for malware and if malware is detected, the owner will be notified and the malware will be removed as soon as possible.
Uptime Monitoring
Your site will be monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for any downtime, and you will be notified of any structural issues so that you can talk to your hosting company to address the cause.
Conclusion
Hopefully, after reading this article, you are aware of the importance of a well-maintained website. And whether or not you are going to do it yourself, make sure that you have the basics properly arranged: updates, backups, and security.
If you have someone to do it for you, that’s sort of a safety net for your site. You can then be sure that someone will take care of your website regularly so that it is ready to take on any challenges that come your way.
As a company, you want to appear professional and credible. A poorly performing website is then disastrous.
In short: I advise you to invest in a good maintenance plan. Think of it as insurance for your site, but also as an investment in your peace of mind.
The slogan of WordPress Super Service is for a reason: No more WordPress Stress.
