Your business’ website is a lot like your car. No, really!
Actually, it’s a good analogy: it’s the ‘vehicle’ carrying your online business, right?
And, just like your car, your website needs regular maintenance to keep your business powering down the digital highway.
Forget to change the oil and air filter and you could find your business stranded in the breakdown lane.
Even worse, the website’s ‘engine’ could seize up and need replacing. Ouch!
Websites are no longer ‘set and forget’
There was a time when websites were static – a brochure on the screen. Today, anyone who visits your website expects it be dynamic and lightning fast.
However, all that speed, functionality and enhanced navigation requires a boot-load of software components called ‘plug-ins’.
Much like the sophisticated parts in today’s computer-driven vehicle engines, plug-ins allow websites to be customised with specific features. (According to Wikipedia, at last count WordPress had more than 53,000 plug-ins!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress
But, here’s the reality: Most business owners are too busy taking care of business to check that their website is even working. They wouldn’t know if it’s even ‘live’, let alone creating a good impression on visitors.
When someone can’t open your site, or the pages are too slow loading, or something’s broken, they simply leave. (without telling you that there’s a problem!).
Regular maintenance brings many benefits
The benefits of site maintenance may not be immediately obvious.
Your website’s performance (important stuff like page loading, downtime and uptime speeds) depends on WordPress’ software and plugins all functioning as they should. WordPress updates its plug-ins regularly and it’s critical that your site has the most recent versions.
Scheduled maintenance can keep your website secure, fast, free of frustrating errors and delivering warm leads to you via your inbox or phone 24/7/365. There’s no chance of losing a potential sale!
Of course, this all depends on having someone carrying out maintenance regularly – and correctly.
Website maintenance spots problems ahead
As with a car, website maintenance needs to be methodical so nothing gets missed. A quick once over doesn’t cut it.
Our approach is to first backup the current version of the website. Then we download the latest updates from WordPress and run a series of performance and security scans on the site.
After completing the updates and scans, we check the results for anything that needs attention. Any problem get its own Support Ticket so it’s fixed quickly – probably before you’ve even realised there was an issue!
We keep a record of every plug-in, so if an issue arises later, we can quickly trace the problem to the source and fix it.
Finally, real-time monitoring tells us if a client’s website goes down, so we can quickly get it back up and running.
The dangers of DIY website maintenance
By now you might be thinking “Can’t I do this stuff myself? How hard can it be?”
Attempting DIY maintenance of your website could be costly – even if you had the time.
Sure, you could simply update your site from WordPress Admin. The problem is you wouldn’t have a record of what was done. If a plugin update led to an issue a couple of weeks later, it would be difficult to know exactly what needs fixing. It may mean resorting to an old backup version (and possibly losing recent content changes, pending sales orders and invoices, new contact entries – you name it).
You may even trigger the dreaded WSOD (White Screen of Death). That’s where you’re left staring into an empty screen, screaming “where the #*@^! did my website go?” as panic sets in.
Leave your website maintenance to WebGeek
Scheduled maintenance of your website is about more than peace of mind. It’s the smart business move.
Your website is an integral part of your business and professional maintenance will keep it running at peak performance around the clock, accelerating business growth and increasing your revenue year on year.
So, our advice is this: leave looking after your website to a professional so you can get on with what you do best – running your business!
Get peace of mind that your business’ website is well maintained and operating at its peak with one of our Support Plans.