Just like any software apps that you currently use daily in your business, websites require maintenance, updating and your attention to keeping the site working properly. Avoiding website maintenance and upkeep is like not having regular oil changes on your vehicle and we all know that not changing your oil could be detrimental to a vehicle. Well, the same process is true for your website. Your website should always be live, ready for customers and presenting your business and your brand at its best.
Websites Are Not a “Set and Forget”
If you don’t have website maintenance plan that is effectively carried out monthly, you may actually be throwing money out the window. When visitors go to a website and find things wrong with it, they often don’t stick around or come back. Many website owners never check their website to see how it’s functioning. Missed website issues or downtime can lose you potential customers.
The Benefits of Maintenance
Many people don’t realize the benefits of site maintenance and regular updates.
The website performance, it’s load time, downtime and uptime, is all dependent on the WordPress software and plugin functioning as they should ( and on the recent version).
The website growth, it’s fresh content, analytics monitoring and design changes, is all dependent on you having someone making sure all updates to the website are done in a smooth and error-free fashion.
Maintenance Workflow
At Identity Creative Group we take great care to first backup the website this is done monthly or daily depending on the plan you choose, and then we check the website after our updates for any issues. Our unique software keeps a record of plugins we update and the core WordPress updates so if there is ever an issue we see what plugin version was changed and revert back if we have too. Also included in our monthly maintenance report is website performance, security scans and analytics. If in the event we ever catch a plugin issue, it becomes a support ticket and we address it before you ever know there’s a problem.
Dangers of Do It Yourself Maintenance
Maintaining your site yourself could cost you more than you think. If you just update from your WordPress admin, you wouldn’t have a record of what was done. 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 a very old backup (and possibly losing content changes, sales orders, contact entries, you name it).
It Costs More to Fix Than to Maintain
Inexperience and neglect can damage the look and functionality of your website. When that happens, you have a choice to make. One, you try and fix it yourself, in which case you may do further damage. Or two, 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.
Identity Solutions is your partner
Why not focus on what you know best and let us focus on what we know best? Would you try to fight that court battle without a lawyer? Then why try to maintain your own website if you’re not a web professional? By securing Identity Solutions to update and maintain your site properly you are actually saving potential lost sales and traffic.
If you’re interested in securing a maintenance contract for your web site, contact us to learn how we can keep your site running smooth and looking professional.