According to a recent survey, about 75 Million websites currently use WordPress.
That comes as no surprise. WordPress dominates their market because they’ve found the happy medium between automation and customization. The open developer community WordPress provides means your website design options are basically limitless.
But therein also lies the biggest headache that comes with running a WordPress site. The newest options, plugins, and system updates can break your site if you don’t stay on top of basic website maintenance.
You’ve already worked so hard to create a successful small business and you don’t have time to spend countless hours, each month, learning to be your own techie.
Read on to see why your WordPress website maintenance plan should be left to the professionals.
1. Saves You Time
This much is obvious.
Any good WordPress website needs constant tending to, like a garden. Here’s just some of the regularly scheduled maintenance your site needs:
- Core updates
- Bug fixes
- Updating security patches
- Theme updates
- Plugin updates
- Theme and plugin conflict testing
- Backups
- Code auditing
- Filtering comments
All of that is the minimum that should be done month-to-month. If there are any larger technical difficulties, your to-do list might be twice as long.
2. Tech Support On Speed-Dial
We always hope for the best, but a web maintenance plan keeps you prepared for the worst.
Getting a web maintenance package for your business means an experienced website builder will be combing through your site for you on a regular basis. Think of it as health insurance and regular check-ups for your digital branding.
If the person maintaining your website discovers a more serious problem, they already have all the log in information they need to start fixing it for you. But chances are most of your usual technical problems can be avoided with timely monthly maintenance in the first place.
And if the worst should happen…
3. Built-In Security Checks
Without an IT professional already in your corner, digital security problems become a crisis. Luckily, free security reports and immediate updates to all your security patches are part of a good maintenance plan.
I’m sorry, what crisis?
When your website manager goes through your site for all the usual updates, they’ll check for security vulnerabilities. They check for any weak security in your themes, plugins, password strength, and core hosting. At no extra cost, they put all of the data they find in a simple to read report for you.
Now if only you could also pay us to do your taxes.
With a website maintenance plan, you can pay someone else to take care of all these tasks for you. For a small monthly fee, you get hours of your life back.
4. Free Website Health Reports
In addition to making sure your site stays functional, you want to make sure it’s running at its best. The professional taking care of your website maintenance will also run checks on key metrics, like:
- page loading speeds
- accessibility for mobile users
- overall user experience
- SEO rankings and social interest.
These reports provide invaluable data to help you improve your web content and business strategy.
Google analytics will actually reward websites that improve all of these metrics with a higher ranking on search result pages. Not to mention, psychology research proves visitors are more likely to stay on sites that load quickly and account for user experience.
5. Long-Term Cost Savings
It all boils down to this.
You’ll end up paying more in both time and money if you don’t have a web maintenance plan in place.
Because WordPress is such an open market, every specialist gets to set their own price. You never know how much a major technical problem on your WordPress site might cost you until you ask someone to help you with it.
Stay with me here.
Say, for example, you decide to skip several months of backups because you’d rather spend your time doing something else. A maintenance plan doesn’t seem worth the trouble, and for a few months, everything runs normally. You save a few hundred dollars up front.
Next thing you know, you’re installing a plugin update and suddenly your website can’t accept credit card information anymore. You have no idea what’s wrong, and you’re losing money by the hour! This is where most business owners call the first website developer they can find and end up paying thousands for urgent website overhauls.
For the flat cost of a maintenance plan, you’re preventing major problems before they happen. You get free security checks and website health reports. If you had to hire a different professional for one-time help in each of these areas, those costs would stack up fast.
A Website Maintenance Plans Gives You Peace Of Mind
With all the other responsibilities you have to worry about, wouldn’t you like to sleep easy when it comes to your website?
To recap, here’s what you’re paying for when you hire professionals for a website maintenance plan:
- Hours of time saved each month on routine WordPress maintenance
- A designated IT professional who gets to know your business better each month
- Free website performance and health reports
- Free security patch updates and web security assistance
- Low-cost insurance to save you from what otherwise could turn into thousands of dollars in development fees
We’d love to help you get started with your own website maintenance plan right away. You can contact us here for more information.
We can’t wait to hear from you.
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About the Author:
Mike Carroll
Mike steers the overall strategy & direction at Bearhug Digital, promoting constant innovation and success.
Sometimes referred to as the ‘unicorn’, he has the ability to communicate and execute on big ideas effortlessly. Mike challenges his team to strive for excellence when crafting digital solutions. He leads from the front and is involved in every aspect of every project. With a passion for leveraging technology to solve business challenges, Mike’s eye for design and vision for scaleable solutions drives innovation and exponential results.