Website maintenance is the simple process of frequently examining your site for errors and ensuring that all content is current and useful. You must do this on a constant basis in order to maintain security. This fosters traffic growth and improves your SEO and Google rankings.

Whether you are a large corporation, an individual, or a small business owner, it is essential that everything is up-to-date. This enables you to interact with consumers and potential site visitors and prevents severe issues.

Although you may be tempted to perform your own maintenance to save money, a single mistake may cost you thousands of dollars and countless hours of work. WMS provides our clients with a lasting support partnership. Whether you have an existing site or are constructing a new one, our support services deliver lasting peace of mind. Full-service web management packages provide domain management, maintenance, application management, security, backups, updates and advisory services.

Avoid going it alone. The risk is excessive.

Management is a continuous service. You pay a monthly charge for monthly or weekly services ranging from one hour per month for basic maintenance to many hours per week for a more sophisticated online marketing strategy.

Each website has unique requirements. Because of this, all web maintenance is tailored to your business and its specific objectives. Services encompass all tasks associated with maintaining a careful eye on issues and resolving them as they are identified. The goal is to maintain functionality without sacrificing user experience or experiencing downtime. Some of the tasks that are usually performed as part of your management services are as follows:

Web plugin application updates

A WordPress content management system (CMS) and its applications require regular updates and security patches. Small business staff rarely possess the necessary time and expertise. Updates result in enhanced functionality and security. No matter what content management system (CMS) you employ, you must monitor for new updates and then implement them. Script updates also play a crucial part; if you neglect to perform frequent updates, there is a high likelihood that it will be vulnerable to hacking.

Off-Site Backup & Cloud Storage

Daily backups, including the database and all files, should be standard procedure. Not least, to save the day if the server goes down for an extended period, or your website is hacked and defaced/deleted. Your shared web hosting provider may, at best, only be able to provide minimal support. It goes without saying that content and data must be backed up on a regular basis. Owners must have backups in case something goes wrong; a server crash or a hack could cause the site to go down completely. Regularly back up the content, photos, images, and templates, and then verify the backups. You may need to restore them at some point so that the site continues to operate without interruptions.

Monitor Page Load Speed and Core Web Vitals

If your website is extremely slow and takes more than a few seconds to load, you have lost potential customers fast. This is also an important factor in Google search rankings and must be maintained to deliver a good UX (user experience). WordPress speed optimisation became an important factor in search engine rankings in July 2021.

Security

Even the biggest websites are occasionally hacked. The most well-known incidents involve vandalized homepages, notes left by hackers, and security breaches. There are other additional security concerns to be aware of.

Hackers can employ a variety of deceptive methods to infiltrate your site, which you might not even be aware of. In some instances, hackers may gain access to the backend and use it as a spam server. This can degrade load speed to a virtual crawl and finally lead to a blacklisting of the site – or suspension of your hosting account. Obviously, this would pose a significant difficulty for owners.

Protection against the most common attacks must be included in the maintenance services provided to clients. A web application firewall and protection against brute force login attacks is mission-critical.

Fixing Disasters

It is more a matter of when rather than if a disaster will occur. Even mega-sites like Facebook, Amazon, and Apple with dedicated support teams have experienced critical downtime in the past. Identifying the crash’s root cause (code, malware, or web host issues) is only half the problem. You must still fix it. Any time you are offline, you lose visitors and potential customers.

With upgrades, extra text and image content, browser updates, etc., page load speed can decline with time.

With constantly evolving hacking techniques and software changes, security might get compromised. Paying for security upgrades and monitoring is equivalent to paying for basic home or business insurance.

Site Monitoring Services

Site monitoring encompasses activities that assess the accessibility of a web service. There are three main categories:

• Availability – is the site online?
• Performance – is it fast or slow?
• Functionality – do the contact forms and navigation links work?

12 steps to performing maintenance services:

1. Verify that your web pages load in under 3 seconds.
2. Check for technical errors such as broken links and images (404 errors).
3. Check the daily backups are working correctly to protect the site’s data.
4. Ensure core software and plugins are up to date with the latest versions.
5. Verify that contact/enquiry forms are functional.
6. Check for and remove spam comments and registrations.
7. Monitor security alerts for signs of brute-force login attacks.
8. Monitor Google’s search console for alerts.
9. Monitor your WP Admin “Site Health” tab for issues.
10. Implement any required content amendments – updates and typo repairs.
11. Manage hosting accounts – PHP updates, modules and settings etc
12. Respond to technical support requests.

These steps are a part of the monthly evaluation. Checking the speed of your website, performing security scans, reviewing analytics, and updating out-of-date blogs should be regular maintenance tasks.

As part of a longer-term maintenance strategy, you should consider the design and layout in terms of performance and UX.

You should also evaluate your search engine optimisation performance in light of changes to Google’s algorithm changes.

Effective website maintenance requires automating as many processes as possible to reduce workload. It entails examining the backup health and evaluating the site on several browsers to ensure its functionality.

Consider online support as an all-encompassing service that you may provide to your clients. If your support plan covers these, they may essentially come to you with any problem, question, or concern, and you will assist them. Common problems owners may encounter include:

• Data or content errors/issues
• Offering feedback
• System instruction
• Accessibility problems
• System unavailable
• Hosting problems

Smooth web support requires availability during working hours to respond to inquiries. Customers will expect nothing less from you.

When websites are (as they should be) updated with new content, they have the potential to grow rankings and attract new visitors. Google and other mainstream search engines pay close attention to the quality of the content uploaded. Maintenance services can include regularly updating your content – something the majority of owners who lack the time to do.

Owners can increase their search rankings and visitor traffic engagement through content enhancement. Providing customized SEO content is also a consideration that will help you increase enquiries, sales and profits. Great landing pages with high conversion rates don’t happen by accident, but rather by continuous content optimisation.

Data analytics involves the collection and evaluation of visitor traffic and ranking data. A site maintenance agency that provides a recurring service could certainly include the evaluation of analytics and the delivery of comprehensive reports to clients as part of the package. This ensures that clients will also be able to comprehend how to enhance engagement via content, and rankings through SEO services.

The cost of upkeep depends on the platform and level of complexity. Depending on the number of pages, the connected tools and components, and the level of support required by the owner, the hourly charge for maintenance could range from $50 to $100. Small business web management packages range from $32 per month to $100+…

Regular Reporting

Presenting clients with regular reports and updates is possible as/if. When someone is paying me to maintain their site, they may want regular updates. They may also be happy to trust that everything is going as intended and be satisfied with rapid responses to their requests and enquiries. We can generate monthly or weekly reports and distribute them to clients on a consistent basis – it’s more time at our end, so there’s a modest incremental cost per month.