Website maintenance - do I need it?

Your brand-new website has launched, and you are over the moon.

It’s better than you ever expected; everything looks great with it, and it’s functioning just as you want. That’s a big tick for you – one less thing to worry about in your busy daily life. It’s time to sit back and let that website do some work for you! Oh, if life could only be so simple.

Many people still believe that once a website has been designed and built, it will be good for years. Sitting there problem free on the world wide web, hopefully generating enough customer leads or sales. But like any other commodity, websites need to be looked after if they are to perform properly.

Maintenance, and the cost of keeping an online platform in perfect working order, is often overlooked when investing in a website. Perhaps this is because many web design firms promise to provide technical support free of charge for a limited period once a website launches. The imminent worry of anything going wrong is in effect taken away, out of sight, out of mind!

But what could go wrong with a new website, and does it merit paying for some kind of website maintenance package?

Nowadays, many of the content management systems used in website design and development, are open source. WordPress, for example, which powers over an estimated 40% of websites, has regular updates throughout the year to ensure that the software performs correctly and that security threats are minimized. That means each website built historically in WordPress should really be updated with the new software releases.

Many WordPress websites also use software plugins that provide additional features and functionality. Again, developers of these plugins will regularly release enhanced, more secure versions of the software. Meaning that website owners should also update or upgrade plugins on their website, to ensure their websites continue to perform well.

Upgrading any software that a ‘live’ website uses, does of course carry some risks. And if done by yourself and anything goes wrong, would you be able to fix it? How would it impact on your customer sales and enquiries, and for how long? Perhaps with simple information style websites the negative effects may be minimal, but certainly not for more complex websites and online stores. Could you really afford any downtime for your website?

This is why having a comprehensive website maintenance contract is beneficial. The website design company that designed and built your website will more than likely be able to offer website maintenance services that you can purchase annually. These services are aimed at making sure that websites continue to perform and function as they should. Any website software updates, for example, are carried out on your behalf by trained professionals. Any resulting glitches can be identified and fixed there and then.

Globalgraphics Web Design offers a range of website maintenance and support solutions, dependent on the platform a website built in. For WordPress, WooCommerce and Magento websites, we offer both a standard and advanced support solution. We understand that some customers will only require minimal technical assistance with their websites, whilst others will need more proactive website care. We can even provide individually tailormade website maintenance packages that fit in perfectly with your online needs.