A few years ago, website maintenance services were not a thing to opt for after you have had your website developed. The norm was to have your website developed and that was it! Things have changed rapidly over the past 5-10 years and it is now imperative that you look to have some kind of website maintenance scheme running to keep your website up and running at all times.
A lot of companies and freelancers are offering WordPress support packages which makes it very important that you understand what you should be asking for and what you will be getting from any website maintenance plan. We’ve come up with a quick guide to what you should make sure is part of any maintenance package you plan on signing up for:
CORE UPDATES
If your website is built off WordPress, then there is going to be a lot of updates you will periodically have to run. On average, WordPress releases a minimum of four core updates per year and if you are not keeping up with these critical updates, your website could be vulnerable to a lot of security risks.
PLUGIN UPDATES
Plugin updates are similar to the core updates. Each of the 3rd party plugins running on a WordPress website will have been built to be compatible with the latest version of WordPress at their time of release. This means if you have an outdated version of a plugin, it might no longer be compatible with the latest version of WordPress and this could result in some features associated with the outdated plugin failing to run. Another good thing to do is to always check the compatibility of your plugins with the latest version of WordPress before you update them. Similarly, making sure you that you are purchasing or downloading plugins from reputable authors who have a history of version updates is very important as this will future proof your website against compatibility issues.
SECURITY SCANNING
The security of a website is another very critical thing for all website owners. Hackers have been known to install malicious software on websites causing the spread of viruses and bugs. The effect of all this is damage to your website, computer and a negative reputation of your business. Any security breach on your website will ultimately lead to the slowing down of your website, damage to your reputation and in worst-case scenarios result in theft of personal and financial data from site visitors. It is therefore very important to implement security measures one of them being regular security monitoring of the website.
UPTIME MONITORING
Uptime monitoring of a website is a service that keeps track of the real-time status of your website giving you alerts and notifications when something goes wrong. In most cases, this is achieved by the utilization of certain WordPress tools that alert the administrators of a website allowing them to figure out what is wrong with the website and have it fixed.
BACKUPS
Your website needs to be backed up. The interval of backups depends on the site owner but we always recommend having this done on a monthly basis. Never get fooled into thinking that because nothing bad has happened to your website in the past, nothing bad will happen in the future. Incidents usually occur when you least expect them. When they do, you will find out quickly that they are time-consuming, stressful and costly. Be smart and back up your WordPress website frequently. You will be glad you did.
Have you heard about our website maintenance service?
We offer all of the above and more in our support plans. Contact us for more information.