Website Maintenance and Management: Why Bother?

Have you ever visited a competitor’s site, only to find that not all is well?

Elements are falling out of place, there’s a search button that doesn’t actually do anything and maybe even a security error or just a totally white screen — what a nightmare!

While it might give you a little bit of schadenfreude (hey, we’re not pointing fingers!) to see an error in that case, I’m sure we’ve all felt how frustrating it is to be met with an error if you were going to a site to read or buy something. So, what gives?

Websites aren’t a one-and-done job. No matter how well developed it is or how modern and current it looks, your website needs to be maintained and managed post-launch. Just like a garden, you’ll need to tend to it and keep an eye on things to make sure nothing falls over unexpectedly. You’ll also need to keep on top of updates because an outdated website is a vulnerable one (if you’ve ever had a WordPress website hacked, I’m sure you know how painful this can be).

Website maintenance is a critical part of keeping your business online and in shape. For instance, if you’re running on WordPress, you’re going to need to check in every now and then to keep the WordPress version up to date. The team at WordPress release new versions to patch security holes fairly often, and every now and then they release new features (in fact, their latest version “Simone” released a a couple of months ago). If you don’t keep up, you’re going to be missing important security updates and potentially opening yourself, and your customers, up to hackers — which is not a good look.

However, updating WordPress isn’t always as straight-forward as it might seem, as you’ve also got to consider plugins too. Not only do you have to keep those plugins updated individually but you also have to ensure that they work with the latest version of WordPress.

It’s not just security that’s on the line here either — any JavaScript errors that crop up could result in a broken layout or broken elements. There’s nothing less trustworthy or professional than a website that looks like it’s falling apart, so you’ll need to take a look at your site frequently to ensure that it’s all hunky-dory.

Running alongside website maintenance is website management, which involves managing assets and content to make sure that you’re keeping everything optimised and running as efficiently as possible. This is the same for content management systems like WordPress, where you’ll need to make sure any images you upload are as small as possible so that your website stays as lightning-fast as the day it was built. If you’re using video content, this will be even higher on your list.

When it comes to websites, nobody wants to see a typo on the homepage, right? It’s as important to keep on top of your site’s content, as it is to ensure that content is delivered on a solid and secure website.

You might have noticed that this is quite a lot to keep on top of, and you’re right, it is. Luckily here at Make we offer website maintenance to all of our clients. We have decades of experience in caring for WordPress sites and pride ourselves on keeping your website fast, up-to-date and secure. Our website management includes copywriting services (adding blog posts, events and news) to boost your site’s rankings, updating the layout to keep your brand looking fresh, and keeping on top of the customer-facing forms. If you have a form updated or a new form you need adding, we can take care of that for you.

Our website maintenance services include security updates, speed tests, functionality tests, tweaks and fixes, and responsive tests and fixes. We can also offer dedicated account managers, monthly status reports, 24/7 ticketing and hours of development time reserved per month – as well as help, advice and guidance on what to do with your site after launch.