Why website maintenance matters
Weeks or even months of work have gone into it, ideas have been born, discarded and implemented, and everything has been optimized down to the last little icon: your dream website is finally finished! Now what?
The good news: the hardest part is behind you! The bad news: it’s not over yet, because even after going live, websites need regular maintenance, if only to keep up with the latest technology. Sounds logical, doesn’t it? Yet we see it all the time: companies fill their sites with new content, such as blog posts, new products, or job listings, but neglect the rest of the site.
But why is ongoing maintenance so important?
Maintain security & functionality
“Never touch a running system” – the old IT adage is not quite true in this case, because just because a functionality is running perfectly today, it can quickly change in the fast-moving Internet. Maintenance, especially updates to the CMS and installed plugins, ensures that your content continues to be displayed without errors. If updates are neglected, incompatibilities or problems can quickly arise if several versions have to be skipped at once during an update.
Hacker attacks are also a growing problem. An up-to-date firewall and regular installation of all security patches and updates will at least make it much more difficult for you to exploit known security vulnerabilities.
Regular backups are also important to prevent data loss and to have a reasonably up-to-date version that can be restored in the event of a hack. In this way, you can avoid losing too many hours of tedious and creative work in this worst-case scenario.
Dead links are also one of the things that should be checked at regular intervals during website maintenance so that your users do not constantly end up in digital dead ends.
Maintenance should be planned
The most important thing about website maintenance is that it needs to be done regularly. Depending on the complexity and size of the site, this can be daily, weekly, or even once or twice a month. It is best to always ask yourself: What would happen in the “worst case”? How much content would we lose? The higher the traffic, and therefore the “attractiveness” of your site to hackers, the more frequently you should schedule maintenance.
What is the best system for planning website maintenance?
Option 1: Create a recurring calendar entry that reminds you
Don’t take the maintenance of your website lightly, and make sure you spend enough time on it. The best way to do this is to set aside 45-60 minutes once a week and make a detailed checklist of what you need to do. Make sure you also take the time to “surf” your site for 10 minutes and explore different areas from the user’s point of view, sometimes you can find hidden malfunctions or discover unexpected optimization potential.
Option 2: Let the professionals handle it!
Does all this sound like the devil’s work to you, or does the thought of updates, firewalls, etc. turn you off? Then let others do the maintenance for you! There are many service providers who offer such packages, but they vary greatly in scope – a true “market standard” has not yet been established. Given the large number of CMS systems and different versions, this is likely to be difficult.
When choosing a service provider, make sure that the scope of the maintenance is clearly described and that the provider communicates with you in a professional and transparent manner. Individual support is often included so that you have a point of contact for all other website issues and requests not directly related to maintenance.
Website maintenance with Peppergrass
We not only offer you the design and implementation of your website, but are also happy to remain at your side for maintenance. Of course, we are also happy to take over the maintenance of existing websites.
We rely on a simple and transparent contingent model – you book a scope of services as part of a monthly time budget. Your individual support from us and a framework agreement for additional work are included as standard. This means we can help you quickly and competently at any time. For larger projects, we will be happy to provide you with a free, customized quote.
Our comprehensive maintenance packages are available from EUR 79 net per month plus VAT.
Interested? Then quickly request information!