Website Maintenance is a Must Do!

Website maintenance is a must do! You are making an enormous mistake if website maintenance is not a regular feature of your weekly activities. I use the word feature to emphasize the activity. If you don’t know what website maintenance is you are about to learn. If you don’t appreciate the importance of website maintenance, please continue reading and I will attempt to enlighten you on its importance. Maintaining your home, maintaining your automobile, & maintaining your health are all universally understood important activities. The average fully functional business website today costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $7,500.00. Some are less, such as a “Brochure Website” with only 3-5 pages. However, many are easily twice this amount. With that in mind, why would you not want to protect this investment? If you don’t maintain your website, don’t be surprised if it does not perform the way you expect.

Website Maintenance Activities

1. Domain Name  – Make sure that your website’s “Domain Name” is owned by you and in an account in which you are the administrator. If you lose control of your domain you can lose control of your website. There are numerous companies that provide domain services. GoDaddy may be the most popular, and is not very expensive. Domain Names are rented for annual periods of time and can expire if you are not maintaining its active status.
2. Website Host – Know where your website is being hosted. If you don’t know this you can lose control of your website. There is a monthly or annual fee for website hosting. The fee is dependent upon the services provided by the website host. Shared hosting, which is the least expensive, costs $2.49 – $15.00/month. Dedicated hosting, which is the most expensive, costs $80 – $730/month.
3. Website Updates – Today’s CMS Websites like WordPress, the World’s #1 Platform, are designed and developed with a platform, theme, & plugins by website developers worldwide. Custom code is usually written and added by the website developer to achieve the desired results. The amount of “code” depends on the complexities involved. These platforms, themes, & plugins have updates from their authors or team of authors to improve performance or for security reasons. Most websites today may have as many as  3-5 updates per week. A weekly schedule for updates is a good plan, however some websites may need updates more often. If you ignore this, your website will suffer by gradual slowed performance and/or security issues. Both slowed performance and security issues are undesirable and damaging to your website. Process the updates and protect your investment. Regular website updates are important for good website maintenance.
4. Website Browsing – Browse your website frequently. You are looking for any website changes from its original launch date appearance or last update. For Instance; Missing Text, Broken Links, Missing Pictures, Missing Videos, Broken or even Missing Forms. These are all things that can go wrong. The culprit may be malware from the Internet. Processing Website Updates can also cause these problems if there are compatibility issues within your websites framework. After you process website updates always browse your website for potential failures that need repair. Usually these failures are minor and require only a minor repair.
5. Website Backups – Website backups make a copy of the content and architecture of your website. If you do this occasionally it will protect your website from becoming “Lost in Space”. A website can be exactly redeveloped or reinstated if necessary from a backup. While catastrophic circumstances are rare, they do exist, and they do destroy websites. There is nothing worse that to go online and realize that your website is no longer appearing online! Catastrophes like these have happened. So backing up your website regularly will give you that peace of mind and security. Ask around, and you will be surprised at the number of websites that have just disappeared. Website Backups are really important Website Maintenance. 
6. Malware Protection – This goes without saying that you need to check for malware (virus) often since you are connected to the internet. The internet is infected with millions of virus software programs that are designed to cause you, your computer, and your website problems of all dimensions. You will know immediately if your website has been hacked or attacked. Your website will look different. Often times it may have a gambling or an x-rated adult site link. These links can take your website visitors to the invading gambling or adult websites. That’s probably not what you want for your website visitors!

Website Maintenance Services

Select Marketing understands that most of you are not website developers or care to learn how to maintain a website. If you perform the above mentioned website maintenance your website will run better and perform to its fullest. Whether you do your own maintenance or hire a professional. That ongoing service will keep your website in the best working order. After all, don’t you have a website to help with your business growth? I do!

Select Marketing will be pleased to perform the Website Maintenance discussed in this blog for your website. Fees are determined by the frequency and the overall size of your website. For a FREE review of your website Contact Us at your convenience. Thanks for visiting us. Please comment on this Blog and any other topics that would interest you.

Updated July 2022