Terug naar overzicht
Why your website needs maintenance
Maintenance on your website is important. Many companies have maintenance contracts for this so they take this whole thing off your hands, but why do they have to? And what is involved? We explain.
The importance of maintenance and support contracts
Proper maintenance is important for your website. It can even make your website last twice as long, just by doing some periodic inspections and checks to make sure your website is up to date. Of course it is not fun to have to plan this all the time and if something happens that you did not count on, what then? Many agencies therefore offer a support contract so that they take care of this whole story for you. Another important reason is sensitivity to hackers or other forms of intrusion. By always keeping your website neatly up-to-date, the chance for hackers is also a lot lower. Often hackers get in through poorly secured environments and so this could be through an outdated plugin, for example.
So important!
What is being done?
As the word suggests, your website will be maintained through a contract. The following points are often checked:
- Website scan
- Control functionalities
- WordPress Updates
- Updates plugins
- Post-checking functionalities
- Post-check website scan
It is important during a support tour to keep everything neat and tidy. So it is useful to first do a tour through the website to see how it is put together, what are important points to pay attention to and are there by chance elements broken or not functioning properly; then you know this in advance. Furthermore, it is always good to have the latest version of WordPress and only then do updates for plugins. That way you have the best order and everything works nicely together with the new WordPress version.
Of course, some smaller, more complex tasks are still performed when needed but we will leave these aside for now.
What does a maintenance contract cost?
Often such a contract is annual, and between €200 – €1000 per year. With some parties the price is even higher, often they offer a wider range in which more elements are checked or at more periodic intervals. We also offer a maintenance contract for a very competitive price compared to other parties. Maybe such a maintenance contract seems like an unnecessary amount of money, but remember:
- Converted to an hourly rate, it is often not too bad how many hours you end up with
- The sustainability of your website improves significantly
- This also makes your website less susceptible to hacks or other forms of intrusion
Should we be able to do something for you or are you just curious about any of our services? Then don’t hesitate and be sure to let us know!
Tips for when you want to get started yourself
Still willing to set aside moments and do periodic checks for your website? Then we have a few more tips that are going to save you a lot of time/problems: Create a Backup
Before you proceed, you always want to have a “fall-back” point to fall back on. WordPress in particular has a lot of different developers in the community, so it’s possible that a plugin might stop working after an update or crash. At a time like that, it’s really nice to have a point to fall back on when everything was still working just fine. Go step-by-step
If a crash occurs during updating and you have restored your backup, it is useful to do everything step-by-step. That way you check each time whether the problem returns or not. That way you can find out exactly where the problem is. Check your licenses
During your “support tour” or “MOT” it is also useful to check your licenses. Make sure they have not expired or are about to expire or replace expired licenses to avoid problems. Although this sounds logical, it is not obvious so pay close attention to this!
