Website maintenance may not be the most glamorous aspect of owning a website but it serves a very valuable purpose. There is no better way to ensure that your website remains as useful as the day it was pushed live than with a sound and comprehensive maintenance plan. 

 

Is My Website Worth Maintaining?

Yes, without a doubt. Why have a website in the first place, if you are just going to let it decompose like the head of broccoli you’ve got stashed in the fridge? Rotting away like your dreams of a 5+ a day diet. That’s no good to you and neither is an unloved, faulty website.

But why exactly should you give your website a bit of TLC every now and then?

1. Many Moving Parts

Websites can contain more layers than an onion. Each serving its individual purpose to provide the visitor (a.k.a. potential customer) valuable information or functionality. And just like an onion, your website has the potential, if not maintained properly, to produce unwanted tears.

2. A Dangerous Ocean

As a port to the world that is the Internet, your website can be exposed to endless hordes of unwanted ‘www’ ocean travellers. These pirates can come in the form of viruses, malware and other security threats all of which can sink a website. This is a huge reason why good website maintenance is a must. Keep a watchful eye from the bird’s nest and ward off any unwanted stowaways or malicious ships that may come your website’s way.

3. Website Updates

The sands of time can mete out harsh punishment to websites. One moment your website is a modern, up to date and functional work of art. The next, it is a fossil, a rusty truck barely clinging together as it chugs along the cyber highway. One excellent way to prevent any unwanted signs of ageing is to apply healthy doses of anti-ageing cream in the form of regular website updates, such as new content, new design or new functionality. These ward off and slow down the undesirable geriatric signs of digital wear, and delay any need for a younger more current website (i.e. a complete rebuild).

What Can I do To Maintain My Website?

Maintaining a website is really a case of “you get out what you put in”. The more time you can set aside to maintain your site, the better its health will be. As a guide, the following can serve as a very basic starting point; 

1. Regular checks

Be a responsible website owner and check up on your website every so often. This can be as simple as visiting the site to make sure it is still live. What good is a website if it is not accessible?! There are also free services like Pingdom (https://www.pingdom.com/) which automatically monitor your website. Pingdom lets you know within two minutes if your website goes offline.

2. Regular testing

This can include making sure that the site’s content is still available, its design is still looking beautiful, and all of its functionality, such as forms, are still running as intended.

3. Regular updates

If your website has been developed using WordPress, like most of our sites at Mogul are, then regular plugin and WordPress platform updates are essential. Without updating you can miss out on important bug fixes, security patches, and new features that WordPress and its many plugin developers release.

Alternatively….

Mogul’s Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Website maintenance for the uninitiated can be a very time consuming and confusing activity. There are endless lines of code to navigate if issues arise, a multitude of plugins to update and test, and countless other checks that let you know that your site is performing well. And unfortunately, you need more than just a ‘can-do’ attitude to get it right.

Experience in this situation really is the best asset, no matter how simple or complicated your site may be. When push comes to shove, knowing your plugins from your platforms, and your code from your comments is crucial in getting the job done both efficiently and effectively. 

If you just don’t have the time or expertise to implement a regular and extensive check of your website, then our talented team at Mogul can help. Our Service Level Agreements, or SLAs, are plans that we provide so that we can keep your website maintained properly without the need for you to worry about what makes the website tick, like code or plugins.

Get in touch with us and enquire about what one of our SLA plans can do for your website today.