Maintaining your online business website is as important as having a website in the first place. Typical website maintenance involves website updates, content refresh, error analysis and removal, and plugin optimization, among other things.
The cost of website maintenance may depend on a number of things, including but not limited to, maintenance frequency, type of maintenance, personnel involved, etc. So, all things must be considered when deciding on a website maintenance budget.
Regular care and maintenance of a website are crucial to ensure the smooth and proper running of your business site. If you try to ignore or skip this in order to cut the cost, you might end up with a bad website causing you to lose traffic and/or sales. Regular website maintenance is always a less expensive and recommended approach than waiting till the end and paying high for emergency repairs.
Depending on what approach you take, you can reduce the cost of maintaining your website by a great deal. For instance, the regular maintenance of your website will ensure no bad things happen to it unexpectedly, so no emergency repair costs. It’s the same as getting your car regularly serviced to ensure there are no unexpected failures.
In this article, we will try to figure out things like why it is important to keep your website maintained, how to do that, and how much it costs to maintain a website monthly.
Wondering why you need to regularly maintain or update your website? It is for the same reason that you should regularly service your bike or car. Because if you don’t, the life and performance of your vehicle will decrease drastically over time. However, website maintenance is a little trickier than that.
As I mentioned above, maintaining your online site is not just about checking and repairing it for bugs, it is also aimed at improving the site for a better user experience and constant engagement.
Your website is an online image of your business, which your potential and existing users use to analyze the value of your products/services.
Depending on how well you present your website to the world, the demand and worth of your services will be perceived accordingly. Besides that, here are some other reasons why it is important to maintain your website.
Only a well-maintained and regularly updated website can preserve the interest of your existing customers and bring new customers.
Search engines like Google prefer to rank websites with updated and fresh content higher in search results.
Your website is an online image of your business. Keeping it fresh, attractive, and well-maintained is the key to improving your brand reputation online.
Another major reason to regularly update/improve your site is to identify and remove security vulnerabilities.
Keeping your website maintained will also help maintain its value over time, in the same way as the value of a vehicle over time largely depends on how well it is maintained.
Maintaining a website is almost equally important as building a website in the first place, or even more in some cases. But what does it involve and how frequently should you update your website? Let’s figure it out.
Some people might think that website maintenance is only about identifying and removing bugs that appear over time, but it is not exactly true. Website maintenance comprises a lot of things, as explained below.
Check for Security Vulnerabilities
This involves scanning the complete website, including the code and database, for security threats that may have appeared over time or has remained during the initial development.
Bug Fixes
In this, you need to test your site for bugs, errors such as broken links, etc., and fix them accordingly.
Speed and Compatibility Testing
Site speed is an important factor for Google ranking as well as optimal user experience. Remove unwanted content, graphics, JS code, etc., to speed up your site. Also, check the compatibility of your site for browsers, mobile, etc.
Software Update
Regularly update your site for the latest software version to ensure proper security and functionality.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is another thing you can consider to optimize the overall website and improve its search engine rankings. The best professional SEO Company can help you with the job.
Website Backups
Make sure there is a working automated backup system with your website.
Content Optimization
Update your site on a regular basis with fresh, unique and relevant content to keep search engines and your visitors engaged.
Functionality & Features Testing
It is altogether important that the various functions and features of your website keep working smoothly to ensure a hassle-free experience for your site users. The only way to ensure that is to test and update the website from time to time.
Design & Layout Optimization
Another important website aspect that needs to be checked and optimized regularly is its design. It does not mean that you have to change the design every time, but simply checking and improving it for errors will do.
Performance and Analytics
Last but not least, you should have a proper and proven method to check the performance of your site. You can consider using tools like Google Analytics to keep a track of website users and their behaviour.
The Cost Analysis of Website Maintenance
Now that you know and understand the importance of website maintenance and how it is done, it is time to get into the cost of Website Maintenance. Yes, you guessed it right. Maintaining your website will take both effort and price.
Then, you need to figure out the things that you want to update or change in your website, and when. Some of these things may be time sensitive, such as software updates, framework upgrades, etc., so you need to build a timeline accordingly.
Here’s a brief analysis of the website maintenance cost in 2020, according to the various parts to be maintained.
If your website is based on an external framework application, such as WordPress or Drupal, you need to update the same as soon as new updates are released. Each new version of the website framework comes with certain features and/or security upgrades which may be crucial for your website to work seamlessly in the long run.
If you do not update your website software on a regular basis, your website may become vulnerable to security issues and hacking.
If you are using free software like WordPress, framework upgrades should be mostly free. Some advanced features and plugin updates, however, may cost you extra.
Third-party plugins and extensions that you use on your website also receive constant updates from the owner. These updates should be implemented immediately to ensure the smooth running of various operations.
Also, you should check the website thoroughly after updating each plugin to make sure that the new update is not impeding any website feature/functionality.
For website maintenance to be an ongoing task, it is recommended to hire a full-time in-house or remote IT team for the job. This way you will not have to worry about the constant updates and whether your website is performing to its full potential.
You can hire a full-time IT consultant or expert with a remote Web Agency, who will keep a constant watch on your website, monitoring its performance, removing bugs, and installing regular software updates. To be honest, it will not cost you much compared to the returns and benefits it can give to your website.
When you hire a full-time IT service team, you’ll no longer have to worry about various maintenance tasks such as software/framework updates, analytics, performance tracking, script analysis, bug removal, security upgrades, design/development, SEO support, etc. The usual cost distribution is as follows.
Most web development companies provide maintenance services as a part of their overall package, so you can save on the cost by choosing that as well.
Other than the above-mentioned charges, you may have to pay extra for the following related services:
Recurring hosting cost – $10-$100 per month
Domain (renewal) cost – $15 a year
Security (SSL) – $50 a year
Backups – $5-$50 a year
Content updates – $5-$15 per hour
SEO maintenance – $5-$15 per hour
Conclusion
Website Maintenance is an important part of your overall online business and marketing campaign, which should not be ignored if you desire to make a successful and everlasting online presence for your business. If you are concerned that your website is not performing well or up to its potential, you should immediately consult with your web maintenance agency or in-house team to analyze the problem, and the average cost of website maintenance and act accordingly.
Have thoughts or suggestions about this article? You can write them in the comment section below. If you want to have a quick chat, we are just one message or phone call away.
Amit Gupta, who is the CEO and Founder of SAG IPL, founded this company with the vision to become the #1 provider of quality-driven and cost-effective blockchain marketing and development services in the world. As a Chartered Accountant with a keen interest in software and web development, he manages a team of over 200 professionals, comprising designers, developers, and marketers, committed to delivering top-notch web, software, mobile, and blockchain solutions to clients worldwide.
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