7 Reasons You Absolutely Need WordPress Maintenance
Just like your computer – or car – WordPress websites require ongoing WordPress maintenance to keep them functioning properly. When you don’t take care of your website on a consistent, regular basis it’s like driving your car without having regular oil changes. Eventually, your car is going to break down, and it could be a devastating expense to get it back up and running. Your website is no different, and often times your website directly affects your ability to grow your business. As Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income learned, having your website down for even a few days could cost you THOUSANDS of dollars! Your website should always be live, available, and ready to serve your clients and prospects with valuable information.
WordPress Websites Are Not Just “Set It and Forget It”
This world is becoming more insecure every day. The amount of vulnerabilities, malware, and hacks are growing exponentially. And websites are being targeted more and more. Without regular, consistent maintenance on your website, it can easily fall out of date and be susceptible to an attack, or outdated code that limits or breaks the functionality of your website. When your clients and prospects visit your website and find that it’s not working, they usually don’t stick around. And many times they will go straight to your competitor who is taking care of their website. You will lose business and customers if your website is not kept up to date.
What Are The Benefits of WordPress Maintenance?
Many business owners don’t understand the benefits of WordPress maintenance. Here are the top 7 reasons we recommend Website Management for regular WordPress maintenance:
- Keeping your WordPress “core” updated.
WordPress, like any operating system, needs to be kept updated. The fact that WordPress powers nearly 30% of the entire internet means that it is a good target for hackers. WordPress updates are rolled out every few weeks, and usually contain some sort of security update. If you don’t update your website in a timely fashion, you are opening yourself up to potential vulnerabilities. A Website Management plan will keep your WordPress website updated.
- Keeping your theme & plugins updated.
Just as it’s important to keep your WordPress core updated, it is equally important to keep your theme & plugins updated. Popular themes and plugins are also targets for hackers, as was evidenced by the Panama Papers attack, where the largest data breach in history may have been caused by an outdated plugin. A Website Management plan will keep your theme & plugins updated.
- Keeping your website backed up.
Even if you do everything right, and have proper security and updates in place, things can and will still happen. In Pat Flynn’s case, it was a DoS attack, which are impossible to prevent, and hard to recover from. Having a proper backup of your website ensures that IF you need to, you can restore an earlier version of your website. A Website Management plan will keep your website backed up.
- Having proper security in place.
There are many ways to hack into a website, and making sure you have proper security setup is vital to keep your website standing strong against these types of attacks. A Website Management plan will have a tiered security approach making sure that every aspect of your website is secure.
- Keeping a close eye on the performance of your website.
When something does happen to your website, you have a much better chance of mitigating the issue if you know about it right away. The longer you delay, the greater the chance for destruction. A Website Management plan will monitor your website’s performance, security, and uptime making sure it’s constantly running. And when something does happen, they are there to address it right away.
- Having access to WordPress experts
Sometimes you want to do something on your website, but you’re not sure how. Or you want to make a tweak or a change, but your attempts cause something to go out of whack or even break. A Website Management plan should give you access to a team of WordPress experts who are there to answer your questions, and even do the work for you, so you can focus on growing your business.
- Keeping your website optimized
Yes, it is important to monitor the performance of your website. But it is even more important to optimize the performance of your website. Performance affects nearly every aspect of your website, from User Experience to SEO and more. It can really affect your bottom line, so it is important to make sure your website performs as fast and efficiently as it can. A Website Management plan will ensure that your website is performing optimally.
Can’t I just do it myself?
Sure. Many people maintain their own websites, just like many people change their own oil on their vehicle. But, that could be costing you more than you think. When you are not consistent and specific about when and how you update WordPress, you won’t have any record of what happened when, or who did what. If you make an impulse update to your website without following a proper procedure, you could easily break something on your site, and have no idea until it’s too late.
It Costs More to Fix Than to Maintain
If you update a plugin and it causes a weird issue on your website, you will either spend hours trying to Google a solution or pay a developer hundreds of dollars to fix your mistake.
Inexperience and neglect can damage the look and functionality of your website. Just like your car, it costs more to fix it than it does to maintain it properly. Regular oil changes help keep your car running properly; regular WordPress maintenance helps keep your website running properly.
It’s time to bring in the Professionals
If you don’t get it by now, WordPress maintenance is best left to a company that specializes in it. That’s all they do, and they do it well. We hope you can trust us here at Smart Web Ninja because that is all we do. We support your WordPress website with our team of experts, and we go above and beyond to make sure our client’s websites are safe, secure, backed up, and running as fast as possible.
If you’re not a lawyer, you’re not going to try and fight a court battle alone. If you’re not an auto mechanic, you’re not going to try and fix an engine on your own. If you’re not a web professional, we recommend that you not try and maintain your website on your own. By hiring a professional, you could potentially be saving yourself thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.
If you’re interested in one of our WordPress support programs, check out our Plans and Pricing for all the details, or give us a call.