Website maintenance is the necessary upkeep of a website to maintain availability and user experience, without causing issues such as slow performance and security vulnerabilities.
Unfortunately, running a website is not always “free” and involves ongoing costs. In this article, we look at website maintenance, its importance, costs, and ways to reduce them.
What are the activities related to the maintenance of a website?
There are a number of activities that are part of maintaining a website. These include activities that keep the lights on, such as maintenance:
And more proactive activities like:
Troubleshoot sudden issues with your database, DNS, and hosting.
Fixed broken links to pages that have since disappeared.
Why is website maintenance important?
It helps you fix security vulnerabilities
Regular maintenance allows you to identify and correct security flaws that could lead to your site being hacked, which could be used to distribute viruses.
Website downtime is when your site is unavailable to users. If this happens frequently, you may start losing traffic or even customers to your competitors. Also, users will start to view your brand as less credible and untrustworthy, and Google might penalize you as well.
When you perform you are able to track the frequency of your site’s downtime and find ways to reduce or even eliminate it.
It allows you to update your software and use new features
Software updates improve your site by fixing bugs and optimizing performance. For example, if you are using WordPress, it might update its version and all other plugins need to test and update their plugin to make sure it works perfectly.
Frequent website maintenance gives you the opportunity to update the software that was used to create your application, taking advantage of the latest versions and patches. You are also able to integrate new features that improve the performance of your site.
Ultimately, it saves you time and money
Waiting for a crisis to fix your site’s problems will ultimately prove more costly. Not only will you lose traffic and revenue while you fix the issues, but you’ll also pay unexpected prices, which could blow your budget.
Frequent site maintenance allows you to plan your costs. It helps you identify what you need to fix or update, and estimate the cost and time it will take.
A range of current website prices and the usual price range
Several factors should be taken into account when determining the price of your site maintenance: the size of your site, its complexity, its functionalities, the skills of your service provider, their experience and even their pricing model.
Here is a breakdown of common site maintenance prices and their typical price range:
Most hosting companies provide both domain name registration and hosting services. In fact, domain name registration is usually provided as part of the hosting package.
These two services are renewable at the end of a billing period, for example after one year. Domain names are renewable annually. Hosting packages can be annual or longer, for example after 2 years.