While many businesses think that simply getting a website made and launched is the end of the story, it’s just not enough to cut it in the 21st century marketplace. Good quality website maintenance services ensure that your online presence is adequately secured, updated, backed up and effective.
There are a lot of different types of web services, so in this article we’ll outline the best website maintenance services you and your business are going to need.
What is website maintenance?
Website maintenance as a term can refer to a wide variety of services but in a nutshell it’s exactly what it sounds like: Maintaining the back and front end of your website to ensure that it’s updated and secure.
Every website company offers slightly different types of maintenance. For example, performance analysis, which consists of breaking down the amount and types of traffic your website gets, is one service not every provider offers.
How maintenance works
The website maintenance services your provider will supply will depend on their capabilities and resources. Some services include limited edits, while others are unlimited. Some include ongoing development and innovation, while others are basic security upgrades and maintenance only.
Make sure to check the contract or contact your provider directly to see what is covered in the services you’re receiving with your monthly or yearly plan.
Inclusions of the best website maintenance services in Australia
To help you, here are the key maintenance services you need to make sure your website is receiving.
1. Security
Security maintenance protects your websites from being infected with malware or even hacking and extortion attempts. As paranoid as you might think this sounds, ensuring your site is safe and secure is very important in today’s cybercrime riddled world. Even automated scans set by a professional and experienced provider can save you a lot of stress, pain and money down the line.
2. Daily backups
Websites nowadays are not static things. From updated content to newsletter subscribers and contact form entries, making sure your website is backed up fairly regularly (think at least once a day) is good practice.
If something with your website does end up going wrong, you’ll rest assured that at least the previous day’s back-up can be restored minimising your losses.
3. Priority support
Website issues can occur any time, so it’s important that you work with a support provider who can troubleshoot issues and get you back on track quickly. This means not just fielding your calls or emails, but proactively finding issues so they can be fixed promptly even if you don’t notice them yourself.
On top of that, it’s ideal if you’re given top priority by having a service agreement in place, putting you at the head of the queue at all times.
Emergency support is an essential part of any quality website maintenance service package. Make sure to familiarise yourself with the small text of your contract in case there are a set number of fixes offered without costing you more.
4. Page and content edits
As your business grows and changes your website will need to reflect the evolution. Your maintenance services should ideally offer maintenance services to help you keep your web pages and content updated and relevant.
5. Plugin configuration
Plugins, sometimes written as plug-ins, are small pieces of software that can be downloaded and added on to an existing program, such as your website. Each plugin offers specific features and advantages to help you customise your website and your client’s experience.
Like all online software, plugins require regular updating as the bugs are smoothed out and issues fixed. Website service providers should offer some level of plugin configuration and updates to ensure optimal online functioning.
6. Website optimisation
Optimising your website involves using various digital marketing tools, strategies and other best practices to ensure your site performs as well as possible. The better your website functions, the more likely visitors are going to spend more time before bouncing off. This will steadily increase conversions and conversely revenue as well.
Additionally, SEO–search engine optimisation–ensures that your website ranks high in Google and other search engine results. The better your SEO, the higher you rank and the more traffic gets driven to your website.
7. Page builds
Building a new webpage from scratch isn’t always as easy as a simple click or two. Websites with significant functionality require professional development for ongoing page builds and expansion.
As well as routine security sweeps and plugin updates, the best website maintenance services will also offer at least a set number of ongoing page builds as well to keep pace with your business’s expansion and diversification.
8. Speed optimisation
Speed optimisation might not sound essential, but it’s one of the most important parts of ongoing website maintenance. There is significant research pointing to the fact that the first few seconds a visitor is on your website are the most important and influential for ensuring they turn into a paying customer/client. (Source: Hubspot)
In fact, for every extra second your website takes to load the chances of conversion drop by almost 5%. Now that might sound like there are a lot of impatient web surfers out there but the fact is that there is a lot of online competition. Making sure your website is optimised to load with the greatest speed possible is a best practice you should definitely ensure your provider is implementing.
Why you need a website maintenance services provider
For most business owners, conducting your own website maintenance simply requires too much of your time and energy. Besides, it’s always recommended you turn to the professionals to ensure your website doesn’t fall prey to scammers, bad optimisation tactics or crashes.
The benefits of a well optimised website are near limitless: Think more traffic, better customer experience, more conversions and more revenue. If you’re looking for experts in all things website services without having to pay an arm and a leg, make sure to speak to the team at GO Creative. They’ve been in the website maintenance services business in Australia for years and are always ready to help.
Good luck and remember: Take care of your website and it will take care of you