“My site looks great. Why do I need a website maintenance? ”
This is the question I get asked many times in my career.
To function properly, most things in this world needs proper maintenance.
Your car needs an upkeep.
Your house needs maintenance.
Your relationship needs maintenance. This is one of the reasons why many marriages fail.
You create a website to get traffic to your site so that you can create sales for your business.
Continuous website maintenance is very important to get traffic to your site.
Google ranks your site higher in the search result based on how recent your content is.
If your content is stale and the site is not updated in months, then, Google thinks that the site is a ghost town and doesn’t have good information for its customers.
There are myriad companies that offer Website Maintenance Service.
Which company should I choose for my website?
Good question!
Consider these 5 things before choosing your Website Maintenance Company.
- What Services Do They Offer?
You want to buy a brand new Tesla car.
The very first thing you want to know is, what do I get for my money?
What features are there?
Which ones are very important to me? Which ones don’t I care about?
Here are some of the things that a typical Website Maintenance Service provides.
- Update/add text content
- Update/add image content
- Take care of onsite-SEO
- Update software/plugins to the latest version
- Make sure the website loads fast
- Maintain the Blog with the new text/image content
- Redesign the site according to the client’s requirements
- Make the site mobile-optimized/mobile-responsive
- Repair broken links such as 401-Not found links, buttons, and imagery
- Integrate with E-Commerce (Shopping cart, Payment Processing, etc)
- Migrate the site to another host
- Add/Update upcoming meetings/events
- Add/Remove/Update services/categories
- Add/Remove new pages
- Install SSL certificates
Find out if they offer the service/feature you expect.
2) What’s the turnaround time?
Congrats! You got your brand new Tesla and you love all the new features.
You are able to warm up your car from your mobile app on those cold mornings.
It tells you the air-pressure on all the 4 tires and warns you if it’s below a threshold.
It’s voice-activated. You can ask it to play your favorite songs.
Everything is great. You are loving it.
On a fine morning, you get a warning on the dashboard that says,
“12V Battery Needs Replacement”
You have no idea what it’s about.
You call the customer service and the rep informs you that you need to take your car to the Tesla Service Center to fix the issue.
Now, the question that comes to your mind is,
How long will they take to fix the issue?
Will I be left with no car until they fix it?
All are fair questions.
You probably have similar questions when it comes to Website Maintenance Services.
How do I contact you if I have an urgent issue that needs to be fixed immediately?
What’s the turnaround time to fix my issues?
Will my site be down while you fix the issue?
Make sure you get answers to all these excellent questions before you subscribe to a Website Maintenance Service.
3) How Much Does It Cost?
You have reached the Tesla Service Center.
You are in the line of cars waiting to be signed up by a service person.
The service person comes to you and gets the details about the issue.
Then, you ask the important question.
“How long will it take to fix the issue?”
“It will take 30 to 45 minutes. If you prefer, you can wait in the reception area and have coffee. Or we can give you a loaner”
Now, you ask the million dollar question.
“That’s fine. I will wait here. I will do my work on the laptop. How much will it cost to fix the issue?”
“It’s covered under the warranty. There is no charge”
“Wonderful! Thanks!!”
You pat yourself on the back for buying a Tesla car.
When it comes to Website Maintenance Service, the one billion dollar question is,
“How much will it cost to subscribe to Website Maintenance Service?”
Find out the details from the company.
Find out how many hours of service you get in a month.
Do you save money if you use Pay-As-You-Go model? This means, you pay only for the hours of service you get.
But it may be a bit more expensive than a monthly service plan.
For example, the monthly service plan will give you 10 hours of service for $750. This means, $75 per hour! But In Pay-As-You-Go model, they charge $100 per hour.
If you need more than 7 hours of maintenance work in a month, then, it’s not feasible to use Pay-As-You-Go model.
Also, with the monthly plan, they are obligated to take care of your maintenance tasks.
With Pay-As-You-Go model, they may say “No” to take care of your emergency issues.
You are back in Google or Craiglist trying to find a good, reliable, ethical Website Maintenance Company that wouldn’t screw you over.
Weigh the pros and cons and decide accordingly.