The Importance of Routine Website Maintenance

Website maintenance is such an important part of keeping your site up to date and running smoothly. Having a good web developer maintain your site is not only something you should earnestly consider, but it is something you should definitely do!

What happens when a site is not properly maintained?

Great question! Without regular updates and proper maintenance, your content will become outdated, and if you truly start slacking, your domain name may expire which means you will no longer even have a website to maintain! Once your domain name expires links get broken, your images get lost, content becomes dated, and your rankings go down the drain.

An expired domain name and old content are just a few of the problems that can arise if you don't have someone watching out for your website. Think of your website as you would your fishing boat. You wouldn't get very far out on the water if you didn't look after it's maintenance, would you? Keep the same mindset for your site as well. Here at AllOutdoors, we aim to make sure your site is always live, up to date, and is running smoothly for your customers.

What is our process?

In our process, we first take the time to backup the website. From there we check the site, update it and make any necessary changes, then recheck the website to make sure the changes have been uploaded correctly. We keep a record of all plugins we update, and if we see an issue, it's easy to find what plugin version was altered and revert it back to the original.

Will doing it yourself save you money?

Some folks want to update and maintain their own website to save money. While you can maintain your own website, it may not save you as much money as you think. If the client updates their site from their WordPress admin, we won't have any record of it. However, when we update a clients website, we devote our time to checking the entire site thoroughly. We have access to maintenance reports which include performance and security scans. If we ever do find an issue with a plugin, we do our best to address it before you even know there was ever a problem. Also, to ensure quality control, we carefully look at the plugins that need to be updated, and if there is a significant update that needs to be made, we single it out as its own task.

If you don't have someone looking after your website, you may actually be losing out by not being able to provide the proper maintenance. If you visit another website and find issues with their content or long loading times, do you stick around to see what they have to offer? Most people won't, and they will move on to a working site. If your website has these kinds of issues or isn't properly designed, you may be losing out on potential customers.

Fixing vs. Maintaining

Inexperience and disregard can devastate the look, feel, and functionality of your website. If it ever comes to this point, you have two choices. One, you can leave it as is and try to fix it yourself, which ultimately might lead to further damage. Or two, you can then pay a high price for someone with experience to fix it.

Just like a boat, it costs a lot more to fix it than it does to maintain it properly. Regular maintenance helps keep the boat running smoothly, just as regular site maintenance helps keep your website running smoothly.

What are the benefits of using a professional?

You are ultimately going to be the one who knows what's best for your own business. Our job is to help you do what is best for your website. You know your products and your services, and we know ours. We will let you deal with what you know best, why not let us deal with what we know best?

By using a professional designer to maintain your website and update your plugins, you are ultimately saving money in what could have been lost sales and visitors. Have you ever heard the phrase "you have to spend money to make money?" Well, this rings very true when it comes to your website. You want to impress your visitors and encourage them to come back to purchase your products and use your services.

Interested?

Utilizing the help of an experienced web designer will give you an edge over your competitors and will also keep the traffic coming to your site. If you're interested in using AllOutdoors to maintain your website, contact us and learn about everything we can do for you to help your business thrive. Keeping your website running in good condition is worth it, and it's not as expensive as you might think!