We live in an era where technological devices such as phone apps and computers require regular updates to function properly. We often don’t think about the fact that these conveniences would not function efficiently if the engineers behind the scenes did not continuously improve and maintain them.

When it comes to business, your website is one of the most important decision-making factors of whether a customer will invest in your products or services. Making sure your website is user-friendly and representative of your current services (not 5 years ago when you last updated your website) is critical for attracting new customers.

In this article, we will explain what web maintenance entails and why it is important for your business.

What Does it Mean for My Website to Function Properly?

Most websites these days (especially those built with WordPress) contain a lot of features such as: pop-ups, contact forms, photo or video galleries, broken link checkers, e-commerce stores and more.

• If one of these features of your website stopped functioning, what would you do?
• Would this roadblock impact your customers’ experience?
• Can it prevent them from communicating with you or buying your products?
• How about if your website got hacked and you had no idea?

Most of the features we’ve mentioned above are controlled by something on the back end of WordPress called, Plugins. When these aren’t maintained, things break down and your website can be susceptible to viruses.

The purpose of web maintenance is to keep your website up and running smoothly at all times.

If you are curious to know more and want to understand how your website can stay up to date, read on.

Why is Website Maintenance Important?

Here are three common reasons to consider website maintenance:

1. People don’t have much patience these days nor do they care to give second chances.
   When someone hacks into your website or the plugins break down, your customers will conveniently move on to your competitors’ websites without a second thought. User experience and your reputation is critical in today’s time and regular website maintenance ensures your security patches and security updates are performed routinely.
2. If your website is inaccessible, customers won’t be able to find you.
   When your website is broken or infected with malware, it will cost you time and money. Websites that are affected rank lower in Google search results or may even get blacklisted!We once had a customer that was blacklisted from Google and lost 50% of their monthly profits as a result! They went from making $100,000/month to $50,000/month. BIG DIFFERENCE!
3. If your site is infected with malware and you have no clue, your website will be suspended.
   Hosting websites like Bluehost, GoDaddy, Siteground and Dreamhost do not clean malware for you unless you’ve signed up for a malware removal service. If your web host detects malware on their system, they will suspend your hosting account and the website (sometimes email as well).

What Does Web Maintenance Entail and Why Should I Care?

Here are some of the processes involved in a web maintenance plan that will ensure your website functions properly in the long run:

• Updating software and plugins. WordPress has its own open source software and plugins. Web maintenance ensures these plugins and softwares are updated periodically to prevent malware.
• Removing spam comments and backlinks. Occasionally, hackers may send out automated scripts to WordPress websites and insert malicious links into your website comments. This can be bad for your site’s Google ranking as you can be miscategorized in Google search engine for topics that aren’t related to what you do.
• Running website backups. Monthly website backups ensure that your site will be restored if it breaks down or is hacked.
• Checking for malware. A few things can happen when a site is hacked or infected by malware:
  • Profanity or inappropriate language can be inserted into your content.
    Your website can be completely restructured. Years ago a client of ours got hacked and the hacker placed an animation with clowns and music on the website’s homepage!
  • You can get locked out of your website.
  • This one is not as common, but in some cases, hackers can access sensitive data as well. Most of the time hackers inject malware when they are testing out their coding skills. Don’t let yourself fall victim to this!
• Cleaning malware. Some web developers deal with malware by completely erasing a website and rebuilding a new one. This is expensive and unnecessary. Most of the time, a web maintenance service can clean malware within 24-48 hours unless it has been ignored for a long period.

In this article, we’ve defined what website maintenance is and have listed a bunch of reasons why maintaining your website is important for your business. At MeetGeraldine, we believe that you shouldn’t have to worry about these issues when you have other important tasks on your plate. We offer one-time malware clean up services, fix broken WordPress websites as well as offer on-going website maintenance packages.

Have questions? Let’s talk! Fill out our form below or call 510-473-6183.