Website maintenance involves the regular updating, monitoring and support needed to keep a website running. Neglecting maintenance can lead to vulnerabilities and downtime, which may affect both a website’s functionality and its reputation. While many businesses focus on launching a website, they often overlook the importance of maintaining and supporting it once it is live. However, understanding the value of website maintenance is essential to ensuring your website can support your business’s long-term growth.
What is website maintenance?
Website maintenance involves a variety of tasks aimed at keeping your website running smoothly and securely. It’s not just about launching a website and leaving it; ongoing care ensures your site is secure and always performs at its best.
Many design studios or website companies offer website maintenance and hosting as part of their website packages. This integrated approach is highly beneficial because it places responsibility for the entire solution with one provider. Should an issue arise, there’s no need to liaise between multiple stakeholders. Instead, you have a single point of contact for any website-related concerns, streamlining problem resolution.
Why website maintenance is important
Proactive website maintenance is key to avoiding disruptions in your business. By routinely applying patches and performing security updates, organisations can mitigate risks and improve overall website performance.
Neglecting website maintenance, on the other hand, can lead to a host of issues, including a deteriorating user experience and security vulnerabilities that harm your brand’s reputation and potentially require costly remediation. This neglect can also negatively impact engagement and conversion rates, resulting in fewer leads, enquiries or sales. For more information, read our case study on how a bad website could be hurting your mortgage broker business.
Search engines also favour websites that receive regular updates, often leading to higher rankings. If you think of your website like any other asset, it is easy to see the value of website maintenance. Much like a physical storefront or a regularly serviced vehicle, a well-maintained website operates more efficiently while attracting more visitors.
Regular website maintenance is vital to a website’s performance and speed.
What does website maintenance include
Website maintenance can be divided into several core components, each of which plays a crucial role in keeping your website in optimal condition.
Application, infrastructure and security updates
Websites typically rely on various components, such as servers, content management systems (CMS) and plugins. These components each require updates to ensure they remain compatible and secure. Additionally, staying current with updates and patches can prevent compatibility issues with new software or hardware.
Content updates
Another useful way in which your website can be maintained involves updating and adding content to your website. This may include creating blog posts, articles, news updates, product listings and more. Fresh content not only keeps your visitors engaged but also signals to customers and search engines that your website is active and relevant.
Performance optimisation
Website speed and performance are paramount for a positive user experience. Maintenance tasks include optimising images, minimising code and addressing issues that may slow down your site.
Regular maintenance updates ensures your website’s high performance for best practices in SEO.
Broken link checks
Over time, links on your website can become broken or outdated, leading to a poor user experience. Regularly checking for broken links and updating or removing them is a crucial maintenance task that helps maintain brand integrity and improve overall site navigation.
Regular backups
Regularly creating backups of your website acts as a crucial insurance policy against unforeseen disasters. Whether it’s a server crash, a malicious cyberattack, or even an accidental deletion of important content, up-to-date backups provide a safety net. In the event of such incidents, backups allow you to restore your website to a previous, fully functional state, minimising downtime and potential loss of data. Without reliable backups, a website could face extended outages, disrupted business operations and even permanent loss of valuable content.
How much does website maintenance cost?
Website maintenance packages are typically tailored to the specific needs of a website and its owner, so prices can vary significantly based on the level of service required.
Our basic packages cover essential tasks such as regular updates and backups, making them a good choice for smaller businesses. More comprehensive packages, which include advanced technical services like security audits, performance optimisation and content updates, come at a higher cost due to their specialised and labour-intensive nature.
Another crucial factor influencing the cost of your website maintenance is the level of support you require, particularly regarding response and resolution times. Some website providers offer 24/7 support with rapid response times, which is essential for businesses with mission-critical websites or applications that require constant uptime. However, for many businesses operating within Australia, where most customers and operations function during standard office hours, this level of support may not be necessary.
Ultimately, website maintenance is an investment in the health and performance of your online presence. The exact price you pay will depend on the level of service required, the complexity of your website, and the speed at which issues need to be resolved.
For more information on the types of maintenance options available, visit our dedicated website packages page.
Having a dedicated team of engineers to handle maintenance tasks is important for staying ahead of issues and ensuring your website adapts to changing business requirements.
More about our approach to website maintenance
The financial sector’s stringent regulations and compliance requirements have shaped our approach to website maintenance, setting the gold standard for reliability and security. Leveraging the best practices developed within the finance industry, we are proud to now extend these services to clients in other industries.
Today, our maintenance offerings cater to businesses of all sizes, whether they are a small startup, medium-sized organisation or ASX-listed enterprise. We understand the challenges businesses faces, and are committed to delivering website support services that meet objectives while aligning with budget, operational needs and long-term goals.