Maintaining a website requires ongoing attention and care to ensure it remains secure, performs well, and provides a positive user experience. If you are wondering what type of maintenance a website needs, in this article, we'll cover the essential types of maintenance that every website needs.
What is website maintenance?
"Website maintenance" is the process of keeping a website up-to-date, backed up, running smoothly and securely, and performing optimally for the user. Website maintenance encompasses various activities such as:
- Updating software (such as the content management system, plugins, and themes)
- Regular security checks to analyze the website for potential vulnerabilities
- Implementing security measures to protect against threats like malware and hacking
- Performing regular backups to safeguard data
- Optimizing performance to ensure fast loading times and smooth user experience
- Managing and updating content to keep information relevant and engaging
- Continually improving the website's overall functionality and usability
- Technical optimizations like finding and fixing broken links, fixing 404 errors, and implementing redirects when needed
- Comment and form spam prevention and removal of spam comments
Why do websites require maintenance?
Your website is no different than a car engine or any other machine. It needs regular attention to keep it running and performing at its best.
Whether you do it yourself or have someone else manage your website, website maintenance is essential for ensuring the security, performance, functionality, and credibility of your website, ultimately contributing to its long-term success. Read more about the benefits of website maintenance »
What happens if a website is not maintained?
If a website is not properly maintained, over time many bad things can happen including:
- Security Vulnerabilities: Hackers often exploit outdated software or known vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to websites and sensitive information.
- Performance Issues: Neglected websites may experience slow loading times, frequent downtime, and usability problems.
- Loss of Trust and Credibility: Websites that appear outdated, contain broken links or errors, or lack updated content can create a negative impression on visitors.
- SEO Penalties: Search engines prioritize websites that provide fresh, relevant, and high-quality content while penalizing those with outdated or low-quality content.
- Data Loss or Corruption: Without regular backups and maintenance, websites are at risk of data loss or corruption due to server failures, hacking incidents, or accidental deletions.
- Legal and Compliance Risks: Websites that are required to adhere to certain legal requirements or compliance standards related to privacy, accessibility, or data protection may face legal consequences, fines, or lawsuits.
Read more about the benefits of website maintenance »
What type of maintenance does a website need?
11 Types of Website Maintenance
Learn about these 11 types of website maintenance and upkeep that are essential for ensuring the security, functionality, and success of a website over time.
1. Regular Software / Platform Updates
Keeping the content management system (CMS), plugins, and themes up-to-date helps ensures compatibility, security, and performance. Depending on the platform you use for your website, you may need to manually update the software as in the case of a self-hosted WordPress website, or your website platform provider may keep the software up-to-date for you as in the case of builders like Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, or even WordPress.com websites.
2. Plugin & Theme Updates (WordPress Websites)
Plugin and theme updates are essential for maintaining the security, compatibility, and performance of a WordPress website. These updates should be applied regularly, ideally as soon as new versions are released by the developers.
Failure to update plugins and themes can leave a website vulnerable to security threats, compatibility issues, and performance degradation. Regular updates ensure that plugins and themes remain secure, functional, and compatible with the latest technologies and standards, helping to keep the website running smoothly and minimizing the risk of downtime or security breaches.
3. Security Scanning & Monitoring
Implementing measures such as SSL certificates, firewalls, and security plugins help protect against cyber threats and vulnerabilities. Proactive security scanning and monitoring helps reveal issues faster so you can avoid downtime or embarassing website defacements.
4. Regular Backup Procedures (Disaster Recovery)
Regular backup procedures, also known as disaster recovery, are critical for safeguarding website data and ensuring business continuity in the event of data loss, corruption, or other unforeseen events. These procedures involve creating copies of website files, databases, and other important data at regular intervals, typically daily or weekly, and storing them in secure off-site locations.
In the event of a server failure, hacking incident, or accidental data deletion, backups enable website owners to restore their website quickly and minimize downtime. Regular backup procedures help protect against data loss, mitigate the impact of disasters, and provide peace of mind knowing that website data is safe and recoverable.
5. Regular Content Updates & Additions
Regular content updates and additions are essential for keeping a website fresh, engaging, and relevant to its audience. This involves regularly adding new content, such as blog posts, articles, product listings, or multimedia assets, and updating existing content to reflect changes or new information.
By regularly updating and adding content, website owners can attract and retain visitors, improve search engine rankings, and establish themselves as authorities in their respective industries. This is at the heart of a good website SEO content strategy.
Regular content updates to your website can help:
- Demonstrate that the website is active and maintained
- Increase the opportunities for content on your website to rank in search engines via a content strategy for SEO
- Instill trust and credibility in visitors
- Help to foster long-term relationships with customers or followers
- Encourage repeat visits and social sharing, driving traffic and engagement on the website
6. Performance Monitoring & Speed Optimizations
Optimizing website speed and performance through techniques like image optimization, caching, and minimizing code bloat help the website load faster, which means happier more satisfied visitors. Website speed is also a Core Web Vital signal that Google uses to evaluate the overall quality of a website.
7. Uptime Monitoring
Uptime monitoring should be continuous, providing real-time alerts for downtime so the website can be fixed as soon as possible. Regular reports track uptime trends, while periodic reviews help identify recurring issues. This ensures websites remain accessible, reliable, and responsive to users, enhancing user experience and minimizing business disruption.
8. User Experience Maintenance
Ensure a positive user experience by regularly testing for broken links, improving navigation, fixing or redirecting 404 Not Found urls, and optimizing for mobile responsiveness.
9. Accessibility Monitoring & Testing
Accessibility monitoring and testing should occur regularly, ideally on an ongoing basis or at scheduled intervals like monthly or quarterly. Automated testing tools can be used frequently to scan for common issues, while manual testing by experienced individuals or testers with disabilities should be done periodically. Testing should also follow any updates or changes to the website, ensuring continued compliance with accessibility standards like WCAG or ADA.
While an ADA compliant website may not be required by law for all businesses, regular monitoring and testing, even if automated by a plugin, ensure websites are inclusive and accessible to all users, enhancing usability and compliance.
10. SEO Monitoring (Search Engine Optimization)
If Search Engine Optimization is in your budget, or even if you are DIYing your SEO, SEO monitoring should be conducted regularly, ideally on an ongoing basis or at scheduled intervals like weekly or monthly. This involves tracking key metrics in tracking tool of some kind. Google Search Console is a great free tool that can help you understand what content of yours is ranking organically and for which keywords. Evaluate search engine rankings, organic traffic, and keyword performance to identify trends and opportunities for optimization. By monitoring SEO metrics regularly, website owners can make informed decisions and adjustments to improve their search visibility and performance over time.
11. Website Support & Maintenance Plans
Website maintenance and support plans provide ongoing assistance and upkeep for websites, ensuring they remain secure, functional, and up-to-date. These plans typically include services such as software updates, security monitoring, backups, and technical support, offered on a recurring basis. By subscribing to a maintenance and support plan, website owners can delegate these tasks to professionals, freeing up time to focus on other aspects of their business while ensuring the continued health and performance of their website.
How Often Should You Do Website Maintenance?
The frequency of website maintenance can vary depending on factors such as the complexity of the website, the frequency of updates, the level of traffic and user engagement, and the specific needs and goals of the website owner. Maintenance task requirements will also depend on the platform upon which your website is built.
However, here are some general guidelines for how often different types of website maintenance tasks should be performed:
Daily Website Maintenance Tasks
- Uptime Monitoring
- Security Monitoring
- Website & Database Backups
Weekly Website Maintenance Tasks
- Plugin / Theme Updates
- Malware Scans
- Visual Inspection
- Moderate Spam Comments
- Test Website Forms
- Make content updates if pursuing a weekly content strategy (articles, blog posts, new pages, etc)
Monthly Website Maintenance Tasks
- Monitor Traffic & Search Engine Rankings
- Clean Junk/Old data from Database
- Remove Unnecessary Users (If you use WordPress, WordPress Site Health will remind you of this)
- For WordPress, delete Unused Themes and Plugins (WordPress Site Health will remind you of this)
- Test Loading Time
- Search for Broken Links (There are many broken link checking tools available)
- Check for Google Search Console Errors/Issues
- Make content updates if pursuing a monthly content strategy (articles, blog posts, new pages, etc)
Annual Website Maintenance Tasks
- Review Website Setup and Server/Hosting
- Review Your SEO Content Strategy
- Renew Hosting, Domain, Domain Name Servers (DNS) & Licenses
Do all websites need maintenance?
Yes, all websites require maintenance to varying degrees, however the extent of maintenance needed depends on factors such as:
- Complexity of the website
- Technology used
- Frequency of updates
- Level of traffic and user engagement.
Websites built on popular website builders such as Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace are maintained by the website builder company as part of the monthly fee that you pay, so the perceived level of maintenance required is less. Websites such as self-hosted WordPress websites require that the website owner arrange for the maintenance, whether they DIY it or hire someone to manage their website maintenance.
What is the average Website Maintenance Cost for a Website?
WordPress website maintenance plans can vary in price a great deal depending on what services you are getting, and it's important to consider ongoing costs when evaluating the total cost of a website.
Backups, updates and security scans should make up the basics of a website maintenance plan, which could range from $39 - $199/month. Be sure to evaluate providers based on their expertise, experience, and trustworthiness and not just the price.
A website management plan could also include unlimited small (or large) content updates, monthly SEO tasks and monitoring, priority white-glove service, or even ongoing SEO content strategy consulting resulting in monthly pricing anywhere from $99/month to $5000/month or more.
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