Why Website Maintenance is so Important for Your Busness

Do you keep seeing warnings on your website to update your plugins, theme or WordPress?

If you’re a small business owner, there’s a good chance your website isn’t something you think about very often.

You probably have plenty of other things to worry about. You’re looking after customers, answering emails, doing the work that actually makes you money, keeping up with social media and trying to stay on top of all the other little jobs that come with running a business.

Just because your website is live doesn’t mean it will continue to work perfectly forever. Your WordPress software, plugins and theme all need to be updated, your website needs to be backed up and important features such as contact forms and links need to be checked from time to time.

And the tricky thing is that you might not know there is a problem until it has already become a problem.

Your website can look fine and still have problems.

This is one of the biggest reasons I think website maintenance is so important.

You might type your website address into Google, see your homepage load and think everything is working perfectly. But what you see on the screen is only part of what is happening behind the scenes.

Your contact form could have stopped sending emails. A plugin could be outdated or conflicting with another plugin. An update could have caused something to stop working properly. Your website could be running slowly, or there could be a security issue that you don’t know about.

And if you’re a small business relying on your website to generate enquiries, bookings or sales, these things can really matter.

Imagine someone finds your website through Google, decides they want to work with you and fills in your enquiry form only for that form not to actually send the message to you.

You could have a potential customer sitting there waiting for a response, while you have absolutely no idea that they ever contacted you.

WordPress websites need looking after

I work with WordPress websites every day, and one thing I see quite often is a website that was built a few years ago and then more or less forgotten about.

This isn’t because the business owner doesn’t care about their website. Usually, it’s simply because they are busy running their business.

I completely understand that because I’m a small business owner too. You don’t necessarily want to spend your time learning about WordPress updates, plugin compatibility, website security or backups. You just want your website to work.

The problem is that WordPress websites are made up of lots of different components, and those components need to be maintained.

WordPress itself gets updated. Your theme gets updated. Your plugins get updated. Sometimes you add new functionality or connect your website to another service.

All of these things need to work together.

Website maintenance isn’t just clicking “update”

This is something I think is really important to mention because website maintenance is sometimes treated as simply logging into WordPress and clicking the update button.

It isn’t quite that simple.

Before making updates, your website should be backed up. After updates, important parts of the website should be checked to make sure nothing has stopped working.

Sometimes an update goes through without any problems at all. Other times, a plugin update can conflict with another plugin or your theme and suddenly something that was working perfectly yesterday isn’t working today.

That’s why I don’t recommend just logging in and updating everything without checking what you’re doing.

When I maintain a website, I’m looking at the bigger picture. I’ll check that WordPress and the relevant plugins are up to date, that backups are running, that the website is functioning properly and that there aren’t any obvious issues that need attention.

Security is another big reason to maintain your website

Keeping your website updated is also an important part of website security.

WordPress, themes and plugins release updates for lots of different reasons, including fixing bugs and addressing security vulnerabilities.

Leaving outdated software on your website can increase the risk of something going wrong.

That doesn’t mean that every outdated plugin means your website is about to be hacked. But why take the risk when keeping things up to date is part of good website housekeeping?

This is one of those things that you probably don’t think about until something happens.

And I would much rather help a client keep their website maintained than have them contact me after their website has been hacked and they’re dealing with a much bigger problem.

What about backups?

Backups are another part of website maintenance that can easily be overlooked.

If something goes wrong with your website, having a recent backup can make a huge difference.

But I don’t think it’s enough to simply have a backup plugin installed and assume everything is taken care of.

You need to know that backups are actually happening and that you have a way of restoring the website if you need to.

Think about all the work that has gone into your website. Your pages, photos, products, blog posts, forms and other content have probably taken you a long time to create. It makes sense to protect all of that work.

Your website also needs to be kept up to date

Website maintenance isn’t only about technical updates.

Your business changes, and your website should change with it.

Maybe you’ve added a new service. Perhaps you’ve stopped offering something. Your prices might have changed, your opening hours may be different or you’ve got a new team member you want to introduce.

You might even have an old photo on your website that doesn’t look anything like your business anymore.

I’ve seen all of these things on websites.

Sometimes a business owner will come to me thinking they need a completely new website, but when we look at it together, the website itself is actually fine. It just needs some attention.

A few updated photos, some new content, a couple of broken links fixed and a little bit of housekeeping can sometimes make a website feel completely different.

Don’t forget about your SEO

Your website maintenance should also include keeping an eye on the things that can affect your SEO.

SEO isn’t something you do once when your website is built and then forget about.

Your website needs to continue to be useful, relevant and easy for people to use.

Broken links, outdated information, slow pages, missing content and technical problems can all contribute to a poor experience for your visitors.

Regular maintenance gives you an opportunity to catch these things and make improvements as you go.

It also gives you a chance to add new content and services as your business grows, which can create more opportunities for people to find you through Google.

Your website is often your first impression

Think about how people find your business.

They might search for you on Google. They might see you on Instagram or Facebook. Someone might recommend you to a friend and they then go straight to your website.

For many people, your website will be their first real interaction with your business.

If the website looks outdated, has broken links, missing images or information that is no longer correct, it can affect how they see your business.

It doesn’t mean your website needs to be constantly redesigned. In fact, I don’t think small businesses should be redesigning their websites just for the sake of it. But it should be looked after.

Small problems are much easier to deal with than big problems. This is probably the biggest reason I recommend regular website maintenance.

It’s much easier to find and fix a small problem before it becomes a big one.

Updating a plugin and checking that your website still works is relatively simple. Finding out six months later that your website has been running outdated software and something important has stopped working can be a very different situation.

The same goes for security issues, broken forms and backups. You don’t want to wait until your website is completely broken before you decide it needs attention.

By then, you’re not really maintaining your website anymore. You’re trying to fix a problem.

How often should your website be maintained?

There isn’t one answer that applies to every website.

A simple five-page business website will have different requirements to an online shop processing orders every day. A website with bookings, memberships, forms and lots of integrations may need more regular attention too.

The important thing is that someone is actually keeping an eye on it.

Your website shouldn’t be something you only look at when you need to change a phone number or add a new photo.

Regular maintenance gives you peace of mind that someone is checking what’s happening behind the scenes and making sure everything is still working as it should.

You don’t have to do it yourself
This is probably the most important thing I want small business owners to know.

You don’t need to become a WordPress expert just because you own a WordPress website.

You don’t need to know what every plugin does, understand website security or spend your Saturday morning trying to figure out why your contact form has suddenly stopped working.

You have your own business to run.
As a small business owner myself, I understand how quickly your to-do list can get out of control. There are always things that seem more urgent than looking after your website.

That’s where having someone you trust to take care of it can make life a lot easier.

Regular maintenance can help keep your website secure, functional, up to date and working properly for the people who visit it.

Need someone to look after your WordPress website?

If you’re a small business owner and you’ve got a WordPress website that hasn’t been maintained for a while, I’d be happy to have a look at it for you.

I can check what’s happening behind the scenes, see if anything needs attention and let you know what I recommend.