Why Regular WordPress Maintenance is Critical for Small Business Websites

You’ve invested much time, money and effort in crafting the perfect website. It looks great, runs smoothly and is already generating more business. Now it’s time to sit back, relax and let the good times roll. Right? Well... not exactly.

A website is like any other valuable asset—it requires regular attention to keep performing at its best. While the initial website build is a significant milestone, maintaining it is just as crucial. Here are 5 reasons why regular maintenance is an important part of protecting the investment you’ve made in your website:

Security

One of the main reasons for investing in website maintenance is security. In recent years, cyber attacks have increased in volume and sophistication. A hacked or compromised website can result in downtime, lost sales, and costly repairs. On the other hand, a secure website builds trust with your clients and establishes your legitimacy as a reliable service provider in the community. Regular website maintenance ensures that your website's software, plugins, and themes are updated to protect against vulnerabilities.

Performance

People have very short attention spans. If a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, 40-50% of users are likely to disengage. Google recommends page load speeds of less than half a second. Regular maintenance can identify areas where your site’s performance can improve by addressing issues like loading speed, broken links, and outdated functionality. With more and more web traffic coming from mobile devices, good performance will ensure your website is most effective in converting potential clients.

Backup and Recovery Assurance

Daily off-site backups keep your data safe in the case of a security breach. You’re able to minimize downtime and get your site back up and running quickly. Or if you’ve somehow managed to break something or delete important posts during your late night update (we’ve all been there before!), reverting to your website’s latest & greatest version is a piece of cake. Just rollback the site and you’re back to where you started before making those ill-advised changes.

SEO Benefits

Everyone wants their website to rank higher on Google. This will drive more traffic to your site and in the end more customers for your business. Search engine algorithms change frequently. Regular updates and maintenance keep your site in line with the latest SEO best practices. For example, Core Web Vitals are key metrics used by Google in determining search rankings. Keeping your website’s software and plugins up-to-date will contribute to improved performance, and in turn a better overall user experience.

Plugin and Theme Compatibility

WordPress plugins and themes need regular updates to stay compatible with each other and the core WordPress platform. Failing to keep all your plugins & themes up to date can make it more challenging to implement security patches quickly. The last thing you want is to learn of a required critical update, only to find out you’re several versions behind on all your plugins. This could prolong the time needed to get your site protected. Or even worse, your site could suddenly stop working and bring about costly downtime.

A successful website is not just a one-time expense but a long-term investment in the growth of your business. Investing in website maintenance ensures that your site remains secure, functional, and optimized for growth.

Ain’t nobody got time for that

We get it. You’re trying to run a business. Installing security patches, running software updates and making sure your site is still running smoothly is not exactly what you had in mind when you started your business. We offer monthly maintenance packages to take care of that for you. Let us handle the technical aspects of running a website so that you can focus on what you do best.

Book a free consultation and see how we can help.