What to Look for in a WordPress Website Maintenance Service
It’s very possible for anyone to perform WordPress website maintenance on their own. However, hiring a website maintenance company can be a way to save a significant amount of time and money. This is especially true if you run a site that is large, complex, requires unique security features, or has lots of custom code.
There are thousands of companies all over the world that provide WordPress website maintenance. When narrowing it down to the right team to help maintain your website, it’s important to know exactly what to look for.
Services that Meet your Needs
A good WordPress website maintenance company will provide you with the services needed to keep your site up and running. This should include essential maintenance tasks, basic best practices, site-specific maintenance services.
Bare Minimum
A WordPress website maintenance company should always provide these services, no matter what. It would be an enormous red flag if these items were not included in a maintenance package.
- WordPress core updates
- Plugin updates
- Theme updates
- Taking automatic secure backups of your website
- Monitoring your site for malware with the use of firewalls and security audits
- Providing emergency repair and recovery
If your site is small and simple, you can probably go quite a while only paying for these services.
Best Practices
Keeping your site software updated is arguably the most important factor of site maintenance. But the bare minimum isn’t enough. A great WordPress website maintenance company will provide comprehensive packages that include the following:
- Checking for uptime and performance metrics
- Reporting to you regularly about the health of your site
- Optimizing the database
- Finding and repairing broken links
- Editing and adding content on request
- Providing site speed and performance optimizations
- Meeting with you regularly to discuss your website goals
- Setting up analytics tracking
If you earn the majority of your business income through your website, it should be imperative to include these services.
Unique Support
Depending on your site, you may need a company that goes above and beyond. Unique sites often need unique types of maintenance. This could include:
- Website hosting
- Email support
- Renewing SSL certificates
- Auditing user accounts
- Testing functions and forms
- Testing your ecommerce shop
- Creating custom functions or code
It’s most important to determine what services your site needs to be successful. The company you go with shouldn’t be charging you for services that you don’t need or want. Look for comprehensive service packages that can also be customized to meet your needs.
A Communication Style That Fits Yours
If you’re hiring a WordPress maintenance company, that should be a long-term working relationship. The longer a company works with your site, the better they get to know its unique features and quirks. So it’s important to connect with a company that you can communicate well with.
You might ask if the company:
- Has a support team, or a dedicated account manager
- Provides regular meetings and strategy sessions
- Uses the same project management tools you do (GSuite, Asana, Trello, etc.)
- How they prefer to communicate (Email, Slack, dedicated support software, phone, etc.)
- How often their team is available (Will someone be able to reply 24/7?)
Have a strong idea of who you’ll be communicating with, what tools they use, when you can contact them, and where to send specific questions or requests.
A Team That’s Right for your Site
Depending on the type of company and/or site you have, some companies may be better fits than others. This could be as simple as finding a team in your time-zone or that speaks the same language as you do, or it could be more complex.
For example, if your site is a large one with blog posts going back years and years, you should look for a company that has experience maintaining blogs as well as large websites.
If you sell physical goods or services through your website, you should look for a company that has experience maintaining ecommerce websites.
If your website is focused on healthcare, you should find a company that has experience with the types of privacy and compliance necessary for applicable regulations.
If you have a multi-site, or your company utilizes many individual websites, you should find a company that has experience maintaining large groups of sites at once.
If you work in a specific industry that relies heavily on SEO – such as real estate or construction – you should work with a company that specializes in search engine optimization.
Find the Perfect WordPress Website Maintenance Company for You
Finding the right maintenance service can be daunting. There are millions of options available to you. And if you’re not “a website person” it can be even harder to know you’re making the right choice. We’d be glad to help you identify your most important site needs and point you toward the right list of services. Book a free consultation with the team at Web Pro Geeks today.
