Why Do You Need To Maintain Your Website?

Have you ever walked by an old, stately house that must have looked great in its heyday, but has now fallen into a serious state of disrepair? Ever walked by a house with leaking pipes, an overgrown garden and walls that have the paint peeling off them?

We bet you have at some point – and the reason we mention this is because there can sometimes be an uncanny resemblance between the “real” physical world and the online world. And we’re referring to websites here; websites, if left alone and unattended, have a tendency to fall into a state of disrepair (much like those old, stately mansions) and we don’t want that to happen now, do we?

Your website is sometimes the first and only impression you make on your customers – and you want to make sure that impression is a GOOD one. And having a slow, unreliable or buggy website is one of the best things you can do to turn your customers off, and ensure they never return to your website.

How does a website fall into a state of disrepair in the first place? Well, many reasons – but lack of regular maintenance is one main reason, and in fact the primary reason why a lot of websites start acting strange after a while. You see, a website is basically nothing but a lot of code, and code needs to be maintained/upgraded as well at regular intervals (much like that house we just spoke about). Yes – regular web site management and maintenance IS that important – website design and maintenance basically go hand in hand – one is no good without the other after a while.

And despite what you might think, regular and proper maintenance is not as expensive as you might think, and neither do you need to “turn your website over” to the web development company for the duration of maintenance. None of that is necessary – and you’ll see why when you opt for SunTec’s professional site maintenance services.

Benefits of regular web site maintenance

The benefits of regular web maintenance are manifold – but the #1 reason you should have a professional website maintenance company maintain your site is so it doesn’t suddenly fail under duress. Nothing is worse than getting a LOT of customers to your website, and have the site crash as they all make their purchases simultaneously (and believe us, that has happened before!).

That in itself should be enough reason, but there are other reasons as well. A regular maintenance contract is fairly inexpensive, but overhauling a web site can be somewhat more expensive, not to mention tedious. It also takes very little effort to update all the modules of a site to the most recent ones, so our recommendation is to get it done on a regular basis. It’s simple – simply sign a web maintenance contract with us, and we take care of it all – you can forget all about it and concentrate on your business!

What does web site maintenance services involve?

Broadly speaking, web maintenance involves the following things:

Web site management/maintenance: This involves maintaining all the modules on the website, and updating those that are necessary (such as shopping carts, for instance – it is recommended to ALWAYS have your shopping cart software up to date).
Regular database “purging”: Many large sites have huge databases that hold all the information displayed on the website, and much like a large, spacious cupboard, junk accumulates in the database from time to time such as expired items, old content no longer there on the site, and so forth. All this can hamper performance, speed and reliability – not good! SunTec will ensure that your database stays up to date and “purged” of any unnecessary data to ensure speed and best performance.
Backend updates: The backend of your site might be “invisible” to your users, but it is one of the most important parts of your site, as you use this facility to administer and manage the entire website. And it is necessary to update/modify the backend code as required from time to time, to ensure a seamless site management experience for you.
Adding content/pages to the website: This is important to do not just to keep the site updated, but also for purposes of optimal search engine optimization. The more recent the content and/or pages are on a site, the higher the Google rank – and the more the chances of users navigating through to your site.

What options do I have in terms of payment, maintenance schedule, etc.?

We offer you with many options here, as each site is different and there is no “one size fits all best” concept here (especially when it comes to maintenance schedules). Rest assured though that your data will remain absolutely safe during the process, and any downtime required will be agreed upon in advance according to your business requirements. In other words, YOU remain in control of the entire process – we just deal with the tech stuff.

One of the most common (and widely used) options is our “website maintenance agreement” model, where we bill you by the hour and give you a detailed summary of the work accomplished within each hour. There are other options also, such as monthly contracts, but this is the one most commonly used (and recommended in most cases).