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So, you’ve spent the last few months building the perfect website. Your website is live and operating smoothly. If you’re thinking all the work is over, you’re mistaken. Without constant and proactive web maintenance, you may be at risk of numerous threats.

The truth is that websites today are never fully “complete”.

The internet is constantly evolving. This means that cyber threats and risks are constantly evolving too. Your website requires continual maintenance to keep up with this ever-changing landscape. With proper website maintenance and the right managed services provider (MSP), companies can stay ahead of risks and competition.

It’s one thing to build a website. Keeping a website up to date is something entirely different. Websites can get cluttered or lagged by bugs, missed updates, broken links, outdated content, and poor maintenance. When it comes to the long-term success of your website, you may require the help of an expert to maintain your site on a consistent basis.

Read on to learn five undeniable benefits of web maintenance and how hiring an established MSP can help you maximize your efforts.

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Website Security

Content management systems, applications, plugins, and security features are constantly rolling out software updates to maintain their security and optimize performance. If you’re not staying on top of these updates, your website can quickly become outdated, leaving it running slowly, poorly and at risk of a cyber security breach. A functional and secure website can protect your business’s reputation, your relationship with potential and current customers and, potentially, hundreds of thousands of dollars to remedy any damage.

Software Updates

Most websites contain code and depend on software that runs on your web hosting server. Hackers often discover vulnerabilities in software and will attempt to take advantage of this. You can help prevent this by keeping your website’s software updated with the latest patches and security releases.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you’re looking to generate long-term success from your website, then SEO is crucial. Search engines like Google and Bing prefer sites that are fast, secure, well maintained, and provide valuable and fresh content for their users. In order for a website to rank high on search engine results pages, it must be considered high-quality and trustworthy. Those who invest in SEO are more likely to outrank their competition in search engines and gain an advantage in their market. In order to make the most of your website, it is critical to allocate time and effort into updating content, images, videos and links.

Did You Know?

Results on the first page of a Google search get over 90% of traffic.

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Disaster Recovery and Back-Ups

When it comes to data protection, taking a proactive approach is the only way to ensure your data remains safe and accessible. Every website should be backed up regularly in case something happens. Whether the website crashes and needs to be rebuilt or reinstated or the website has been hacked and all data has been lost, constant backups and a proper disaster recovery plan can keep you in the clear.

There are two main website elements that need continual back-up:

  1. Code: Javascript, PHP, HTML, CSS, themes, and plugins. Website code should be backed up anytime you change or make an update, as well as any time your Content Management System (CMS), such as WordPress, releases a new update.
  2. Content: Text, images, videos, and audio. Content should be backed up on a regular basis in order to prevent data loss.

User Experience

Your website is a reflection of your corporate image. It is often the first impression a potential client has of your business. As an extension of your business, it’s important that your website is user friendly. A fast, easily navigable, and secure website can protect your business’s reputation, your relationship with your customers and, potentially, hundreds of thousands of dollars to remedy the damage caused by a cyber breach.

Avoid Costly Disasters

Neglecting your website maintenance will increase the likelihood of it crashing or a cyber security breach occurring — all of which will negatively impact your reputation and cost you customers and revenue.

Web Maintenance Benefits Summarized:

  • Bug fixes
  • Updates to any plugins and CMS upgrades (if using a Content Management System)
  • Check for broken links
  • Regular website backups
  • General search engine optimization 
  • Analytical reporting
  • Updating news information about your staff or company information
  • Adding new promotions or monthly specials · Content updates (photos, wording etc.)

How Can an MSP Help?

Hiring a team dedicated to maintaining your website leaves less room for costly errors. Along with avoiding these mistakes, your business will also also save time, energy, and other resources.

Instead of waiting for a problem to happen, a managed services provider ties in all the moving parts of your business and see where technical problems are most likely to occur, and then focus their efforts by going in and strengthening these areas.

In the event that your website does get hacked (even with all the security measures in place, this is never an impossibility), you need to act quickly to remove the virus, clean up the website and restore the data. While it may not be possible to remain 100% protected against viruses and cyber threats, how you respond to these risks can make or break your business.

Finding the Right MSP for Web Maintenance

Maintaining your website is essential to supporting your business’s growth. However, this task often gets overlooked. If maintained properly, your website can act as a tool to establish credibility, build trust, and increase customer acquisition, retention, and satisfaction.

Instead of tackling – or neglecting – website maintenance on your own, maximize your time and effort with a managed service provider.

What Web Maintenance Services Does Synchroworks Offer?

  • Website Hosting
  • E-Commerce Support
  • 24/7 Security Monitoring
  • 24/7 Website Uptime Monitoring
  • Monthly WordPress Core Updates
  • Monthly Theme/Plugin Updates
  • Monthly SEO
  • Site Performance Check and Recommendations
  • Site Performance Optimization for Fast Page Loading
  • Database Optimization ·
  • 30-minute Response Time

When you partner with Synchroworks, you get a team of website experts dedicated to effectively maintaining your website.