Website maintenance: what your site needs after launch

The day your website goes live is a great day. But it’s the beginning, not the end. A website is more like a car than a painting: if you skip the servicing, sooner or later it breaks down.

Here’s what maintenance includes, why it matters and how to tell how much your site needs.

What happens to an abandoned website

It happens more often than you’d think. Some things we see regularly:

• The site stops working after a server update, and nobody notices for weeks.
• It gets hacked through an outdated plugin and starts showing strange ads or redirecting to other sites.
• The domain expires because the card on file changed and nobody saw the notice.
• The contact form stops sending emails and inquiries get lost without you knowing.
• The information goes stale: prices, hours or services you no longer offer.

Any of these will cost you clients, and some will also cost you Google’s trust.

What good maintenance includes

Updates

All software gets updated: the website’s system, its plugins, the server. Updates fix security holes and bugs. They need to be applied, but carefully, because an update sometimes breaks something that has to be checked.

Backups

Regular backups, stored somewhere other than the server. If something goes wrong, you roll back to a previous version in minutes instead of rebuilding everything.

Security and monitoring

Checking that the site is online, that the security certificate (the padlock in the browser) is valid and that there’s no suspicious activity. Ideally you hear about a problem before your clients do.

Speed

Over time, sites tend to get slower: unoptimized images get uploaded, scripts get added, the database grows. A periodic review keeps performance in check. We explain why it matters in how a slow website loses you clients.

Content changes

Updating prices, adding a service, swapping photos or posting news. They’re small changes, but they keep your website in line with how your business looks today.

Reviewing results

Looking at Google Analytics and Search Console to understand how clients arrive, what they search for and what to improve. That’s what turns maintenance into an investment rather than just a cost.

How much maintenance does your website need?

It depends a lot on how it’s built:

• A WordPress site with several plugins needs frequent reviews, because every plugin is a piece that has to be updated and watched. We explain why in WordPress vs. a custom website.
• An online store needs constant attention: inventory, payment methods, shipping.
• A custom static site, like the ones we build for service businesses, has far fewer parts that can fail. Technical maintenance is lighter, and the focus can be on content and results.

Do it yourself or hand it off?

You can handle it yourself if you have the time and you’re comfortable with the technical side. If not, it’s worth handing off. What matters is that someone is responsible: a site with no owner is a site that will break at the worst possible moment.

If you hand it off, ask exactly what the plan includes: how often backups run, whether content changes are included, how quickly they respond and what happens if there’s a security issue.

Keep things in your name

Whatever you choose, make sure the domain is registered in your name and that you have the main logins saved. If you ever switch providers, that saves you a lot of headaches.

When maintenance isn’t enough

Sometimes a site has so many patches that maintaining it costs more than rebuilding it. If that’s your case, read redesign or start over.

How we do it at Balboa Web

All our projects include 30 days of support after launch. After that, we offer a monthly maintenance plan with managed hosting, monitoring, backups and minor changes, so you don’t have to think about anything technical. If your current website needs a hand, get in touch.