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Introduction
In this modern world, people go hand in hand with the internet. It includes searching for information, buying, or selling products, individual work, business, education, finance, and medicine. Launching a website is the most relevant idea in uplifting your business to the next level. But the work does not end up with creating a relevant website. It must be continuously monitored and maintained to withhold the upcoming trends of the market. WordPress being a free content management system for creating web pages requires a certain cost for maintenance.
Regular maintenance provides a secure, updated, and error-free platform for giving the most personalized experience to its users. WordPress maintenance saves time and money. It increases the productivity and efficiency of the website. The knowledge about the WordPress maintenance cost helps to plan the efficient working process. In this article, WordPress maintenance costs, needs, and benefits are discussed.
Website Maintenance
Website Maintenance is the process of maintaining the performance of the website by continuous monitoring and correcting. The performance of the website lies in updating the features, improving security, encouraging traffic growth, and retaining the SEO rankings. Hosting a website is one of the biggest investments for any business. The complete benefits of the website can be obtained through regular monitoring, testing, correcting, and updating its features. The proper nourishing of the website is needed for businesses to work smoothly. It improves customer engagement and user experience.
The most productive website requires some amount of maintenance costs. The cost of maintenance depends on the type and size of the website. The price increases as the complexity of the website increase as it requires additional features and care.
Need for Website Maintenance
Regular maintenance of the website is one of the best cost-effective options. It provides security, adapts to the current trends to capture the visitors, and superior performance of the website. The avoidance of website maintenance leads to severe damage to the resources. Non-Maintenance of the website is prone to vulnerabilities. It is a costly risk that may develop an unsolved problem that affects the entire website. This may lead to the closure of the website or republishing the website from the scratch. Hacking can leak out sensitive information of the website that leading to loss of customers.
Website maintenance requires more cost. But a smart business requires an effective spend of money. The maintenance of the website improves security, prevents downtime, and improves productivity.
Benefits of Website Maintenance
A well-maintained website enhances the website’s financial outcomes. The benefits of a well-maintained website are,
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Fast Response time
Response time is the time taken by the system to respond to the request of the user. Regular updates of the core software, plugins, and themes are installed to manage the security, uptime, and performance.
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Superior User Experience
The professionally maintained website provides relevant content to the customer. The ease of accessing the website and the website design helps customers to engage with the website. This provides a positive experience to the user. Thus, it improves the revenue of the website.
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Business Reputation
The proper maintenance helps to provide fresh content and fix the broken links. This lights a positive impact on customers to gain a good impression and trust. Thus, it improves the business reputation.
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Cost-Effective
The investment in website maintenance provides a healthy and secure website. It prevents downtime, threats, error, redesigns, and reconfiguration of the websites. Thus, it saves money and provides an effective website performance.
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Scheduled Optimizations
Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing the site visibility to the people by ranking high on search engines. Regular maintenance updates all the features of the website to the latest trends. It also detects site errors, improves site structure and organization, and removes duplicate web pages. This helps to improve the rank of the website in Google that drives the valid traffic to the website.
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Improved safety
Safety is an important aspect of any website. The proper maintenance helps to detect spam, prevents hacking, and data breaches to provide a secure website. Regular backup helps to safeguard the website from loss of data.
Options for Website Maintenance
Website maintenance is mandatory for the effective functioning of the website. It takes more effort and time in continuous monitoring and correction of the website. The maintenance can either be done by the site owner or the maintenance professional to deliver a fruitful service. The following are the available option for Web Maintenance.
- Do It Yourself
- Web Maintenance Company
- Specialized freelancers
- In-house Web team
It is best to outsource for website maintenance. The DIY approach is not applicable for managing more than one WordPress website. It also requires more time and effort. The avoidance of single maintenance may result in severe loss of a website.
Doing It Yourself Approach
The website is maintained by the website owner in addition to the business function. It takes constant determination, effort, and lots of time in maintenance. It is a cost-effective approach when done successfully. The pre-requisite for the Doing it yourself approach is that you should have the knowledge to fix issues and the tools required to perform the maintenance tasks.
The key functions include regular backup, upgrade, and security of the website. Adequate knowledge should be required to fix the broken links and update the outdated lines of code. Sufficient time must be spent to monitor website functions, assess its performance, repair its defects, and update its features.
The DIY approach is advisable for a simple personal website where no complex functionality is involved. For the most complex website like an e-commerce website, it is better to hire a professional to maintain the website functions.
In-house Web Team
For the most complex websites, hiring a team of professionals to work for the website is the most relevant option. The team of professionals from a web team performs all the website functionalities and maintenance. It might be an expensive approach as they have to be paid separately. The web team is fully connected with the website to continuously monitor its functioning as intended. It is also helpful in maintaining the effectiveness of the website by refreshing, updating, and securing its features.
Specialized Freelancer
A Specialized Freelancer is a professional who enhances the infrastructure and the ecosystem of the WordPress Platform. They focus on improving the WordPress software or creating new products, plugins, and themes. They work to create, customize, and manage the WordPress site and their functionalities include:
- Create Custom WordPress Plugins and Themes.
- Build sitemap or wireframes for websites.
- Optimize its SEO
- Review and debug the official WordPress cod base.
Freelancers work independently in the maintenance process. Effective results are achieved by good coordination and communication.
Web Maintenance Company
The maintenance cost is high when outsourcing to a maintenance company. The cost depends upon the type, size, and nature of the website. The cost ranges approx. from $1000 to $5000 per month.
As the complexity of the website increases, professional experience is required to satisfy the requirements. The maintenance company provides all resources and tools needed for web maintenance. It is considered a smart approach in the web maintenance process. The services that are included in the professional website maintenance packages include.
- Technical Support
- Web design and development
- Security and uptime monitoring
- Updates and premium plugins, themes, and tools
- Search Engine Optimization
- Real-time backup
Outsourcing WordPress maintenance to an expert will significantly increase the effective maintenance of the website. The experts continue to work to manage the website functions. The malfunctions, downtime is identified, and performance is improved. It provides a fast, secure, and easy to use the site. Thus, it leads to higher conversion rates and more visitors.
Web Maintenance Tasks
A healthy and secure website is maintained at regular intervals to produce effective performance. The maintenance can be done daily, weekly, quarterly, and annually depending upon the requirement of the website. The proper inspection and correction of the site provide a secure and fresh website for both the owner and the user.
| TASK | PROCESS INVOLVED |
|---|---|
| Security Monitoring |
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| Security Cleanup | Security Cleanup is the process of acting against the detected threats. It includes
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| Site uptime monitoring |
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| Fresh Content Creation |
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| Site Optimization and audits | Free and paid tools
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| Analysis |
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| Testing |
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| Regular updates | Software updates in WordPress
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| Regular Backups |
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Key factors of WordPress maintenance cost
WordPress Maintenance cost comprises the following criteria:
- Hosting Fee
- Domain Cost
- SSL License cost
- Premium tools and plugins
- Charges on Aesthetic Update
- Charges on Content Update
Hosting Fee
An online service that publishes web pages on the internet is called web hosting. It provides facilities to create and maintain a site. It makes them available on the World Wide Web. There are diverse types of hosting plans available in the market. The dedication servers require more cost per month while business hosting serves the purpose of a complex website.
Domain Cost
Domain Name is nothing but the address of the website. It is used by people to visit the website. The domain charges depend on the domain extension (. store, .org, etc.) and the domain registrar. It is renewed on a monthly or yearly basis. The price of renewal of domain name ranges may vary. It is wise to choose a hosting plan with a free domain for the first year.
SSL License Cost
A digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection is an SSL Certificate. SSL means Secure Socket Layer is a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser. It provides data protection that enables a secure transfer of sensitive information. It enhances the user’s trust and confidence. The website with the active SSL certificate has HTTPS in its URL.
Premium Tools and Plugins
Premium plugins are paid versions of WordPress plugins that provide additional features, support, and documentation, and regular updates. WordPress offers more than 55,000 free plugins to its users. These plugins provide various features without paying. An Average WordPress website requires 2 to 3 premium themes.
Aesthetic Updating charges
Aesthetic refers to the visual appearance of the website and web applications that are developed using front-end technologies. It comprises the overall layout designs, images, colors, font, videos, etc. that are displayed on the websites. It helps in keeping the brand exciting to the users. Thus, gaining more visitors to the website. The charge of the aesthetic updating is different and above depending on the requirement. The E-Commerce website can hire professionals to update its website aesthetics.
Content Updating Charges
Content Updating plays a key role in the successful functioning of the website. The regular monitoring of the content and updating the content relevant to the trend is the deal maker. New content on the website provides more engagement of customer that increase sales. The relevant updating of the content also brings effective Search Engine Optimization to uplift the website rankings in search engines. The number of visitors to the website increases. It increases the revenue of the website. The content writers can produce valuable content.
WordPress plans and pricing
WordPress provides its users with fascinating website-building features to publish the content anywhere at anytime. Starting with free and maintaining with the cost is the deal of WordPress. It provides four options depending upon the function of the website.
- Personal
- Premium
- Business
- E-Commerce
These plans can be applicable from a small website to a most complex e-commerce website. It ensures that the site is running at full capacity. The consistent management of the core code helps the website to remain safe and secure. The investment in website maintenance provides high quality, secure user experiences, and better results.
Personal Plan
The personal plan is applicable for personal and professional blogs. The size of the website is moderate. It does not require strong security and premium plug-ins. The personal site uploads new content daily. It helps to improve the content of the website with a custom domain. It gains unlimited access to email support. WordPress maintenance cost of the personal plan is for the domain and hosting. It covers all updates and monitoring of the WordPress sites.
Premium Plan
Premium plans are best suitable for freelancers. The number of visitors to the site is more than a hundred. In addition to the domain and hosting expenses, it covers security, periodic upgrades, fast response time, and uptime. Security involves detecting spam, avoiding data breaches, repairing website flaws, and averting hackers. It provides advanced design tools, Google Analytics support to improve the efficiency of the website.
Business Plan
Business Plan is suitable for small businesses. Business websites must have regular content plans and innovative marketing tools. It helps to attract more visitors. The website maintenance plan prioritizes uptime, speed, and security. WordPress Business Plan provides approx. 200GB storage depends upon the provider. It supports business people with 24/7 live chat support. It covers custom plugins and themes to power the business.
eCommerce Plan
eCommerce Plan supports Online stores. Online stores require advanced functionality like the multilingual site, membership platform, and multi-site network. It must have a fast response time and uptime. WordPress is a powerful, flexible platform for online stores. Some of the features of the eCommerce plan are given below.
- Security
Security is one of the major considerations in e-commerce websites. It includes sensitive information like customer personal details, passwords, credit card, and debit card details, and company transactions. Hence, Security software should be up to date to withstand cyber threats, data breaches, etc. - Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing drives the people to the site by providing new and relevant content. The content can be in the form of SEO articles, messaging, blogs, social media posts, email, videos, and more. Google Analytics Services helps the site to understand the customer behavior and site performance to provide better user experiences. - Storefront Maintenance
The customer’s first impression is very important for any business website. To capture the customer, the storefront should be exhibit what the customer wants, offers, and prices. New themes and plugins should be included to avoid complexity.In addition, e-commerce website deals with more users, data, storage. Hence, the processing is complex and the maintenance cost is also high. The cost of the E-Commerce website maintenance varies when paid annually and monthly.
| Plans Features | Personal | Premium | Business | E-Commerce |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Domain for One Year | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Best-in-class hosting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Remove WordPress.com Ads | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Collect payments | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited Email Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live Chat Support | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Earn ad revenue | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Upload videos | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google analytics integration | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Install plugins and extend functionality for your site with access to more than 50,000 WordPress plugins | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automated site backups and one-click restore | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) and Database Access | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Accept payments in 60+ countries | No | No | No | Yes |
| Integrations with Top Shipping Carriers | No | No | No | Yes |
| Premium design options for online stores | No | No | No | Yes |
By choosing the right plan for the website will provide effective functioning. It improves its productivity by providing efficient results. Thus its minimizes the risks and damage that occur to the website.
Conclusion
Website maintenance is a mandatory process. The WordPress maintenance cost should be effectively utilized to deliver a better result for the website. Inspite of maintenance, monthly quality assurance should take place to determine the working of the updates. Once the updates are installed, its functioning is checked for errors, load times, and proper working. Website maintenance helps to gain the customer by providing a better user experience. It also helps the website owners to obtain revenue by updating its features regularly. It helps to maintain the website’s reputation with the latest trends and a safe environment.
