So, you have a professionally built website. It looks beautiful, modern, and is crafted to your needs. That’s great, but how do you handle ongoing care for it? If you want to focus on your business, website care plans are a great solution for this problem. In this post, I’m going to explore where upkeep is needed for websites. I will also be covering why a website care plan may be a great idea for your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The staple that holds any WordPress website together is the WordPress software itself. WordPress is one of the largest open-source software projects globally. What does open-source mean? It means the code behind the software is open to the public, for anyone be able to view and tinker with. Some people who are dedicated to the vision behind WordPress even contribute back to the project. There are many contributors who develop the software from around the world. Each update of WordPress includes bug fixes, new features, and refinement of existing features. It’s the large developer base behind WordPress that enables these updates. In order to have the best experience with your website, it’s important to keep WordPress up-to-date. The two main reasons to update WordPress is to maintain reliability and security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many plugins and themes follow in the footsteps of WordPress itself. Due to the open-source nature of WordPress, many plugins and themes are also open-source. The open-source model enables improvements to be made to them over time. From my experience, I have found that most hacked websites are due to an outdated plugin containing a vulnerability that’s exploited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a number of best practices to maintain when it comes to security. Updates are likely the most important step to maintaining security on your WordPress website, as highlighted above. Using a strong password and changing it every six months is a very good idea. Only allowing administrator access to employees who need it is also an important step to maintain strong security. You can read my post, “5 Tips to Keep Your WordPress Website Secure”<\/a>, to learn practical security tips to know yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some ongoing security practices that are encouraged for any website as well. These are actions are a good idea to have in a website care plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the course of years, your website’s database may become cluttered. Some plugins have a tendency to store data that isn’t needed after a period of time. This is where database optimization comes into play. The size of the database can be reduced, which frees up storage space, and speeds up database reading. Here are some of the items WordPress stores that can quickly stack up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reliable website hosting is an important piece of ongoing support. If a business hires an agency to host their website, they should be using a known, reliable hosting platform. Why is this important? It protects the client. Reliable website hosting providers have an extremely small chance for downtime. A great provider also provides fast, professional, quality support to solve any issues that come up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Support when you need it is incredibly crucial<\/em>. I cannot emphasize this enough. There are many horror stories of businesses having a seemingly professional website built, and have the agency who built it abandon them, or just be unresponsive. If an e-commerce store goes down for a week, this can cost the business thousands of dollars. This is why it’s important to find a website design business that is reliable and has your back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At York Computer Solutions, I take the support for my clients extremely seriously. As a WordPress developer I can solve any WordPress-related issue, and build custom functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These important parts of ongoing website support may seem overwhelming. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be. The importance of website care plans cannot be highlighted enough. At York Computer Solutions, we offer website care plans crafted for businesses of any scale. I can take care of all of these items so you can focus on running your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDatabase Optimization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Reliable Website Hosting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Professional Support When You Need It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Importance a Website Care Plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n