There seems to be a pervasive myth about websites that once an organization has their site designed and built, the need for a website developer is over.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
5 Reasons Website Maintenance is Critically Important
1) Hackers – Hackers are constantly using automated programs to look for sites that have security flaws because they have not received the latest updates. If you are not monitoring news from the developers of the software that runs your website and installing security updates, you’re site is at risk.
2) Spammers – While some hackers wreak havoc on websites themselves, others search for vulnerable sites or vulnerable email accounts so they can send spam through an unsuspecting organizations account. If a spammer gains access to an account, the spam he sends could get your site black-listed, which means legitimate emails you & your staff try to send could get blocked.
3) Obsolete plugins – Some of the website platforms available to day including WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are open-source (free) and thousands of available open-source plugins. Unfortunately, sometimes the developers of these plugins stop supporting them, leaving the sites that installed them with antiquated, vulnerable plugins that eventually don’t work with the latest version of the platform. When that happens, you have to scramble to find, install and migrate data to an quality alternative.
4) Upgrades – Chances are you want your organization to grow. As you grow, you want your website to grow with you. Perhaps down the road you see your organization making audio and video available online, offering resources for sale, providing classes online, or doing ticketing or reservations for events through your website. Most web developers are wary of trying to add to a website they did not develop. You’ll find it much faster and less expensive to add additional functionality if you already have an ongoing relationship with a developer who is providing routine maintenance on your site.
5) Insight – Organizations that understand the importance of communicating well, include communications in their strategic plans. Good plans require accurate assessments of costs, effectiveness and implementation times. If nobody is maintaining the site, it’s going to be difficult for anybody to provide insight on your options moving forward. Most likely, anyone you ask is going to tell you what they could do if they start from scratch. But if you have someone maintaining the site on a regular basis, they’ll understand where you are be able to explain what your options are for the future.
You wouldn’t, would you?
You wouldn’t buy a new car and then never bring it in for an oil change or tune up, would you?
You wouldn’t buy a new house and then ignore the need for pest control or lawn maintenance, right?
Don’t make a similar mistake with your website.
At OurChurch.Com, we believe ongoing maintenance of a website is so important that its included in all our custom website design packages. And for those organizations who prefer the more conventional a la carte approach to their new website, we also offer our Full Service WordPress Program.
Discuss
Have you ever seen an organization that ran into serious complications with their website because they had no plan for maintenance?
How important do you think it is to do regularly scheduled maintenance on a website (either in-house or via a service provider)?