When it comes to securing your WordPress site, you have a few options. You could hire a team of developers to handle everything, via an ongoing maintenance plan. You could figure out how to do it yourself, with varying levels of success. Or you could do nothing and hope for the best, but that would most likely end up in an early morning panic when you find your site is full of errors, slow loading times, and content you’ve never even seen before. So, what is your best option? In this article, we’ll explore one of these options, a maintenance plan, and why it’s worth obtaining one to secure your site.
What Does a Maintenance Plan Entail?
Maintenance doesn’t just mean a developer keeps your website pretty. Looks aren’t everything. Maintenance entails providing support and keeping your website in good condition by making repairs, correcting problems, or keeping your website secure.
But first things first. Why do you need a maintenance plan for your site? Can’t you just use WordPress’ updates? Well, no, because those updates aren’t going to solve all of your problems. A maintenance plan provides a lot more than just maintenance for your site. It can also include updates, backups, security monitoring, support, performance optimization, and custom development. It’s the multi tool of the WordPress development world.
Why do You Need a Maintenance Plan?
Because WordPress is constantly rolling out updates, additions, and security fixes for WordPress plugins, you still need to deploy all of those updates, additions, and security fixes. If you don’t, you may not notice issues at first, but over time they add up, and can detail a significant amount of work for someone to come in and fix, not to mention the amount of business lost because of those setbacks.
Using only basic security measures like deploying updates won’t guarantee your site is perfectly secure. That’s why maintenance plans are so helpful. Because there’s a WordPress developer who is regularly checking your site for any needed updates, issues, etc, it means potential security risks are minimized. The point behind a maintenance plan is to reduce security risks as much as possible. It’s all about reduction and minimization. No system is ever perfect, but a maintenance plan gets you as close as you can possibly get.
Can’t You DIY Your Maintenance?
Ah, the good ol’ diy. Favored by dramatic fixer upper shows, and enthusiastically handy people. This avenue is generally not recommended for a multitude of reasons. If you have multiple sites, or an enterprise level operation, for example, this is not the best use of your time. Or if you’re not technologically savvy. Or if you’re already busy expanding your business. Imagine if something goes wrong on a small site, and how long it would take to fix. Now imagine that happening on five sites, all at the same time. We have now crossed into disaster territory. Instead of using that time to try and figure out how to fix your site, you could be using it to increase your business opportunities, or run your business.
Decision Making
We’ve covered a little bit of the background behind maintenance plans. We’ve given you a few reasons why, and what some of the advantages behind securing a maintenance plan for your site can be. To sum it up, a maintenance plan is going to improve the longevity of your website. Anything worth investing in is going to need regular maintenance, from your teeth, to your car, to your home. Your website is no exception. A maintenance plan will not only secure your website, but it will optimize it. Safe and efficient? It’s difficult to say no.
Unsure of Where to Start?
At Curious Minds, we offer maintenance plans for any WordPress website. Our plans are for the small blog all the way to the multinational organization. All of our plans are free of contracts, giving you the flexibility to support your business. Contact us today, and see how we can maintain and optimize your site.
