In the early days of website creation, you could more or less leave your website alone after building it. That’s because websites functioned more like online brochures.
Websites have since evolved into much more complex, advanced platforms with functionality that was unimaginable twenty years ago. As marketing tools, they are capable of increasing leads and moving prospects down your sales funnel toward becoming loyal customers. Because of this increased complexity, websites need more maintenance, especially in terms of website security, updates, and speed.
WordPress.org recommends the following monthly site maintenance focuses:
- Website security: It’s crucial to secure your data and your clients’ data, especially since hackers love targeting WordPress websites.
- Website speed: Fast page loading time is a critical aspect of a good user experience. Most users abandon websites that take longer than 3 seconds to load.
- SEO: In order to rank in relevant searches, you need to regularly seek out and fix SEO issues on your website.
Our team at WP Buffs is dedicated to helping website owners, agency partners, and freelancer partners manage their WordPress sites 24/7. Whether you need us to manage 1 website or support 1000 client sites, we’ve got your back.
What Do Website Hosting Providers Do? 🙋
In a nutshell, website hosting offers a service that allows individuals and organizations to post their websites online. This service is provided by a web hosting service provider, often referred to as a web host. What the host does is store the data for your website — as in your entire website — on a server. So, when someone wants to access the site, all they have to do is type your domain in the browser, and the server will connect them to the site. In addition to offering host plans, many web hosts also provide several value-added features. These often include a free domain, FTP access to allow you to upload files from your computer to the web server, and email accounts created using your domain name for a more professional look (such as: yourname@yourwebsite.com). Just look at some of the “Essential Features” offered by Siteground: A web host — at least a good one — will also provide customer support. This is often overlooked when people are shopping around for a cheap hosting service, but it shouldn’t be. Poor customer service can cost you and your business dearly. Website problems can quickly push away potential clients and impact your brand. To be sure that you end up with a quality web host, read reviews to identify which ones are reputable and quick-responding.Managed WordPress Hosting
Nowadays, many web hosts have started specifically offering WordPress support services via managed WordPress hosting. This is because most websites that rely on hosting plans run on WordPress, which powers 33% of the internet. These WordPress managed hosting services are basically concierge services where the host manages many important technical aspects of running a WordPress site such as security, speed, WordPress updates, daily backups, ensuring website uptime, and scalability.What Do Website Maintenance Providers Do? 🔧
In many ways, website maintenance services are similar to managed WordPress hosting. They also take care of the technical aspects of your website, including daily backups (of both database and core), page speed optimization, performance monitoring, and security and hacking prevention — including malware scanning, cleaning, and removal. The primary difference is that a website maintenance provider is entirely dedicated to ensuring your site runs optimally, while a managed web host provides those services as an add-on to their core product.Why You Should Get a Website Maintenance Provider 🤔
Popular website hosting companies offer add-on services that — at first glance — are similar to those of a website maintenance provider. Considering both at-a-glance can make it seem like focusing only on a managed WordPress hosting plan saves both time and money. However, considering the difference between managed WordPress hosting vs maintenance companies is significant. One of the primary differences between the two is the human factor. While managed WordPress hosting services can take care of daily backups, updates, and security, most of these things can be automated anyway. Of course, there are some aspects of these services that can’t be automated; they include editing site content, changing banners, headers or footers, and update landing pages. What’s not included in most packages offered by WordPress hosting services are any custom development, including:- PHP
- Plugins
- Themes