First, un-hacking a site and removing it from the search engines blacklist is harder than you can ever imagine, so take the time to do maintenance.
Like your vehicle, your website needs to be regularly checked, SEO optimized and backed up. This applies to content as well.
So you have been in the happy stage of launching your website. It works perfectly and you sit back to enjoy the success. Fast forward 6 months to a year and content is messed up, SEO hasn’t been updated, permalinks are broken…you have a mess to deal with, PLUS everything else to do!
Try one of our website maintenance bundles!
Website Backend Maintenance Essential
- $100 Month
- Check and Update Site daily for Theme Updates
- Check and Update Site daily for plugin Updates
- Fix website errors
- Check Domain Name Subscription (If Provided)
- Check Hosting Subscription (If Provided)
- Monthly Site Backup
Content Maintenance
Website content maintenance prevents a website from going stale, while also building credibility and establishing audience loyalty. Without a good reason to return, your business can easily become out-of-sight-out-of-mind, then demanding creative input and publishing from you…PLUS everything else to do!
And now that new sales and marketing promotion is on hold…
If you don’t have time to manage your own content, we will do it for you. Our web team is great at what they do and on time for proofing and publishing. We provide made-to-order monthly content management bundle packages that suit your needs.
Content can be changed throughout the design process. That’s the beauty of working with GenXwest.
FEATURED STARTER PACKAGE
- $75.00 Month
- Up to 10 Page Changes
- Adding/Updating/Deleting Site Products
- Updating Calendar/Events
- Replacing and Updating Images
- Removing and Correcting Broken Links to Internal and External Sites
PERSONAL PACKAGE
- $225 Month
- Up to 50 Page Changes
- Adding/Updating/Deleting Site Products
- Updating Calendar/Events
- Replacing and Updating Images
- Removing and Correcting Broken Links to Internal and External Sites
ECOMMERCE PACKAGE
- $400 Month
- 75+ Page Changes
- Adding/Updating/Deleting Site Products
- Updating Calendar/Events
- Replacing and Updating Images
- Removing and Correcting Broken Links to Internal and External Sites
If the agony of DIY website maintenance appeals to you, there are a few critical tasks you can do yourself. Here are four DIY tips. However, please do us a favor, start a stopwatch before you begin…your time is money.
1. Check Your Backups
If there is only one thing you do on this maintenance list, do this: Backup your website and make sure the backups are working. However, backup is only half of the solution. You also need to make sure you can restore your site from the backup. Not backing up your site is like driving on the Freeway without car insurance! As long as you don’t have an accident, you’re fine… but the moment something goes wrong, you’ve got a big problem. Make sure your backups are running, haven’t changed size too much or given you any errors, and that you can easily do a restore.
2. Update your versions, Plugins, and Software
One-third of the internet runs on WordPress, and 50% of those sites aren’t running recent versions of WordPress. Don’t run any updates without having a backup of your whole site first.
If you have a static HTML website, check sites you are linking to; the iframes with other content, and maybe even the server that is hosting your site. We have helped many clients that have let their website go for so long that an update will break their site.
If you maintain your own server, keep that machine updated with the latest OS updates, server software, firewall and other security software.
The best thing to do in some scenarios is to convert to WordPress and then continue with the top-of-the-line code that WordPress offers.
3. Delete Unused Plugins, Users, and Other Things
You may have old users still setup in your system or old plugins in WordPress. Clean those up. Sometimes deleting a user can cause other issues, so make sure you’ve reset their password, unhooked their email, and made it secure…closing a door that doesn’t need to be left open.
4. Analytics – Check your SEO and Search Engine Standings
This one isn’t on your website, but it is directly related. Google your company or some exact words of the titles of your pages. Do a Google site search using “site:domain.com” and some terms. Sometimes your meta description may show up in Chinese. If that happens (assuming your website is not in Chinese) your site might be hacked.
Hacked? Concerned? GenXwest can help you with that!