Do you recognize this scenario? 🤔 What about this one: You have a legacy website built some time ago. No one actively maintains it, but it runs fine in the background. Until one day, your host suspends it for having malware, and Google blocks it from their search results. WordPress is not static software, and WordPress websites are usually combinations of various plugins put together by different developers. As the WordPress core updates, plugins need to be updated too — either to keep them in sync with the WordPress core or to close vulnerabilities discovered by users. WordPress does a good job of making these updates user-driven and intuitive through the control panel. However, increasingly site owners are turning to WordPress Maintenance agencies like Fixed.net to look after their WordPress sites.
Why do you need WordPress maintenance?
There are many reasons; let’s explore some of the critical ones.
Security and Hacker Prevention
WordPress is the most popular CMS globally, with nearly 40% of active websites using it as a base. Popular plugins like WooCommerce, and page builders like Divi and Elementor, extend functionality for millions of users. And countless other plugins developed by thousands of others developers, big and small, are available for quick install and configuration. This combination of popularity and non-centralized development means that viruses and hackers often target WordPress. When discovered, a vulnerability can be exploited by malicious actors on vast numbers of websites. They may be exploited to steal user data, launch phishing attacks, or more often just for fun. In some cases, a backdoor can be opened and left for months before being exploited. A good maintenance agency like Fixed will take a four-pronged approach to security. First, ensure that all plugins and the WordPress core are up-to-date. This is something you could do yourself, of course, but a maintenance agency will ensure this is done quickly and crucially that updates do not break functionality on your website. This is done by staging updates on a test environment first. Second, by keeping on top of zero-day announcements and vulnerability reports. Companies like WPScan release updates as soon as a plugin is vulnerable. Fixed.net monitors these alerts 24/7 and can react instantly. Third, by ensuring the hosting and website setup is secure. Simple tweaks and fixes can be made to help prevent a WordPress website from being defaced, including stopping plugins from writing to configuration files. Fourth, by constantly scanning the site for known malware or vulnerabilities and clearing them if found. Usually, this is done by the WordPress Maintenance agencies having their own malware signature databases. The end result is that your site should remain both up to date, functional, and completely free of malware.
Backups
Let’s imagine that something happens to your website that causes it to be deleted or defaced. This might be a security breach like those described above, or perhaps your web host has issues, or perhaps you make a mistake and delete something accidentally. Website Maintenance agencies will ensure that you have backups of your website and also check the integrity of those backups. These would ideally not just be WordPress backups – they will not use a plugin like Updraft. A good maintenance agency will take backups of your entire website, firebase, and database. Companies like Fixed.net also monitor a website for issues and can jump in and fix issues should there be any problems.
Speed and AuditsÂ
Health checks are a must for every website. They can ensure your site is running well, that there are no speed or performance problems. A WordPress maintenance agency will usually do a full audit when you first join them to ensure everything is running as normal and fix any problems. Once done, they will keep track of changes made, so you will be sure the site runs well at all points.
Tweaks and Changes
Another benefit of having a WordPress Maintenance agency is that they can be on hand to do small tweaks and changes on your website. This could be an image upload, a new blog post, a contact form tweak, a change of email address – or anything that would usually be too small for a website design agency to handle. Fixed.net offers both a maintenance-only plan (their “Care” plan) and allows you to pay for these one-off tweaks ad-hoc. Or an “Unlimited” plan, which includes unlimited revisions like this.
Web Hosting
While website hosting is separate from WordPress Maintenance, often website hosting will be included with maintenance. This is because it can be more straightforward for a company to maintain your website when they have full control over the hosting to debug issues. For example, Fixed provides inclusive website hosting, inclusive SSL certificates, and inclusive email. They will handle your site’s migration to their platform at no added cost; this means you can save funds on your current web hosting provider.
Choosing a WordPress Maintenance Agency
Of course, any Website Maintenance agency you choose needs to compliment you, not restrict you. Make sure you maintain full access to your WordPress website and have access to your hosting environment. This empowers you to move away in the future if you desire and keeps you in control of your most important business asset – your website. There is no need to tie yourself into a long contract. The best agencies will offer rolling monthly contracts, which you can cancel at any time. The approach should be that their service is good enough that you should want to stay. Finally, make sure that whoever you go with is contactable and approachable. Give them a ring and talk through your website to ensure they are the right fit. At Geekflare, we recommend Fixed.net, who has been offering WordPress Maintenance services since 2018 and look after thousands of WordPress websites. They operate a 24/7 service, with technicians based in their offices worldwide, and their prices start at £29 per month for full website maintenance, including web hosting.
