You chose WordPress because you thought it would be an easy way to get your site going. You’re not wrong. But you may not have anticipated all the little tasks you would have to do on a regular basis to keep it running.
Here’s how it usually goes:
- You log into your site to write a post or manage orders
- Oh! Plugins need updating
- There’s an error message! Time to research the cause…
- Hours later, you still haven’t accomplished what you came to do.
If that sounds familiar, I empathize. It can feel like you’re on a hamster wheel, moving your legs like crazy but not getting anywhere. And the thing is, you don’t need a developer to fix major problems, you just want to remove all the nagging distractions.
That’s where a maintenance plan can help.
What a Maintenance Plan Can Do For You
Broadly, a WordPress maintenance plan will take care of all the boring stuff so you can get your real work done. More specifically, there are a few things a good maintenance plan will cover.
Error Fixing and Tech Support
Ugh. You’re seeing a “500 internal server error.” What is it? You don’t know! And you have no idea why it’s happening all of a sudden. And now you can’t even log in to your site. Instead of searching the depths of the internet for the answer, you could send a message to your maintenance plan’s support team.
Most higher-tier maintenance plans will provide a direct line to support — whether that’s by phone, email, Slack, Discord, or even social media. But it’s possible that customer-facing errors like the dreaded 505 will have already been noticed and fixed by your site maintainer, and you may not even notice that anything happened.
Manages Your Site Upkeep
Even if you have a bare-bones, brochure style site, you still need to stay on top of updates. It seems like many WordPress plugins are needing updates on a weekly or even daily basis. Then there are theme and WordPress core updates that have to be handled regularly. If they’re not, parts of your site could stop functioning or worse, you could get hacked (see security, next).
And speaking of hacks, if your site gets wiped out completely, your site maintainer will have a full backup stored somewhere safe. You’ll be back up in no time.
On a WordPress maintenance plan, all the pesky updates are taken care of for you. With the right plan, you could also have your maintainer handle all of your web host updates and tasks as well. Let them stay on hold with tech support while you do things that are more fulfilling.
Keeps Your Site Secure
You know which sites get hacked the most? It’s not the juggernaut brand sites like Nike or even the White House. It’s small, personal sites. Why? Because chances are no one’s paying attention to updates or noticing that non-users are trying to log in. It’s kind of like going on vacation and not having timers for your lights or someone to pick up your mail. If your house looks empty for a while, your sending burglars an invitation to break in.
Any good WordPress care package will offer monitoring for security. It’s like hiring a house sitter, but they won’t get potato chip crumbs all over your couch.
Free Up Your Time, Focus on What You Love
When you don’t have to spend your mental energy managing your WordPress site, you have more time to do the things you want or need to be doing — like taking care of your customers or writing amazing blog posts.
A WordPress maintenance plan is not going to prevent all cyber attacks, or keep things from going wonky sometimes. It happens to the best of us. But the chances of those things happening are much smaller, and if they do happen you’ll know somebody has your back.
If you want to see what a WordPress care plan could look like and how much they cost, you can see what I offer on my services page.
Feature image by Nina Mercado on Unsplash
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