WEBSITE MAINTENANCE
Keep Your WordPress Website Working Properly
Building a website is only the beginning. WordPress, themes and plugins change over time, and ignoring them indefinitely is rarely a brilliant maintenance strategy.
WebCoZa provides practical WordPress website maintenance for South African businesses that would rather run their business than spend Friday afternoon wondering why a plugin suddenly wants attention.
WHY MAINTENANCE MATTERS
Websites Need Looking After Too
A WordPress website is made up of several moving parts. WordPress itself changes, plugins are updated, themes evolve and web browsers keep moving the goalposts.
Software Changes
WordPress, themes and plugins receive updates for compatibility, features, bug fixes and security.
Things Can Conflict
An update to one part of a website can occasionally affect another. Routine checks help identify problems before somebody discovers them at the worst possible moment.
Your Business Changes
Phone numbers, services, prices, staff, opening hours and other business information do not necessarily stay the same forever.
PRACTICAL WORDPRESS SUPPORT
What WebCoZa Can Help Maintain
The exact maintenance arrangement depends on your website, but these are the areas we commonly look after.
WordPress Updates
Keeping the WordPress core reasonably current rather than leaving the website several generations behind.
Plugin Updates
Updating installed plugins and checking that important parts of the website still behave properly afterwards.
Theme Updates
Keeping the active WordPress theme and associated components maintained where appropriate.
Backup Checks
Checking that the website has an appropriate backup arrangement rather than simply assuming one exists somewhere in the clouds.
Technical Checks
Looking for obvious website problems, broken elements or issues that appear after routine changes.
Practical Support
Somewhere to turn when WordPress produces an error, something looks wrong or you simply don’t know what you’re looking at.
AN IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE
Website Hosting and Website Maintenance Are Different
Hosting and maintenance are closely related, but they are not the same service.
Website hosting provides the server environment where your website lives.
Website maintenance involves looking after the WordPress website and its software over time.
A website can technically be hosted without somebody actively maintaining WordPress. That doesn’t necessarily make it the best idea.
The Simple Version
- Domain = your website address
- Hosting = where your website lives
- Email = communication using your domain
- Maintenance = looking after the website itself
KEEPING EXPECTATIONS CLEAR
Maintenance Doesn’t Mean Unlimited Website Development
Routine maintenance keeps an existing website looked after. Building entirely new sections, redesigning pages or adding major functionality is development work and may need a separate quotation.
Routine Maintenance
Updates, checks and normal technical attention to the existing WordPress website.
Content Changes
Small text or image changes may be handled depending on your maintenance arrangement. Larger content jobs are treated separately.
New Development
New pages, booking systems, ecommerce features, redesigns and other substantial additions are quoted according to what is required.
HOW WE START
Already Have a Website That Needs Looking After?
Before agreeing to maintain an existing website, it makes sense to see what we’re inheriting first.
Review the Website
We look at the existing WordPress installation, theme, plugins and general condition of the site.
Identify Problems
We look for obvious outdated components, technical issues and anything that needs attention before routine maintenance begins.
Agree the Scope
We explain what maintenance makes sense for the website and what, if anything, needs separate repair work.
Maintain It
Once the starting point is clear, routine website maintenance can continue on the agreed basis.
SOMETIMES MAINTENANCE ISN’T THE ANSWER
An Old Website May Need More Than Another Plugin Update
Sometimes an existing website is so outdated, cluttered or difficult to maintain that continuing to patch it doesn’t make much business sense.
If that’s the case, we’ll tell you. A cleaner rebuild may be a better long-term option than repeatedly fixing an old structure.
A Rebuild May Make Sense If:
- The website is badly outdated
- The existing theme is no longer supported
- Important plugins are obsolete
- The site is difficult to use on mobile
- Changing basic content regularly breaks things
- The current structure no longer suits the business
ALREADY A WEBCOZA CUSTOMER?
Keeping the Website Healthy After Launch
If WebCoZa built your website, ongoing maintenance gives us a way to continue looking after the WordPress installation as it changes over time.
Your hosting keeps the site online. Maintenance helps keep the software behind it in reasonable working order.
Need a Website First?
South African small businesses needing a straightforward five-page website may qualify for our R0 website design offer.
You pay for your domain and R200 per month hosting, with professional email included.
WEBSITE MAINTENANCE QUESTIONS
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does a WordPress website need maintenance?
WordPress websites use software that changes over time. WordPress itself, themes and plugins receive updates, and routine maintenance helps keep those components reasonably current and identifies problems when they appear.
Is website maintenance included with hosting?
Website hosting and WordPress maintenance are separate services. Hosting keeps the website online, while maintenance involves looking after the WordPress installation itself.
Can WebCoZa maintain a website you didn’t build?
Potentially. We first review the existing website, theme, plugins and general condition before deciding whether taking over ongoing maintenance is practical.
Does maintenance include updating my content?
That depends on the maintenance arrangement. Small changes may be accommodated, while larger content updates, new pages or ongoing content creation may be quoted separately.
Does maintenance include website redesigns?
No. Routine maintenance and major redesign work are different services. If the website requires significant structural or visual changes, we’ll discuss a website design or redevelopment project instead.
What if an old website is difficult to maintain?
We’ll explain what we find. If continuing to repair an outdated website no longer makes sense, we may recommend rebuilding it on a cleaner and more maintainable structure.
NEED HELP WITH WORDPRESS?
Let’s Look at Your Website
Tell us what website you have, who currently hosts it and what problems or maintenance help you need. We’ll look at the sensible next step.