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Unfortunately, the benefits stop there, and DIY also comes with tons of hidden challenges and roadblocks.
What if you make a mistake, or your site gets hacked? What about PHP errors? Can you bounce back quickly enough to minimize downtime and lost revenue?
If you’re not sure, read on to find out:
- What website maintenance DIY actually involves
- The pros and cons of going solo
- Why partnering with a maintenance agency is the better choice for busy professionals
TL;DR – Key Takeaways
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Website Maintenance DIY: What You Need to Know
Website maintenance comprises all the regular tasks that keep your site safe, accessible, and performing at its best. DIY website maintenance refers to handling these tasks yourself, rather than hiring third parties, such as freelancers or agency experts.
Why do businesses try DIY maintenance?
Many businesses choose DIY maintenance to:
- Save money on hiring and outsourcing
- Keep creative control
- Protect private data
- Schedule tasks at their own pace
- Avoid flaky freelancers
Website maintenance is crucial, regardless of the approach. What’s vital when going full DIY, however, is that website owners prioritize and schedule tasks carefully.
Skipping maintenance tasks can lead to page slowdowns, website security issues, and poor user experience.
Key DIY maintenance tasks
The most important DIY maintenance jobs include:
- Running security updates
- Scanning for and removing malware
- Testing contact forms and security plugins
- Backing up data
- Checking load speeds and managing website performance
- Uploading and refreshing website copy
- Tweaking search engine optimization (SEO) to rank highly on search engines
- Fixing 404 errors and broken links
…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Check out our website maintenance checklist for the nitty-gritty.
If you want to skip the full read, grab our downloadable checklist instead.
WordPress’s user-friendliness makes it the ideal content management system for small businesses that care about maintenance. Let’s explore some ways you can take advantage of this popular platform to protect and optimize your site.
WordPress website maintenance DIY tips
Here are a few ways to make the most of DIY maintenance:
- Look carefully for a reliable hosting plan that can protect your site and offer the bandwidth and storage you need.
- Back up your site regularly to be able to reload from an earlier time, either with a host or a plugin like UpdraftPlus (or even better, both).
- Keep on top of security best practices, no matter how small they seem (such as changing user passwords every few months).
- Update your site as soon as patches are available. A Sucuri study found that more than 39% of website content platforms were outdated at the time of infection.
- Remove any unused code or software, such as surplus plugins and themes, to improve security and performance.
- Use a staging site to test new features and make edits, so your live site isn’t affected and you don’t need to worry about getting stuck in maintenance mode.
- Refresh your landing pages in line with your latest A/B tests and search optimization keyword strategies to appear higher on search engines.
- Use GTMetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights to monitor your site’s performance and accessibility.
- Fix broken links (with tools like Broken Link Checker or Dead Link Checker) to avoid SEO and UX issues.
- Arm yourself with our WordPress help guide to understand how to fix errors yourself.
That’s a lot to take in.
You can learn more about these points in more detail in our WordPress maintenance tips guide.
Risks of DIY website maintenance
Website maintenance DIY might seem appealing, but there are downsides.
To start, it’s a lot of effort, which means you’ll need to spend more time away from running your business.
Website maintenance can also get very difficult when you’re flying solo. There’s no one to rely on if your site develops a critical error or gets hacked, leaving you at the mercy of bad actors and putting customer satisfaction in free fall.
You’ll need to remember to:
- Install security patches, firewalls, and updates to avoid potential security problems, such as plugin vulnerabilities and weak passwords.
- Check for common errors and intensive maintenance demands.
- Consistently engage with your site’s long-term SEO strategy.
The scale of website maintenance is a key reason why Sun Pacific turned to StateWP for help. It was struggling with an error-riddled website, and marketing manager Emma Wollenweber realized outsourcing to experts was the answer:
“This was a huge project that I just couldn’t, shouldn’t, and wouldn’t do. We got so much out of just paying StateWP to answer all our questions and solve these problems.”
Even if you have time for troubleshooting your site, you could make a mistake or cause an error. Do you know how to fix it quickly before your customers notice?
If not, downtime is a business killer. Most Americans leave if your website fails on fewer than four attempts.
In other words, the longer the screen stays blank, the more revenue and trust you lose.
Bottom line: Web maintenance DIY poses hidden costs and stresses. However, they’re easily avoided if you pick a reliable maintenance partner.
When Does DIY Website Maintenance Make Sense?
Website maintenance DIY is only low-risk and low-cost for:
- Tech-savvy traders and entrepreneurs with basic websites
- People with one-page business card sites
- Early-stage companies that aren’t looking to drive online leads or scale their business
In short, going solo is only worth it if your website isn’t your main source of leads and revenue and you have plenty of time on your hands.
But do you really have the time?
Around half of business owners say their free time is decreasing year by year, which is another reason why we recommend focusing on mission-critical tasks instead of web maintenance. 😉
Professional Website Maintenance Is the Right Choice for Most Businesses
With professional developers always monitoring and caring for your site, you’re keeping the nightmares at bay. As our CEO, Garrett, says:
“We find that there are a lot of advantages to hiring a specialized firm. It saves time primarily so that [our customers] can focus on what matters most.”
The advantages of a website maintenance plan
Signing up for a website maintenance plan translates to someone protecting your site around the clock. Your hands are completely off the wheel, as experts handle all your weekly and monthly tasks.
Sure, it’s an upfront cost, but it’s a long-term investment that protects your site and safeguards your online reputation.
Think about all the money you could lose on data breaches and downtime when you could avoid it all for a monthly fee. It’s an insurance policy.
And, if something does go wrong, you have talented, experienced people ready to act.
Just raise a problem with your maintenance team and focus on taking care of your customers. You don’t have to learn new skills or fumble around for answers.
Plus, maintenance agencies know what they’re doing. There’s no trial and error.
A maintenance plan ensures you have a responsive, efficient, and secure website without doing a thing.
How to get started with website maintenance services
Setting up a maintenance plan is a breeze:
- Think about what you need from a website maintenance service. Do you need someone to monitor and update your site? Would you benefit from performance boosts and development support? Or, do you need a staging site and specialized eCommerce features?
- Compare the market. Research the best website maintenance companies based on costs, security features, and customer support as a priority.
- Sign up with your chosen partner and work with an account manager on an autonomous action plan.
- Start focusing on running your business.
The end. 💆🏻♀️
Ready for Peace of Mind? Partner with StateWP
Our website maintenance crew genuinely cares about helping professional services firms and nonprofits maximize their time, revenue, and security.
We’re a barrier against malicious attempts, breaches, and financial loss. In addition, we handle everything behind the scenes, keeping your site live and your visitors happy.
Our customers benefit from:
- Customized website maintenance and a dedicated account manager
- All updates and error fixes rolled out as soon as needed
- A site health dashboard for monitoring analytics and raising questions
- Continuous performance optimization for the best user experience
- Regular development hours for new features (on our Premium and Elite plans)
Ranchod Law Group experiences this firsthand. The company arrived at StateWP with a slow, error-ridden site.
We quickly and painlessly transformed the site’s loading speeds and overall performance, overhauled its plugin updates, and took ownership of regular content management. We now maintain a site that attracts more leads than ever before.
See how much of a difference partnering with a proactive maintenance team could make to your website by running our free online audit.
Better still, Garrett’s here to discuss how StateWP can help your site perform at its absolute best and maintain a strong digital presence. Book a call for a friendly chat and a demo of our offerings.
DIY Website Maintenance FAQs
Here are some final DIY website maintenance questions to close our guide by shedding more light on the ins and outs of monthly maintenance.
What maintenance does a website need?
- Updating core files
- Running regular backups
- Testing site features
- Conducting security monitoring and checking SSL certificates
- Reviewing password strength and user permissions
- Compressing new images
- Testing website speed and broken links
It’s also important to regularly analyze your traffic and SEO stats, and to refresh and upload content so you’re easy to find.
Can I maintain my own website?
If you run a business website that drives traffic and sales, do-it-yourself website maintenance is time-consuming and confusing. It can lead to revenue loss through potential downtime, which also causes a reputation for poor customer service. To avoid these risks and save money, try a WordPress support plan.
How much does it cost to maintain your own website?
Hiring freelancers is also a money drain because you’re reliant on one expert with lots of clients. It’s most cost-effective to hire an agency with fixed monthly rates.
Why is a website so costly to maintain?
Can I get a website that doesn’t need maintenance or updates?
Static sites are speedy and don’t need content updates, but are complex to build and need expert web developer support, which can get expensive.
Website builders reduce maintenance and are safe, but are also costly and usually restrict you to default templates and functionality. It’s easiest and most efficient to find an affordable website maintenance team like StateWP’s.