Web maintenance in under 1 minute. The point of this is to quickly understand everything you need to know!
1. DOMAIN NAME is the URL, the address of your website. Think of it sort of like the name of your business, your brandname (example: grandwaymarketing.com).
2. WEB HOSTING is where your actual website files are stored and loaded from in order for your website to show up when anyone, anytime, anywhere, types in your domain name. Think of this as a piece of empty land that you need to buy or rent to put your business on.
3. WORDPRESS is a CMS platform that is used to build your website. Think of this as the building, the store, the shop. You’re building this shop or store (website), on the land you rent (hosting), for your business brand (your domain name).
4. WEB MAINTENANCE refers to the work that goes into updates, changes, and edits required at WordPress level, server/hosting level, domain level, etc. Most, if not all the of the best performing websites, in terms of generating revenue, are websites that are continuously updated, feature fresh content, and just overall require more attention. Web maintenance may also refer to troubleshooting, backups, email address management, SSL certificate management, website backups, website traffic analytics.
There’s 5 main reasons why web maintenance is important: security, risk of damage and integrity of website, wasted time and money, poor user experience, decreased speed.
All of these things have to be addressed in order to have a high performance website.
If you have 2 more minutes, here’s your options:
DIY
Web hosting, domain names, wordpress, etc. are all easily accessible and easy enough to set up for anyone with average computer skills. However, troubleshooting issues when they arise is time consuming and annoying. The customer service for most of those platforms is hit or miss. No actual web development time included so you have to either build your own website and do your own web maintenance or hire someone externally.
In-house IT professional/webmaster
This is likely the most economical option if you require A LOT of web maintenance work. That’s typically large enterprises and large ecommerce websites that require 20+ hours a week which justifies a part time or full time position. The average web developer salary in Canada is around $55k, about $26/hour. Not all businesses need this or can afford it.
Hire a freelancer
This can be a good option or a bad option for your web maintenance needs and it’s a bit of a gamble. Freelancers range greatly in all things from rate, ability, quality of work, professionalism, reliability, and communication. Freelancers in countries with relatively lower living costs charge $10+ an hour. World-class award winning freelancers charge over $100 per hour. And everything in between. Typically the more you pay the better the freelancer.
Hire an agency
This is a great solution if you’re looking for skill, reliability, and professionalism, above cost. Reputable, honest agencies hire their own professionals in house who all make a living doing this type of work and are passionate about it. This makes everything to do with your web assets worry free. This however, can cost $100+ per hour in most major cities in Canada and US.
Sorry to throw a sales pitch in here, but Our approach is to offer the skill, quality and reliability of an agency at a lower, freelancer-like cost. Depending on how many hours are included in your web maintenance, you can hire us at $75 per hour. On top of that, we also offer ultra high speed hosting services. Visit our website website maintenance page for more info and pricing.
Another option, whether you are looking for restaurant web design, real estate website design, or anything in between is to search the web for reputable companies on websites like designrush.com, clutch.co or threebestrated.com