Maintaining a website is no easy task. From security to backups and software updates to new content, a website can consume a lot of your time. Worse, if you aren’t a web professional, maintaining your website may become yet another stressor.
No wonder so many small businesses and nonprofits leave their websites unattended for months (or even years).
Your website isn’t a billboard or a Yellow Pages listing – it doesn’t perform well if it is just created and then left behind.
Your website is more like a digital storefront or office. It doesn’t only exist to be seen. As a digital location for your business your website also needs to maintained, secured, visited, and shopped.
But are you the guy or girl to do it?
If you haven’t been maintaining your website it’s about time to leverage it and get noticed.
If you have been maintaining your site but it’s taking too much out of you it’s about time to delegate.
A web maintenance and support retainer with a web professional may be just the thing you need to get the most out of both your website and your time.
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Why Did You Launch Your Website?
Perhaps you launched your website to drive more leads to your business. Maybe it was to invite more foot traffic to your storefront. Or maybe it was just so you would be perceived more professionally when people searched for you.
(Why did you launch your website? Let us know in the comments below.)
Regardless of the reason, you need to get back to that goal.
Is your website serving its original purpose? Or has it become an end to itself?
Is Your Website Consuming Too Much of Your Time?
How much time are you spending each week on your website?
Each site and each business has different online requirements that may include:
- Updating software,
- Updating content,
- Publishing new value added content (like blog posts),
- Troubleshooting site bugs and issues,
- Sending emergency messages to your hosting provider when your site is down,
- Figuring out how to cope with changes in web technologies (like Flash’s death or WordPress’ new Gutenberg editor),
- and more.
If you are the point person for these issues and trying to grow your business you may be doing too much.
A Growing Business Delegates
“If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.” – John C. Maxwell
Delegating what you have to do to run your business will help you do more of what you want your business to do.
And, consequently, your business will have greater growth potential.
If you are spending too much time on your website it may be time delegate your web maintenance and support to someone who can get more done in less time and free you up to do what you love.
Are You Delegating Your Web Maintenance and Support?
Web professionals (whether hired internally or contracted externally) can often produce better results than you can on your own.
Delegating your web maintenance and support may lead to less bugs, less downtime, and a more attractive site.
But most importantly it leads to more time for you to focus on what drove you to launch the site to begin with.
What Could You Accomplish?
What could you accomplish if your website was performing better than ever but you were spending less time on it than ever before?
Would you spend more time focusing on your clients and customers?
Could it lead to you finally launching that new product or service?
Perhaps you would be spending more time and energy building your dynamite team?
Who to Turn to
So who do you turn to?
In our article on “Should I Hire a Web-Developer? (And How Much Should I Pay?)” we go into detail on the pros and cons of hiring a friend, freelancer, or firm to help you out.
But as a business looking for regular and reliable web maintenance and support you realistically have three options:
1. Ask a current team member who is proficient in web technologies to handle some of the tasks.
This is an excellent stepping stone for a small business with the right team.
Do you have someone on your team that knows server technologies, back-end programming, or front-end design as a hobby or side-hustle?
Delegating your web maintenance and support to them (with compensation, of course) could go a long way to freeing up your time and to grow the parts of the business that really matter.
2. Hire a freelancer your team knows.
Some freelance web professionals (esp those who are full time contractors) offer web maintenance and support retainers. They’ll guarantee a set number of hours or tickets for you each month at a regular rate.
These are usually professionals who can do normal maintenance and even custom codded work. Find the right freelancer and it will be worth every cent.
You’ll be able to rest easy knowing that they’ve got you covered.
3. Contract with a agency (like Rystedt Creative) to support your website.
Firms and agencies often have larger teams, can support you during off hours, and can keep working with you for many years. If your business is established, quickly growing, or is looking for long-term web maintenance and support an agency is probably your best choice.
Even better, many agencies offer discounts on their regular rates for clients that contract for a set number of hours or tickets per month (like we do with our WordPress Lifeline service).
We at Rystedt Creative can help propel your website to the next level while giving you back your time. Whether you need a deeply discounted small retainer like our WordPress Lifeline service or something a bit larger and more complex, our WordPress Maintenance and Support team has your back. Your next step is as easy as contacting us.
