WordPress Website Maintenance San Antonio

Do you have a WordPress website?

Keeping the website software up-to-date is super important to the success of every local business.  We are specialists in all things WordPress website maintenance San Antonio.

Here's The Big Picture On How It Works.

They say that over 30% of websites online today are built on the WordPress.org framework which makes sense, because it is open-source (free).  You can customize your website any way you'd like.  Furthermore, if you, as a business owner, own your web hosting account then you own your website.

One way to think about your site, is like a stack of digital building blocks.

The main building block, or foundation, is the site's core software.  Everything sits on top of the site's WordPress core software.

From there you can customize your website by hand-writing custom code and adding it to the core software or you can use pre-written code called plugins to make your digital development easier (some plugins are free and some have fees).

Let's say you would like to have an automated scheduling calendar on your website so visitors can schedule an appointment with you online. Well, you can have that custom-coded or you can install and modify a plugin that already does it.

Since most businesses are not creating a completely new technology or service —like a Facebook, Google or Instagram—using a plugin makes more sense because it's quicker, costs less than hand-writing custom code and gets the job done.

The plugins that you install all sit on top of and weave into the WordPress core software.

So, it's important that the core software and plugin(s) software are updated at least every 30 days at a minimum.

Website updates are important.

Three reasons why updates are important to your business and sales.

1. Monthly website maintenance reduces the chances of getting hacked by someone sitting in a basement.

You may be thinking..."Who'd want to hack my website? I'm just a local business.".

You'd be surprised.

Without the proper website maintenance support and security process in place, sites are ripe for hacking.

Hackers are running programs 24/7 from around the world.

24 hours a day they are looking to break into websites and take whatever they can find.

Once they break-in, they will try to steal credit card info first.

If that's not available, they will try to steal email addresses and passwords. They'll take that info and run more programs trying to break into email accounts to see if they can find credit card info and social security numbers in the hacked email accounts.

Since they've broken into your website, they will install their own links to steal your website traffic and redirect it to their websites. For example, and this is a true client story, they'll install links to hacked movies and tv shows from their illegal websites. So when visitors come to your website, they'll see images and links to movies instead of your products or services.

Then, before they leave, they'll change your password to your website so you can't get in.

It's like someone broke into your house, stole everything, installed hidden cameras then changed the locks.

2. So you won't get embarrassed in front of your customers.

Another way to look at the WordPress core software and plugins is like a digital garden. Even simple gardens require regular care and development to remain beautiful.

All of that software works together and depends on each other to make that garden flourish. Over time, as the core WordPress software and plugins get improved security and features, they can stop working if they are not updated on your website regularly.  You can think of regular website maintenance as watering and pruning your digital garden.

While website design and your overall marketing is important, if your website doesn't work properly, it will hurt your customer experience and diminish your site's marketing efforts.

Few things are as frustrating as a poor experience on a website and they quickly kills sales.

3. Website maintenance and support services help keep you from losing sales.

We're in the Internet Age.

No matter what industry you're in, folks are looking you up online before they buy.  It doesn't matter what industry you are in our even if 100% of your customers are referrals.

Oftentimes, a prospective customer's first experience with a business is online and on that business' website.

If their first experience is seeing hacked movie links (true story) or weirdly-loading website pages that don't make sense, they will simply leave the website and go to your competitor.  You get 3-5 seconds and they are gone.

This includes businesses that are 100% referral-based. Referral-based businesses lose sales every day and don't know even know it.

Here's the good news.

Your site maintenance is a pretty easy task.  With a simple process in place, you can DIY your web maintenance and support yourself.

We even put a video together so you can do it yourself if you feel comfortable.

Just set a monthly "site update" reminder on your calendar and knock it out.