Website maintenance is often misunderstood which is not surprising as the word maintenance can refer to two different things: content and software.
I hope to explain this fully below.
Keeping your site content up to date
Maintaining a site by keeping it up to date with content and taking off old information is quite important to keep the site representing what you do accurately.
Keeping content current has the added advantage of moving your site up the search engine rankings as Google, Bing and Edge like sites that are kept up to date – its a win, win!
Technical maintenance
This is the deeper, and some would say mysterious, side of maintaining a site when the site is built using a content management system such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Craft etc. Perhaps a good way to explain it to think of it like taking your car in for a service but on a more regular basis.
Websites are made up of many component parts of software:
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- Servers
- Content management systems
- Themes
- Plugins
So let’s take a look under the bonnet.
Servers at data centres
Your site will sit in a data centre full of banks of hard drivers or servers, these hold your website files. Each have an operating system with varying versions of software which should be kept up to date.
Many older sites are now hosted on ‘legacy hosting’ where it is stuck on an old version and older servers. If all the components below are not up to date your site may not be able to be moved to current, faster hard drives.
Content management systems
Then we have the content management system (CMS) that runs the main part of the site. This software has versions that need to be brought up to date periodically. Without this being carried out you can leave security holes in the system and so it leaves it open to hackers.
Website themes
Your site may have a theme that creates some of the functionality and the overall look and feel. Good theme developers keep these up to date by creating new versions. Often the new versions respond to updates in the CMS to keep them in sync.
Plugins
Then there are the plugins that add additional functionality to the site. If these stop working well they can stop the site working in specific areas. These are the fist things we turn off to test when things go wrong.
How to update your website
I know it sounds like a big upsell but I would advise that this is done by a web designer or developer who has experience in fixing things when updates go a little bit wrong. Here are the things we can do:
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- We always run backups before we start or find the ways to rollback the site if any of the updates above cause an issue.
- We carry out the updates in the right order to minimise issues.
- We have a way to getting to the bottom of what may be causing the issue and in certain circumstances can come up with a fix or an alternative to replace something that has stopped working well.
What happens when you don’t update your site?
I am sure I am not alone as a web designer in receiving calls and emails from people whose site is stuck and can’t be updated. The next step is to rebuild what is there or replace a theme at great expense.
How often should I have my site updated?
This is a difficult question to answer. Websites that have continual content added and removed should have very regular updates such as daily, weekly or monthly.
For websites that are more static in content they can probably be updated periodically at 3 – 6 months. If you have a web designer or hosting provider that looks after your site they should have news and information that will tell them to alert you if something needs immediate attention.
If you have an older site that needs work to update it then please get in touch. We will always give you the solutions that are available for your particular build info@kitewebsites.co.uk