How Much Money Could a WordPress Care Plan Save You?
Many business owners ask themselves if a WordPress care plan is really worth it. After all, paying monthly or yearly fees can be a major part of your business’ annual costs. If you’re going to repeatedly pay for something, it better be worth it!
Is a WordPress Care Plan Worth It?
With our own small business to run, we absolutely understand why website owners might be hesitant to invest in a website maintenance expense like a WordPress care plan. We wouldn’t recommend a WordPress care plan without seeing it work to save business owners time and money over and over again. Just like regular maintenance on your car, home, and physical office space or storefront can save you money and heartache over the long run, a website maintenance plan serves the same purpose for your business’ online home.
How Much Money Can a WordPress Care Plan Save You?
In terms of cost-benefit analysis, a WordPress care plan has much to recommend it. When thinking about a WordPress care plan, I always reminisce about what a mechanic told me about my cracked oil pan when I asked how urgent it was to fix it – “Well, best case scenario, you limp along with an occasional oil loss and need oil changes a little more frequently. But eventually, the crack will grow, you will lose your oil, and you will need a new engine.” WordPress care plans are fairly similar. Chances are, you can get along without one for a few months. However, in the long term, there will be unsavory consequences that will cost far more than the price of regular maintenance.
How Much Money a WordPress Care Plan Could Save You on a Website Hack
One of the worst consequences of poor maintenance on a WordPress site is the increased risk of a hack. Because your website isn’t getting the regular security updates it needs, not to mention constant monitoring for safety risks, you are more vulnerable to bad actors on the internet. If your website does get hacked, there are all kinds of risks. Someone could steal your customers’ information and permanently destroy trust in your brand, they could display unrelated or vulgar content, and more. Once your website has been hacked, research shows that the average cost of restoration is over $2,500 for a small business. This is a devastating cost for cleanup, in addition to whatever downtime or negative customer impacts the hack produced. That’s why our fully managed website care plans provide reviews and hardening of your site’s security protocols, along with ongoing security monitoring and updates. Not having a plan in place for your site’s security is like leaving your front door open – it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that something bad will happen, but it makes the bad guys’ job easier. A care plan provides protection.
How Much a Care Plan Could Save You on Maintenance
Letting your website go without maintenance is just like leaving your home without maintenance – problems take time to develop and get noticeable, but in the end, doing a big “deep clean” or update will take significantly more time and resources than just providing a bit of regular maintenance. If you don’t get regular updates to WordPress, your plugins, and even your site’s content, before long you will have a tired, dated website that shows its age and its flaws. If you wait for an extended period of time without maintenance, whoever eventually provides the maintenance may have to fix design and user experience issues that spring up from waiting too long for an update. All told, this could cost thousands of dollars depending on the amount of work needed to restore your site to its former glory.
How Much a Care Plan Could Save You on an Outdated Website
A website that looks dated or has broken pieces is the fastest way to send potential clients running away screaming. Keeping your website in tip-top shape will not only ensure that people who come to your site won’t be scared off by broken functionality, it also improves your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and lets more people find you through search engines. Over time, this can massively increase the number of eyes and ears you have access to. How much does each paying customer mean to your small business? Think of the growth you could achieve with a beautiful website that stays in great shape for years to come with the aid of a care plan.
How Much a Care Plan Could Save You on a Downed Website
Every second your website down is a second a customer couldn’t get through to you even if they wanted to. Furthermore, having excessive downtime can seriously damage your SEO and make your website appear further down the list of results in Google and other search engines. Downtime is just a bad look for a business. Have you ever pulled up to a restaurant and found it unexpectedly closed? That was likely a frustrating experience that reflected poorly on the business and left a bad taste in your mouth. A similar principle exists with websites – if a customer clicks on a link to your business website and finds a downed site, they are not likely to come back again. They will assume your business is either closed or poorly taken care of. You want to avoid creating that impression at all costs. All of our WordPress website care plans come with uptime monitoring – we get a notification every time your website goes down, and we respond quickly to ensure we minimize downtime and give your business the best possible chance of success.
A WordPress care plan is an investment. But it’s more than worth it. A care plan can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year, and that’s before you consider the growth you could see when you have a strong online presence and a beautifully maintained website that attracts more clients than ever before. Review our care plan options or get in touch with us about fully managed website maintenance today.