It is mentioned that there will be variation in time required based on setup, expertise, server environment and other moving parts.
Prices and information in the post are subject to change as prices and information are controlled by third parties. Let us know if you notice anything that is not correct and we will correct it.
Why is it important to maintain your WordPress site?
Without going into technical detail, here are some of the reasons why it's important to maintain your website.
- Poor maintenance leads to security holes and vulnerabilities for hacking. Spam, propaganda etc. on the site are common consequences.
- Poor maintenance can cause important functions to stop working.
- Poor maintenance can cause the site to stop working altogether.
- Poor maintenance can lead to poorer search engine results.
- Poor maintenance can lead to a poor user experience.
- Poor maintenance can lead to data loss and high recovery costs.
Read more about how you can use WordPress as your new professional website.
Server
The right server solution will vary based on your needs, but in general we recommend the following:
- ProISP - from 180,- ex VAT per year
- Server bolt - from 4 200,- ex VAT per year
SSL certificate
Some server providers will help you set this up, while others will require you to do it yourself. Here you'll find everything from free options to several thousand a year.
Cost: 0 to 12,000+ ex VAT per year
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
In short, not everyone will need a CDN, but in cases where you have a lot of visitors from all over the world, it will be necessary.
On a general basis, we recommend Cloudflare.
Cost: 0 to 200 USD per year
Backup
The most important thing is to ensure that you always have a good solution for backups in case something goes wrong. This could be anything from user error, hacking, compatibility issues after security updates, etc.
We recommend choosing a good and secure server provider that has backups as part of their delivery, but this alone is not enough.
We therefore recommend that you also use a plug-in such as UpdraftPlus to set up daily backups that are stored somewhere other than the server on which the website is located. For example, Google Drive or Dropbox.
Cost: 70 USD per year for 2 pages
Security monitoring
Regardless of how good and fast you are at updating your website and "looking after it", there will always be security holes that are not immediately detected. It is therefore important to search the site for both weaknesses and infected code and then remove the codes. (Technical)
You can manually scan the site using free online tools or pay for regular scanning and removal of any malicious code. It is recommended that this is done daily to avoid a weak website being hacked.
An example that provides both free manual searches and a paid service is Sucuri.
Cost: 0 - 200 USD per year per page
Uptime monitor
It's important to know if your site stops working, so we recommend setting up a tool like Uptimerobot which will automatically check the website and send out an alert if it is down.
Cost: 0 - 54 USD per year per page (SMS notification requires paid solution)
Performance testing
A fast site is a good site. It is therefore important to monitor and take any measures based on speed. We recommend that you try to keep all pages under 3 seconds as an absolute minimum. Ideally, you want pages to load in less than 1 second, although this is not always possible.
You can use a tool like Pingdom, GT Metrix or Google PageSpeed. They will give different results, but the suggested actions are usually the same.
Cost: 0 - 2400 USD per year per page (Most people will be able to get by with manual free tests)
Link monitoring
Broken links on websites can be frustrating because it's not always within your control. For example, if you send a link to a news article on another site, it may be moved or deleted. The problem is that it's your users who will experience the broken link and get frustrated with you because they can't find what they're looking for.
Therefore, you should regularly search through the site and test all links and correct or remove them. One tool is Dr. Link Check.
Cost: 0 - 1548 USD per year per page (Most people will be able to get by with manual free tests)
External SMTP
Contact forms on websites are common, and often the server will manage to send these off. Unfortunately, without a good setup, it is easy for these to be marked as spam and never see an inbox.
For example, this could mean that a potential customer submits an inquiry via a form on your site and you never see the inquiry. The customer is then left with a bad impression and potentially goes to someone else.
Therefore, we recommend setting up a service such as Mailgun or Sendgrid that handles the mailing. This must also be monitored and checked for any errors. Forms can also be set up that store all submissions on the website, so even if the email does not arrive, it will be possible to recover it.
Cost: 0 - 1000+ USD per year per page (Most people will be able to get by with the free solution)
Caching / Quick storage
Sometimes it is appropriate to use a cache that makes the website load faster for some users. Often this will only be necessary for pages that are visited frequently by a large number of people and during periods of significantly increased traffic. But it is a point to consider, there are several options for how to solve this.
Cloudflare, Litespeed Cache and WP Fastest Cache are all great options for the right situations.
Cost: 0 - 2400+ USD per year per page (Most people will be able to get by with a free solution)
Licenses
Third-party solutions are often used to streamline the delivery of the website and keep delivery costs down. For customers with operating packages, licenses for these are included, but if you want to manage operation and maintenance yourself, it is important that you purchase separate licenses to be able to receive security updates and ensure that everything works properly.
Please note that this list is adapted to some of the many deliveries we make and other websites will require other licenses.
The third-party solutions used vary from website to website, but below is an overview of the most common and prices at the time of writing 11.09.2019:
- Divi Theme - 89 USD per year - Unlimited usage
- Astra Theme - 59 USD per year - Unlimited use
- Elementor PRO - 49 USD per year - Price per website
- Ultimate Addons for Elementor - 69 USD per year - Unlimited use
- Elementor Anywhere - 25 USD per year - Price per website
- Advanced Custom Fields PRO - 25 USD, one-time cost - Price per website
- WPML - 79 USD per year - Up to 3 pages
Ongoing tasks
How often you should do each one varies, but as a general rule, the points below can be a good guide.
Daily (approx. 15min)
- Verify that the backup is complete.
- Search for security holes via Sucuri.
- Keep track of uptime monitors.
Weekly (60-90min)
- Explanation video for the process of updating and two methods.
- Update WordPress, Plugins and Theme. Explainer video
- Test visually and key features.
- Search for and correct any broken links with Dr Link Check.
Monthly
- Performance test and measures.
- Revise server environment, PHP edition etc.
Need help running and maintaining your Wordpress site? Take a look at our hosting packages.