Why Are Website Maintenance Plans So Important?

Websites are very much like Cars, in lots of ways: It's tricky choosing which "manufacturer" (agency) to go with. All have their own merits, performance, differing pricing, and varied design styles etc. And we all know you can't get a brand new Porsche for £500, don't we? :0)

• They (should) look and function PERFECTLY the day you receive them
• They can lose their sex appeal after a few years if you don't refurbish or replace parts of them, or replace altogether with the latest model
• They all (can) fall into disrepair if you don't look after them, keep them maintained, service them, LOVE THEM

It's this last point that I wanted to highlight in this blog. Website technology is a continually changing animal. Server requirements, software versions, methods of achieving various functionality on your website - they all change continually, and sometimes - where a website's been left out to Pasture for some time - that can cause things to stop working, or break a website completely. Examples of this are numerous, but a couple of classics are:

• Contact Forms used a particular method to send / receive messages that relied on a particular version of PHP. That version of PHP is upgraded on the server, and voit la - all the forms stop working
• Spammers / Hackers find new ways of injecting malicious code into your type of website or content system, and if you've not patched those holes up - boom! You're hacked. (We had one client seeking to impress some new prospects, when suddenly their website started redirecting to a gay porn site - slightly embarrassing, and not good for business).

Of course, like all good Manufacturers, most agencies will offer some period of initial support for your website (Car) where something wasn't right in the first place, or breaks pretty early on. But after a time, it's down to how YOU the Website / Car owner, cares for your Website / Car, as to how it performs, appears, functions etc. After all, you wouldn't go back to a garage a year after you'd bought a car, shouting at them because "My car's run out of screen wash", or "There's no bloody petrol in it, so what are you going to do about it?" - would you? If you never change the oil, top up the water, do the tyre pressures, or give it a wash - it's going to be in a bit of a state, and you'll soon find yourself being "that guy" on the hard shoulder of the M1, waiting for Green Flag to turn up and charge you your excess (You do have breakdown cover, right...? ...Oh). We are always here for our clients, maintenance plan or not, but being pro-active, and preventing these issues, is ALWAYS the best policy (and 99% of the time a lot cheaper). So give some thought to how much love and care you are providing for your website. And if the answer is none, don't be surprised when bits start falling off of it, or it stops doing what it once did so well. What's that you say? Do we offer such a Maintenance Plan? Why, yes. Yes, we do... Pop over to http://www.looktouchfeel.co.uk/about-ltf/maintenance - to have a look.