How Much Do Website Maintenance Services Cost?

A website represents your brand online and contributes to the growth of your business. Thus, your website should always look good and have the best features. Users should feel like visiting and accessing it repeatedly.

Your website needs maintenance to function smoothly and deliver a consistent positive UX. If you ever fail to fix the issues in your website, it ruins your brand image, decreases conversions, and costs you a security breach.

You may lack the required time and resources to maintain and redesign your website as and when required. In such a case, you need to be aware of the cost of website maintenance services before hiring a professional company. This post is a comprehensive guide to website maintenance services where you learn what it is, why you should prioritize it, and things to expect after investing in it.

What are Website Maintenance Services?

Website maintenance services are consistent checking and upgrades to boost and secure its performance. Maintenance makes sure that you use state-of-the-art technologies, your website does not get hacked, and traffic flows consistently.

You can always maintain your website yourself or hire an agency that offers maintenance services.

Why Should You Maintain Your Website Consistently?

Even after the consistent evolution of technologies, you must have come across some slow, outdated websites and quite tricky to access via mobile phones. Your website should not be one of those.

With thorough website maintenance, you can offer an impeccable UX. No matter how long you are in business, your website should always look updated with the latest features and fulfill customer expectations.

With frequent maintenance, you can protect your website against bugs and downtimes. If you want your website to keep up and function smoothly, you should patch and upgrade any plugin or software that you use on your site. Website maintenance with a consistent SEO helps your site to rank high on SERPs, build links, and drive maximum organic traffic.

What are the Consequences if You Don’t Work on Website Maintenance?

The worst consequence of not working on website maintenance can be hacking. Many website owners believe that only internally famous businesses like British Airways are exposed to cyber-attacks. But small business owners also need to be careful as 46% of them have suffered from data breaches.

Remember, outdated websites are more exposed to hacks. So, whenever you find anything outdated on your website, focus on on-site maintenance to diminish the chances of a cyber attack.

Without proper maintenance, your website may crash or fail to function smoothly. When your website is down, you tend to lose potential sales every day. Your website may not fully crash but poor performance deters visitors. 90% of online shoppers left a website as they didn’t load fast. If your website delivers a slow mobile experience, some customers abandon their carts and switch to a computer.

Website maintenance can identify bugs even before degrading its speed and overall performance. Your outdated website may not face complications, but users can’t make the most of it if you don’t maintain it well.

For instance, if people search for the kinds of products and services that your brand offers, you need to maintain the SEO aspects of your website. If you don’t put in the required SEO efforts, your website loses maximum potential customers because of its poor search engine ranking and less online presence.

You can consistently maintain your website if you are skilled in web design, web development, and SEO. Though you save money, you end up wasting your time if the results are not satisfactory. While professionals can always work depending on your requirements.

What are the Different Types of Website Maintenance Services?

Website maintenance services are available in a range of packages. You should avail of the services suited to your business needs.

Here are the most common types of website maintenance services that you can opt for:

1. Web Hosting

Website maintenance services include hosting or adding later to your package. Web hosting will always be your recurring investment, but the amount you pay depends on the type of hosting you choose for your website.

Find below the different types of web hosting below:

• Dedicated Server
  It is the most expensive web hosting option. If you run a small business, investing a high amount for a dedicated server would not be worthwhile. You need to rent a physical server for your website that would cost you $100 or above every month.
  
• Virtual Private Server(VPS)
  If you go for a VPS, you spend less than using a dedicated server. You share a VPS that costs $20 to $80 per month but partition a private RAM and CPU.
  
• Website Builder
  When you build a website with a website builder, like  Wix or Appy Pie Website, you need to spend quite a low hosting cost. You need to pay $3 to $18 every month, but they also offer a free plan sometimes. Unfortunately, they are not suited for businesses.
  
• Shared Hosting
  When it comes to shared hosting, you host your website on a server shared by other websites. You need to spend less money ($3 to $10 every month) because of sharing your host.

2. SSL Certificate

Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) is a protocol that encrypts and validates data sent between apps such as web servers and browsers. If you ask for customers’ details and debit/credit card credentials, you need an SSL certificate for your website. Even if no data submitted by customers pass through your website, the browser labels them with a “Not Secure” warning. Due to this, the users tend to have trust issues with your website.

SSL certificate is available for free, but the kind of encryption is similar to a paid SSL certificate. But the latter option offers extra features such as a long validity period and customer support. To renew the certificate, you need to pay no or up to $150 every month.

3. Domain Name Renewal

To build and maintain your business website, you need to invest in a domain name(the image below shows some of the most common domain names). Though many website owners pay millions of dollars to buy a domain name, many unused domains cost quite less.

Every year, you need to renew the domain name; it is an integral part of website maintenance. The upfront price you pay is less than the yearly renewal charges.

For instance, You can register a domain in GoDaddy only for  $2.99. But the price increases to $17.99 for the second-year renewal.

4. Security Scanning

Regular(at least frequent) security scans are necessary to maintain your website. You don’t need to wait for a breach to fix security issues. Many free apps and plugins are available, which you can use to scan your website.

But paid website security services scan deeper, identify threats, and help fix critical issues. Such issues can cost you up to $85 per month.

5. CMS Issues and Updates

A website tends to function on a Content Management System(CMS) like WordPress that helps you easily upload content. Besides being useful, a CMS is also vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The leading CMSs can quickly fix bugs, but that won’t help your website if you don’t upgrade their older versions.

According to a study, 56% of websites ran CMS outdated versions when getting hacked. With proper maintenance, you can protect your website from hackers. Moreover, your website gets all the newest features.

Many businesses also invest in a custom CMS as there is no maximum limit on the web development price in that case. For frequent updates like WordPress or Joomla, you need to pay $20 to $200.

6. Consistent Development

Web design and development can be major elements of your website maintenance plan. Specific packages include a fixed number of web development hours, while other plans allow you to pay depending on the operational hours. Some packages include a set number of development hours, while others let you pay as you go for the hours you need.

Ongoing web development covers processes such as design modifications and functionality improvements. If you implement the latest tools, technologies, and techniques to design and build your website, you can deliver the best UX.

7. Backup

Anything may happen to your website at any time! Thus, you should always have a new and full backup, so you don’t lose any important data when a mishap happens, and you have to rework your website.

Though web hosting services tend to offer backup assistance, you need to be careful as they may not back your entire website up very often. You will have backups every day, but you should back up your website at least every few weeks.

Website backup tends to cost between $2.49 to $15 every month. When it comes to web development costs, there is no limit. Many organizations pay more than $100,000 every year to upgrade their websites. But if you opt for an extensive maintenance package, you need to pay $200 to $5000 per month. In case your web host’s backup and restoration package are not that good enough, you can go for a third-party service.

8. Ecommerce System Maintenance

Do you have an ecommerce website? If yes, then the ecommerce system is the most essential part of your online business. You may use Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify, or other platforms , but you should hire a website maintenance service that focuses on updating and adding security to your website. Ecommerce system maintenance usually costs between $15 to $25 every month.

9. Technical Support

A technologically-advanced website too can have severe technical issues at times. So, you need experts who can immediately troubleshoot errors. You may not heed to the outsourcing tech support if you have technical experts in your team. You may also have a simple and small website, and WordPress/other platform’s free customer support works well enough to meet your requirements.

If you want personalized support with guaranteed profits, you need to pay for third-party tech support that may cost from $50 to $3000 every month.

10. Reporting and Analytics

Even after having a dedicated website maintenance service monitoring your site, you may need to know the latest update at times. Some service providers give detailed reports that you can use to optimize your campaigns’ strategies. The service charge may cost between $5 to $15 every month.

11. SEO

SEO comprises all those activities that intend to boost the performance of your website on search engines. Technical SEO is mainly about making your website more crawlable for search engine bots. This improves technical ranking factors such as mobile responsiveness and speed. Some of the non-technical aspects of SEO are – Keyword Research, Content Development, Optimization, and Link Building.

You can avail of SEO services at a few hundred dollars per month. But cheap services may always not deliver the best results. Organizations that invest more than 53.3% more tend to be very satisfied with their SEO services than those that spend a smaller amount. Though the cost of SEO varies a lot, you need to pay only $400 to $10000 for a package offering all benefits.

Factors Affecting The Cost of Website Maintenance Services

Once you start looking for a website maintenance service, you can find a variety of plans at different price ranges. There are certain factors that influence the cost of your website maintenance. So what are these factors?

Find them below:

1. Type of Services

The primary factor is the type of website maintenance service that you want. If you avail of web hosting and security services, you need to spend less than SEO and web development services.

2. Website Size

The size of your website influences the maintenance service charges. When you maintain your website with several pages and advanced functional features, you need to pay more than upgrading the five to ten pages Wix website.

3. Website Type

The type of your website also influences the maintenance charges. Do you have an ecommerce website? You need to focus the most on online store maintenance and security. Like a brick-and-mortar store, your online store can’t make it with primary online ordering and security features.

4. Resources and Manpower

The resources and manpower of a website maintenance service provider affect the maintenance charges. Reputable website maintenance experts won’t offer very cheap services but you get the desired results paying the high charges.

How Much Do You Need to Spend to Maintain Your Website?

There is, as such no fixed price that you need to pay for maintaining your website. To renew your domain and host your website, you need to pay approximately $25 every month. If you have a personal blog that doesn’t attract many visitors or receive personal information, you can get a free SSL certificate and security plugin.

On the contrary, a big business may have a dedicated service and decide to spend on SEO and website development services. To avail of these services, you may need to pay upto $5000 every month. It is advisable for you to check the list of possible types of services before you opt for website maintenance services.

Here is a list of website maintenance charges that you need to pay:

• Web hosting: $3 to $1,000
• Domain name renewal: $1 to $3
• Tech support: $50 to $3000
• Ongoing development: $200 to $5000
• Ecommerce system maintenance: $15 to $25
• Analytics and Reporting: $5 to $15
• Site backup: $3 to $10
• Security scans: free or up to $100
• CMS patches and upgrades: $20 to $200
• SSL certificate: free or up to $100
• SEO: $400 to $1000

What Should Be The Frequency of Your Website Maintenance?

All types of website maintenance follow different schedules. Find out below the frequency at which you need every kind of service:

• Web hosting: You need a consistent web hosting service for which you need to pay monthly or annual charges.
• Ongoing development: To consistently maintain and upgrade your website, you need to pay hourly or monthly packages.
• Domain name renewal: You should renew your domain every year.
• Security scans: Scanning is necessary for every day, but you should scan at least once every month.
• CMS patches and updates: You should update your CMS at least once every month or year.
• SSL certificate: You should expire and renew SSL certificates every 3 months to 3 years, depending on your certificate.
• Ecommerce system maintenance: You should maintain your eCommerce website by updating at least once a month/year.
• Tech support: It is a monthly investment for website maintenance.
• SEO: To optimize your website for search engines, you need to pay monthly or hourly charges depending on the project.
• Analytics and reporting: You need consistent monthly reports to maintain your website.
• Site backup: Regular backup can be the best for website maintenance. If you can’t do it, go for a monthly backup.

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How to Choose the Best Website Maintenance Services Provider

When it comes to choosing the best website maintenance service provider, you will get many options that tend to confuse you when making a decision. But to make the right choice, you need to consider the factors below:

1. Requirements

Website maintenance service providers deliver different levels of assistance and functions. So, you need to identify your precise requirements. Ask yourself how much help you need on your web development, if you have a plan, how your website is optimized if you tend to have technical requests, and will you need the experts to be on call in only during business hours or 24/7.

Once you identify your precise requirements, you can choose the best service provider accordingly. Also, consider the CMS of your website, which can be WordPress or any other option.

WordPress is a popular user-friendly CMS that both beginners and professionals use. WordPress website maintenance gets simpler with auto-update features, apps that detect broken links, SEO tracking, virus scanning, and malware eradication tools. Experts can easily maintain your WordPress website.

2. Plan

You should frame a proper website maintenance plan that comprises all the vital elements of your site. Prepare a well-structured plan that adds immense value to your website. With a well-planned and detailed service, you can expect the desired output.

3. Types of Services

You should clearly know the kind of services the professionals offer to maintain your website. Ensure you sign up for a plan that clearly outlines the services they deliver. If you look for a more advanced plan that demands customization and personalization to your website, ask the providers to define their services so you can make the right choice. Hire a website maintenance service provider that covers regular updates, backups(preferably cloud backups), security maintenance), monitoring, reporting, support, and development.

Besides this assistance, make sure they help in managing every aspect of your online presence.

4. Budget

After setting your budget, you need to make sure that website maintenance services are in your budget. Find a service provider that clearly specifies their plans and prices. Regular maintenance plans tend to have a fixed price and services they offer in return of that fees. Confirm you get both basic and extra services(such as custom reports, analytics, and managed solutions from the service provider in your budget.

To get more than a regular website maintenance plan, you will require to get in touch with the service provider for a quote. They listen to your needs, set a price, and customize a service accordingly.

5. Reliability

Website maintenance demands a well-coordinated effort and a lot of responsibilities to ensure the operations run smoothly. So, you should always hire trusted service providers to get the desired results. Check their previous projects and clients to assess their reliability. A trusted website maintenance agency reply all questions set a realistic timeline, and give status updates.

So, if you find the services offered in a plan quite useful, then the agency tends to have skilled and reliable experts.

6. Reputation

A reputable website maintenance service provider tends to follow ethics and strive hard to satisfy their customers. Check out the trusted review websites to find out the top-rated agencies and get in touch with them to discuss your requirements and hire the best service provider.

The Bottom Line

To build a massive online presence, impress maximum target customers and grow your business, you need to have a website that runs smoothly. With proper maintenance, you can keep your website up and attract maximum customers.

By now, you have understood the things you should know about website maintenance services and how they can benefit your business. Now, it’s time to hire the best website maintenance service provider following the tips above and grow your business consistently. All the best!

Frequently Asked Questions