Website maintenance by an agency that keeps your site fast, secure and up to date
A website’s life doesn’t stop at launch. It has to evolve, stay technically up to date and be fed with fresh content to keep building your visibility on Google. That’s what website maintenance is for.
Maintaining a website is therefore a full part of your digital marketing strategy: it keeps your site performing and keeps improving it, to drive your business forward.
What is website maintenance?
Website maintenance covers everything a developer can do on your website to make sure it stays fully functional and at the top of its game. It also includes security monitoring to prevent your site from being hacked, and technical updates (CMS versions, data backups, SSL certificate…).
Your website’s security also depends on your hosting provider, which has to be secure and fast.
Carrying out all of this takes coding and development expertise, plus a constant eye on the digital world to stay ahead. That’s why many businesses rely on professionals and their TMA services (in France, TMA, “tierce maintenance applicative”, is simply another name for ongoing website maintenance).
Why is website maintenance a must?
The web never stands still, and there’s no shortage of clever people looking for security holes to hack your website. A site left without maintenance will inevitably slow down and be exposed to hacking. Even if you invest in SEO, your site is likely to lose ground.
On top of that, visitors expect far more from a website these days, and the slightest technical glitch or bump in their user experience can quickly make them lose faith in your brand. If your website shows signs of weakness, you could be missing out on customers.
The key areas of website maintenance
- Compatibility with every browser
- Technical or code issues
- Security vulnerabilities
- Site speed
- A conversion funnel that works smoothly
Why hire a website maintenance agency?
Limited in-house resources, no time to deal with it, other budget priorities… there are plenty of reasons why a business might neglect its website maintenance.
But unless you have an in-house web team, the real reason is simply that website maintenance calls for complex technical skills and a solid grasp of the latest trends in the digital world.
Handing over the upkeep of your site to a website maintenance agency means making sure things get done, and done well. Well, here at Web Opteam, we know we do it well 😉 We’re based in Paris and look after websites for clients across France and abroad, in English.
Our website maintenance agency offers a maintenance plan that includes:
- Fixing any technical problems that crop up (those famous bugs!)
- Updating your CMS, PHP and your site’s plugins
- Monitoring your site’s security
- Keeping technical performance up (page load speed, UX, working forms…)
- Technical support and assistance whenever you have specific needs
- Recommendations for upgrading your site
- Adding new features if you want them
- Adding and managing content, images and products as needed
- Handling your specific requests and needs
- Fetching the croissants (no, that’s not true, but if it were, wouldn’t it be brilliant?)
All your maintenance requests go through Hub Opteam, your client portal: you can follow every ticket, the time spent and your bank of hours in real time.
What does a website maintenance agency need to look after your site?
Of course, if you want an agency to handle your website maintenance, it will need a few things and access to:
- The back office (admin area)
- FTP
If the maintenance follows a website we’ve built for you, it starts right after the new site goes live.
If you want us to take over the maintenance of an existing site, we’ll need some time to get to know its code (depending on whether it’s a business website or an online shop, how many pages it has, and so on). This discovery time is deducted from your maintenance plan hours.
Switching to HTTPS: secure your site
Websites whose domain (web address) runs on HTTPS with an SSL protocol let visitors browse securely, with encrypted data. A site secured with an HTTPS certificate is your guarantee to customers that your website is protected and that they can trust it.
Want to switch to HTTPS? Contact us
The benefits of switching to HTTPS
- Protect your site
- Increase your visibility on Google
- Build credibility with your visitors
What is HTTPS?
HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. You always see it at the start of a site’s URL in your browser. It’s a communication protocol between online users and your site’s server.
In the early days, only HTTP (not secure) existed. For many years now, to guarantee a secure connection, you can get an SSL certificate and switch your site to secure HTTPS.
Why does switching to a secure HTTPS site matter?
Moving to a secure HTTPS domain guarantees your visitors safe browsing on your website. The purpose of HTTPS is identification, authentication and confidentiality of the communication between the user and the website’s server.
A secure HTTPS site therefore gives you several layers of protection:
- Users’ activity on the site is encrypted, so no third party can see it and take advantage of the information exchanged.
- Data integrity is guaranteed, which prevents files from being corrupted.
- The site is protected against potential attacks.
What’s more, browsers such as Google Chrome now show a warning instead of the page when they detect an insecure site. Very few visitors carry on browsing after that warning, which has a huge impact on your online presence.
A secure HTTPS site helps you win your visitors’ trust: they feel protected while browsing your pages.
The link between HTTPS and SEO
Having a secure HTTPS site has a real impact on your SEO (organic search). Search engines favour secure HTTPS sites, which helps them rank higher in the search results (SERPs). The opteamisation (yes, yes, we went there :)) of your search rankings has a direct impact on your web traffic.
HTTPS is one of the signals taken into account by Google’s algorithm. Be careful: this signal is assessed across every page of your website. So make sure ALL your URLs are properly secured with HTTPS (links, redirects, etc.).
Want to switch to HTTPS? Contact us
How can I tell if a website is secure?
To find out whether a site is secured with HTTPS, just look at its URL in your browser. If it starts with https://, the site is secured with HTTPS.
Another tip: a small padlock icon just before the URL tells you the site is secure. In some browsers, such as Google Chrome, you’ll need to click the icon before the URL. This opens a small panel telling you whether or not the site is secured with HTTPS.
How do I secure my website with HTTPS?
To secure a site with HTTPS, the site’s webmaster has to obtain an SSL certificate (SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer). It’s a security encryption protocol for the internet. It guarantees the integrity, confidentiality and authentication of the website’s data in the communication between the user and the server.
Website maintenance: frequently asked questions
Who looks after a website’s maintenance?
Only a developer can handle a website’s maintenance. It takes knowledge of code, site architecture and programming languages.
If you don’t have a developer in-house, you’ll need help from a website maintenance agency to fix any errors. Your developer will keep a regular eye on your site to make sure no problems arise, and make any necessary fixes.
How do you update a website?
There are several kinds of updates on a website: your CMS version, your PHP version, security, SSL certificates, plugin and module versions. You need to keep an eye on all of these and check their versions to see whether they need updating.
Be careful: always make sure your site is compatible before running an update!
What if your next website became your best salesperson?
Keep in touch!
We reply within one business day, in English, with an honest first opinion, even if it shakes things up a little.