Are you paying too much for website maintenance?
Having a website for your business or even your professional career is becoming more and more essential. Having a website can set you apart from others and make your business run smoothly and act as a hub for clients to view and purchase your products. But how much does having a reasonable website cost? Website maintenance costs can be expensive due to the average monthly website maintenance fees. There are many exact numbers on the web, but these numbers say little about the type of service you are buying. To understand how much to pay, you need to know what you are paying for.
The type of support service determines how much you pay for it
First, you need to understand what types of website support exist. At its most basic level, support can be one-time (usually charged by the hour) and recurring (paid monthly). Most companies have monthly website maintenance packages that can be tailored to your website needs, so you avoid overpaying for unnecessary features.
On a more concrete level, it is essential to understand the range of services you can get on the Internet:
- Writing articles for your website
- Create video content for your website
- Working with the design of your website (for example, you want to update the website design or your online store needs a permanent designer to process product images)
- Increasing the ranking of the website on the Internet (SEO optimization)
- Protection of the website from viruses and other threats
- Technical support of the website and the software used on the website
- Help with hosting
The list could be pretty long. And in each of the points, there will be a range of prices. It is essential to understand that companies that provide website support services can provide several of the listed points at once, but rarely can anyone provide services on all matters. For example, creating a video is a rather specific job, and specialists who can make such content often don’t have employees who could protect your website from viruses, and vice versa.
If you want to get quality service, you have to look at each company’s strengths. For example, a company with a strong emphasis on its marketing and development team can be the most lucrative for website promotion and the more technical aspects of businesses on the internet. Services that emphasize creating landing pages, technical support, and support for third-party services integrated into the client’s website can offer you more bang for your buck! Conversely, sometimes it is easier to turn to the services of small firms that are engaged only in content creation, design, technical optimization, etc.
The strength of the Grid Concepts team is that our company was founded by an experienced marketer and developer, so for the last 10 years these two departments have developed in parallel. This means that we are the type of service that is financially most beneficial to those interested in both website promotion and technical aspects of the business on the Internet (creating landing pages, technical support, support for third-party services integrated into the client’s website, website design, CRM maintenance, etc.). Many small business owners are interested in such a comprehensive approach, but at the same time cannot afford to hire a separate specialist for each task. In such cases, they turn to us.
What type of support does your business need? You can discuss it with us. Before offering our clients a service, we always discuss what is needed in their particular case. Even if, as a result of the conversation, you decide to turn to someone else, talking with us will help you formulate a list of services you need and more clearly understand which type of company you want to cooperate with.
When choosing a company, it’s important to find one that works with you to fulfill your needs instead of just their quota. Look for a website services company that asks, “What type of support does your business need?” Before you go into business or purchase any service, you should always have a conversation discussing the particulars of what you need from your website. By making a list of which services you need, you can better understand which type of company you want to work with.
What types of support services exist?
WordPress support maintenance: Since WordPress is the most widely used platform for websites globally, many companies specialize in supporting WordPress sites. The advantage of such companies is usually that they can cheaply provide a package of services at once, which will allow you to forget about hosting, backups, etc. (here is a complete list). The disadvantage of such companies is that they do not work with anyone other than WordPress and most often do not provide any additional support services besides technical support.
Tech & Design support services: Many companies combine design and development teams. This is convenient if, for example, you want to redesign your site without contacting two different companies or if, in addition to technical support, your business has regular requests to create visual content.
Tech & Marketing support services: Since developers usually handle many SEO tasks, marketing and development teams are often combined into a single service.
Non-technical & media support services: Although website development has a lot to do with programmers, business owners often only need to create articles for their site or just produce videos or images. Accordingly, some companies do not have a technical support team, but they can also keep your website running.
Another critical factor to consider is the company’s willingness to work with third-party services. Sometimes website services require a mixed bag of enhancements and must be willing to work with more third-party services to ensure you get exactly what you need so everyone can benefit.
How much should I spend on the maintenance of my site?
How do you know how much money should be spent on maintaining your site? If the site lists the service price per hour, look at this price and ask how many hours, not dollars, specific work will take. Typically, for a small business website, hours per month range from 10 to 50.
For example, you have a small business, and you just want your business website to function correctly and be updated monthly with content. If your site has only primary sections (Home page, Blogs, Our Team, Contact Us), then the technical optimization of such a site may well take only a few hours a month. It can also take about three hours to create and publish a monthly article about your business. Also, you will be asked for at least a few hours a month for technical support (updating the CMS, hosting, etc.).
As a result, you already have an idea that it will take from 5 to 10 hours to work with your site. This is how such services usually look at their clients: they calculate how many hours per project (or per month) it will take for them to work, give the final price, and proceed from there. You don’t have to know precisely how long a specific job takes. But it makes sense to ask not how many dollars it will cost but how many hours it will take. This will help you understand more clearly what you are paying for.
Website maintenance is not the only cost
It is important to note that things can get a little expensive, and much like buying a house, if you want your dream home but can’t pay the price, you will have to make some cutbacks. An excellent website service will include all third-party costs in the maintenance, and this should be a part of your discussion with any service company you approach. However, all third-party costs are not included in the maintenance costs, but we help purchase such things as long as are told in advance.
At a minimum, you will have to pay for hosting the site on the web and, even if you want to use ready-made software, plugins for making purchases on the site are usually paid. In addition, if you want more people to know about your site, you will probably ask a maintenance service for help with advertising on Google, and the budget for advertising will be calculated separately.
There is a bit of a discrepancy between website fees in the business. Prices can vary on some services and can range from free to $3500 when managing a CMS. Ecommerce system maintenance, website analytics reports, website hosting, and tech support can all add up in monthly fees. That is why you should always discuss what you need with your website maintenance service and what your budget looks like. If you work as a team, you can be sure everyone is happy and your website is running smoothly.
