Website Maintenance and the Annual Maintenance Contract

Every site needs to be maintained through its entire life cycle. A contemporary website has a life cycle of 4-5 years before technology and business changes force a redesign. During this period the website has to be monitored and maintained for all kinds of issues, problems and technology shifts.

The three areas broadly covered by an annual maintenance contract for your website are

Site Updates
Technical Support
Security Updates

We can take a close look at each of these areas and discuss them in brief

1. Site Updates

As your business grows, so must your website. Your website must always be up-to-date with the lastest news, views and product/ service information.

Our website updates service as part of the AMC allows:

Addition of pages
Changes to photos and graphics on the site
Changes to website content such as adding of paragraphs etc.

2. Technical Support

Websites are dynamic in terms of data flow to and from the web servers. Web servers are like any other computer, prone to malfunctions and glitches. Although most hosting companies promise high uptimes there are times when the web design company has to intervene.

Our technical support service as part of the website AMC includes:

Immediate response and investigation in case the website does not load.
Changes to the setup of the server such as adding sub-domains.
Managing the email addresses and email setup for the website.
Updating of scripts and code when newer browser versions are released.
Answering technical queries from the client and advising the client on technical issues.

3. Security Updates

There are many levels of security for each website, starting from the server level firewalls to the password protected login systems of the website. These have to be maintained, monitored and updated regularly. Everyday new threats come up on the internet and each one has to be dealt with and secured against. This requires vigilance and strong security routines.

Updates to the website code and scripts to ensure security remains
To apply patches and solutions wherever security loopholes are detected.
To routinely update the security protocols of the server.
To take regular backups of critical data of the site
To restore the data in the worst case scenario of the server crashing or being hacked.

Consider the annual maintenance contract as an insurance policy to keep your website going throughout the year and contributing valuably to your business.