As an agency who build and maintain websites for clients, we often find ourselves explaining the intricacies of website development, security, hosting, domain names and more. When it comes to discussing the importance of website maintenance, however, it has evolved into the simplest analogy. Here’s our take on why maintaining your website is like servicing your car.
Some of you may have experienced that beautiful new car smell as you proudly drive your purchase from the dealership. You have been given the keys, and the salesperson has shown you all the bells and whistles. It’s shiny, fast and purrs like a dream! Your first reaction is that you’ll want to keep maintaining it and checking the oil to ensure it stays sharp.
Websites, no matter how new, need maintenance.
A car is one of the larger financial purchases we make. Generally speaking, you will attempt to look after this purchase to keep it looking good, running well and inevitably maintain good value, right? Well, this is how you should feel about your website. While they’re new and perfect, they’re fantastic! But once something goes wrong, the bills will start piling up. Small and regular maintenance checks are critical to ensuring everything keeps running smoothly for everyone interacting with your site. Your website is an investment, so you need to look after it. Ignoring regular maintenance to save a few dollars, is not worth the profit loss, recovery time and days spent offline in the future.
Consider if, in five years, you have never cleaned your car, or had it serviced. Safe to say it isn’t looking so good now? Perhaps it has a ding or two, a badge missing and mechanically it isn’t much better. When it breaks down, the cost of repairs to you will more than likely far exceed the combined total value of services it should have had over the years. Instead of being in for a few hours during a regular service, it now could be off the road for days into weeks.
The dangers of DIY maintenance.
Much like a car, if you attempt to fix your website yourself without the proper knowledge or tools, you could find yourself in deeper trouble. Not only are you wasting time, but you can also cause more damage than the initial problem. Professionals know what to look for, how to pinpoint issues and how to fix problems fast.
At Chilli, we keep backups of all our clients’ websites, so if anything major happens, you can rest easy knowing we can restore it. If you DIY update your site without a backup, you run the risk of losing your entire site, with thousands of dollars down the drain.
“You can invest little on regular website maintenance, or spend a lot to recover what you’ve lost.”
– Darren Blake
Remember, your website is a public reflection of your corporate image, so you need to make sure it portrays what you want your customers to see. A well-maintained site is critical for real-time service industries.
Hopefully this analogy has helped! At Chilli, we have designed and developed websites for clients across the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and nationally. After reading this article, if you can identify with some of the issues raised, and you have any questions, please get in touch with our team or use our FREE Website Health Check to ensure your website is running as efficiently and effectively as possible.
