wordpress care plan
Josh Etheridge

Josh Etheridge

WordPress Care Plans, how they help and why you need one in 2020!

These are also referred to as WordPress Care Plans.

A WordPress maintenance plan is the third-party management of a WordPress website. It can include various services but typically includes routine maintenance of security, plugin, and core updates.

This article explains the benefits of having a WordPress maintenance plan, including the features we believe every maintenance plan should have! All of our WordPress Care Plans include the features found in this article.

WordPress Updates

Almost every maintenance plan will include the updating of your WordPress system, these updates can be small with little impact to the function of your site, or major updates that may affect the way your site works.

A WordPress maintenance company will ensure your site’s compatibility with the update so you experience no downtime or user experience issues.

wordpress maintenance plans plugin screen

Plugin Updates

Most websites have specific features built in that make their site function; this may be registration forms, an online store, or accepting donations. The possibilities are endless with WordPress. We call these features plugins, just like an app on your phone or computer, they add more capability to your site.

Just like WordPress, plugins have updates as well, typically more frequently too. They must be carefully investigated prior to updating to ensure compatibility with the rest of the plugins on the site.

WordPress plugins are typically one of main causes for site compatibility issues, if you’re performing updates on your own, consider “safe” updating your site by using a staging/local environment before performing the update to your actual website.

WordPress Security

WordPress in itself is a secure platform but adding the human element of weak passwords and usernames makes it a target for malicious intruders. Sites are constantly targeted by these bad actors, typically to extract sensitive data, change links on your site, or lock it for ransom.

A true maintenance plan will take security to the next level with 24/7/365 monitoring for malware, intrusions, and malicious code installation.

We offer free, personal security audits for WordPress sites: request one here.

Security assurance is one of the main reasons to have a maintenance plan, keeping your customers information safe and preventing damage to your businesses reputation.

This type of security is different from an SSL certificate, which is also an essential part to a secure site. Most hosting companies offer, or should offer, a free SSL certificate with their plans.

Google now ranks sites lower who do not have an SSL certificate, versus those that do.

Premium WordPress Hosting

We believe that all maintenance plans should include managed WordPress hosting, this type of hosting is built specifically for WordPress sites offering flexibility, performance, and security.

If there is one thing you take away from this article, get rid of cheap shared hosting. It’s only hurting you.

All of our WordPress Care Plans include premium Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting, a leader cloud hosting. Read more about why we chose AWS for our clients here.

If you’re looking for a high performance WordPress hosting then we suggest you check out one of these great companies:

  1. onRocket 
  2. Kinsta

Speed Optimization

The speed at which your site loads is critical to customer retention. It is recommended that a site loads within 3 seconds. Of course, faster is better and will create a better user experience, but oftentimes it can be difficult to achieve.

A lot of factors play a role in your site’s speed, a great place to start is with premium hosting from one of the providers above, but it doesn’t end there.

When we onboard a new client we take an in-depth evaluation into their site’s performance, including an action plan to increase performance and achieve that sweet spot of 3 seconds or less.

WordPress Backups

This should be standard in all WordPress maintenance plans, but at minimum your site should be backed-up daily. High performance stores should consider backing-up their site hourly to minimize risk in the event of an issue.

Uptime Monitoring

If you host your WordPress site with a reputable hosting company, most of them offer a 99.99% uptime guarantee. It is very rare that a data center goes down, but things can happen.

What if something else causes your site to go down? Such as a plugin update, malicious activity, or a domain issue? That’s what uptime monitoring is for!

All of our client sites are monitored 24/7/365, a test is performed every 1 minute and we are notified instantly of any downtime.

Your maintenance plan should include some form of uptime monitoring, you can set up your own uptime monitor with a service like Freshping!

WordPress Site Changes

Most higher tiered maintenance plans include basic WordPress site changes, these may include basic text, image, or visual changes. This is a nice feature for those business owners who want to ensure a consistent design and flow to their website.

Companies may have hourly or usage limits on their change support, we offer unlimited basic site changes in our maintenance plans.

Premium Plugins

This one is not as common, but some companies may include the use of premium plugins (those you would normally have to pay for). Of course this is only when you are enrolled into the maintenance plan, but it provides added value and savings to running your site.

If not included you are responsible for managing all the expiration dates, renewals, and cost associated with the plugins on your site. This can be a lot to manage, that is why we’ve spent a great deal of time and research to include many of the common premium plugins every WordPress site would need. This creates an affordable, monthly payment that covers the cost of your entire site (plugins too)!

Domain Assurance

This one is even less common, but we believe that a full maintenance plan would include the management of your domain name (the .com, .net, etc.). If you miss renewing your domain name or responding to WHOIS requests, your site can go offline, even worse the domain can be sold to the public.

We not only cover the cost of your domain name, ensuring that it will never expire, but we also manage the domain name system (DNS) records.

If you’re looking to manage your domain yourself, we recommend Namecheap.

WordPress Support

Having WordPress experts available to help you resolve issues and answer your questions quickly and effectively should be included with every maintenance plan.

Helping you succeed online is our main goal, that is why our team is here to help collaborate and accomplish your questions!

Cost

Our philosophy is simple, a maintenance plan should provide insurance to your WordPress site by ensuring consistent performance and security for your customers.

In addition, having a team of WordPress experts at hand to help you is a great resource to have available.

Disclosure: Links provided in this article may be affiliate links, meaning we will receive compensation if you make a purchase

What to look for when choosing a WordPress maintenance plan?

  1. Do they include WordPress hosting?
  2. Do they include WordPress security?
  3. What type of updates do they perform for your site?
  4. Do they offer uptime monitoring? 
  5. Will they make changes to your website? How often?

What to look for when choosing a WordPress maintenance plan?

  1. Do they include WordPress hosting?
  2. Do they include WordPress security?
  3. What type of updates do they perform for your site?
  4. Do they offer uptime monitoring? 
  5. Will they make changes to your website? How often?

Learn more about our WordPress Care plan!

Our number one goal is helping businesses succeed online, a WordPress Care plan is the first step into building a strong online presence as it is the foundation for which your business will grow. 

All of the features listed in this article are included with our diamond WordPress Care Plan. Get more information and learn how to enroll, click here.

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