Website maintenance: what do you need after launch?

The website is live and the project is complete. Done? Not quite. Website maintenance starts on the day of launch. A site that you put up and never touch again slowly deteriorates, just like a house or a car. The question is not whether you need maintenance, but how much and who does it.

What goes wrong without website maintenance?

Without maintenance, a website gradually deteriorates, on five fronts at once.

Security. New vulnerabilities are discovered all the time and at some point software is no longer supported. Without updates you become an easy target.

Compatibility. Browsers and devices change. What works well today may behave strangely on a new phone in a few years.

Speed. External scripts get heavier, content piles up and images are uploaded larger than necessary. The site becomes slower without anyone noticing.

Content. Information becomes outdated. Team members leave but are still on the site, services change and old news stays at the top.

Integrations. The API of your CRM changes, your payment provider adjusts something. Integrations that worked suddenly stop working.

How much maintenance does your platform require?

How much maintenance a website requires depends partly on the platform it runs on. A WordPress site requires active maintenance: updates to the core, the theme and the plugins, preferably at fixed times. If that is neglected, you run a risk, because many hacks happen through outdated plugins. If you want to move away from that, read more about a WordPress migration.

A Webflow site requires less technical maintenance. The platform updates itself, there are no plugins that become outdated and hosting and security are handled by Webflow. You can read more about this on our page about Webflow. That does not mean a Webflow site needs no attention. Content must stay up to date and custom code and integrations still need checking. The technical foundation is simply more stable.

What forms of maintenance are there?

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to arrange maintenance: on demand or with fixed arrangements.

On demand means you get in touch when you need something. That works well for a site that rarely changes and on which not much depends. You only pay for what is done, but you have no guarantee of immediate availability.

With fixed arrangements you secure structural attention. Someone keeps an eye on the site, makes small changes and periodically looks at what could be improved. That suits a site that is actively used for leads or sales, or that is connected to other systems. We are happy to discuss what suits you. On our page about maintenance and security you can read how we set that up.

What belongs in good website maintenance?

Good maintenance consists of five components that together prevent something from going wrong unnoticed.

Monitoring. Checking that the site is online and working properly. Ideally you know about a problem before a visitor notices it.

Technical checks. Updates where needed, checks of forms, integrations and custom code. On a site with many integrations there is more to do here than on a simple site.

Small changes. Changing a text, replacing an image, adding a team member. Day-to-day work that is not a project but still needs doing. For that we also offer content support.

Speed. Periodically measuring how fast the site loads and stepping in when it gets slower. What that involves is explained under performance optimisation.

Periodic review. Once or twice a year, looking together at what could be better and what opportunities there are. That is how maintenance turns into continuous development.

What can you do yourself?

With a well-built site, you can do most day-to-day maintenance yourself. Webflow has a separate editing environment for content managers. Changing texts, swapping images and publishing blog articles is done without technical knowledge.

You can also follow the figures yourself. With Google Analytics and Search Console you can see how the site is performing and whether there are errors. And many small problems are simple: a wrong link, an image that does not load, an old version in your browser cache. If you know where to look, you can solve those yourself.

What you are better off not doing yourself: changing the structure of the site, modifying custom code or repairing integrations. For that you need someone who knows how the site is put together.

What determines the cost of maintenance?

The cost of maintenance depends mainly on how complex the site is and how much depends on it. A simple site on a managed platform requires little. A site with custom code, multiple integrations and a lot of traffic requires more checking and therefore more time.

How much you do yourself also counts. If you manage content yourself, you outsource less. And the platform makes a difference: a platform that updates itself saves recurring technical work. Always weigh the cost against what it costs if the site does not work for a day, or if a form is broken unnoticed for weeks.

How do you find the right balance?

The right balance depends on your time, your capacity and how important the website is to your business. Some organisations outsource everything, others do as much as possible themselves and only ask for help with problems. Both work.

A website that generates a large share of your enquiries deserves more attention than a digital business card. What never works: waiting until something goes wrong. Repairing is always more expensive than preventing.

Has your site just gone live or is it going live soon? Then include maintenance as part of your investment, not as something for later. If you want to know what makes sense for your situation, we are happy to think along with you.