As discussed previously in Why Do You Need Website Maintenance? ,
the first step in deciding how to maintain your website is to identify your site's business needs. Once you've done this, you can better determine the maintenance package that will work best for you. Regardless of which plan you choose, the most important thing to remember with regard to maintenance packages is that they are a vital part of your website strategy; the more involved your site is in helping you to succeed in business, the more you will need to invest in website maintenance. Below are a couple of examples of standard maintenance needs and the plans typically associated with them. Bear in mind that website maintenance packages can vary quite considerably-- they're as flexible and diverse as websites themselves.
Static content changes
Even if it's a matter of just a few words or sentences, making frequent changes to the static content on your site can have a huge positive effect on the success of your website marketing strategy; an up-to-date, "fresh" website attracts customers and reaffirms their faith in the validity of your product and or services. The easiest way to ensure that this static content is updated on a regular basis is by establishing a monthly maintenance retainer or contract. Typically, a retainer is a flat-fee contract; by paying this fee you can rest assured that the maintenance firm you employ will spend a certain amount of time per month making sure that your site content is current and accurately reflects your marketing message as it grows over time. Monthly retainers differ from ad hoc, or "pay as you go" maintenance in that they there is a specific "response-time" clause built into these contracts, specifying a certain time frame in which your firm is required to respond to requests.
Retainers providing for static content changes can range from 2 hours per month to 10 and higher. It all depends on the frequency with which you make changes and add content to your website.
Database Maintenance
Your site might require different maintenance in addition to static text changes and updates. If your site is database-driven, with a built-in content management system or perhaps a document library, then regular maintenance and "tweaking" based on evolving functionality and standard updates will be necessary. Database maintenance varies greatly. Examples of database maintenance include changing a database query ("SQL query") to display different or additional information about a product, service, or person (in the case of a bio). Another example of database maintenance is adding a "table" to an existing database to allow for the collection of new types of data submitted by users. Database administration is a difficult task, and one suited to trained experts; it requires meticulous attention to detail and technological know-how. Without proper resources, attempting to manage these tasks in-house can be inefficient and costly. Worse still, any mistakes, however minor, can result in irretrievably lost data and angry customers. This is where a maintenance contract can be worth its weight in gold; by placing these difficult maintenance responsibilities in the hands of a skilled firm, you are freeing up valuable time and energy to be spent enhancing your marketing strategy and developing your consumer base.
Most Database maintenance retainers start at 4-5 hours and can range all the way to 15 hours. Again, your needs will dictate the number of maintenance hours your database-driven site will require per month.
Application Maintenance
Applications, as opposed to websites, are software programs that perform a regular set of functions. Oftentimes, applications are web-based (or accessible via a web browser) so they often fall into the category of being a website. Examples of applications include: a financial processing system comparing security trading data, or an inventory system that tracks stock levels of a company's products. Needless to say, investing in a complex application without thought to ongoing maintenance is imprudent. Application maintenance includes monitoring the application and performing system-level enhancements to ensure the application is "load balancing" or handling simultaneous user requests quickly and efficiently. A complex application requires a dedicated, accessible resource at your disposal, and someone with the knowledge to keep your application running smoothly and securely.
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