When considering either a move to website maintenance company or to a different IT Company, it’s important to consider both your current IT support/web maintenance model and any organizational goals that might be impacted.
These days websites are much central to an organizations hiring, marketing and growth than just 10 years ago. While hiring a professional website maintenance service is the most reliable way to keep your website updated how do you know which company to hire? Here are some insider tips to get you the best possible and long last relationship:
1. Do I need a IT Support Company or Website Maintenance Company?
Using an IT Support Company may work for simple issues but once things start to get sophisticated in either CMS support, marketing or updates would you rather have a a team that specializes in website maintenance or one that just dabbles in parts of it?
2. No Website Maintenance Blog
A blog is another area you can ‘spy on’ to see if your website maintenance company’s team of experts are educators who understand their trade craft or ones that just claim to be. Generating engaging content shows off a layer of sophistication and growth that many companies just may not have the experience in.
3. Structured Website Maintenance Costs
It’s important to have structured website maintenance costs in the form of a detailed service plan that covers all the essential elements. Make sure to ask what additional services and features your service provider can offer without going over the cost of the package. Here are essential elements to any website maintenance plan:
Website Maintenance Elements
- Content development
- Search engine optimization
- Design improvements
- Development updates
- Improvements in functionality
- Analytics review
- 24/7 uptime monitoring
- Security patches and updates
4. Website Portfolio Looks the Same
A easy give-away of how sophisticated a website company is – can be deduced by how diverse their website portfolio is. Do all the website projects have the same general look an feel? (bad sign), do they not show recent projects with links to the live sites? (even worse). Do they lack nationally recognized brands? (if a bigger brand doesn’t want to work with them, why should you?)…
5. They use the phrase “Trust Us”
Whenever a businesses says “trust us”, we can’t help but react to it by immediately thinking “no… i don’t trust you” as that language is usually found inside a used car sales lot. Instead look for a company that uses language that is fully transparent about the tools, services, experience that expectations.
6. Beware of Cheap Packages
Cheap website maintenance packages are usually one of two things,
– A one or two person developer shop who tries to do everything themselves. And often use short cuts that cause more problems because they don’t have a team to support them.
– Using companies in offshore that don’t understand your business model, are difficult to reach and have no stake in your success.
7. No Reviews by Clutch
If your company isn’t being vetted by a third party review site, it may mean that they don’t trust what their customers are willing to say about the company.
8. Generalists vs Specialists
You wouldn’t want a dentist operating on your back, just as you don’t want a backend developer leading your Search Engine Marketing Efforts or getting SEO advice from a graphic designer. Make sure to hire a website maintenance company that has clear service lines with dedicated professionals that can analyze and provide your business website with the best possible path to success.
9. Additional Questions to Ask
- If your company has additional websites-what is the cost?
- How long has the company been in business?
- Does the company specialize in specific websites CMS’s like WordPress or Drupal?
- How long has your company specialized in website maintenance?
- Is website hosting included?
- Are there public reviews of the company positive?
- What type of backups are stored of your website?
- What types of problems are covered?
- Is there a limit to how often I can contact a tech agent?
- Are the fees different if I subscribe monthly vs annually? Are there any start up fees?
- Is your project manager available during business hours?
- Is online self-support tools available?
- What types of online tools are used for day to day collaboration?
- How quickly will a tech agent respond to me?
- Are there any guarantees if my issue can’t be resolved?
Alliance is a top website maintenance services company based in Washington, DC. We help organizations with security, updates, and website performance improvements. We are a full service agency, and offer both website maintenance and hosting services.