Why Web Care is a Smart Investment to Protect Your Website and Business When they spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new car, no consumer bats an eye on buying insurance. It’s also well understood that staying on top of routine service and maintenance can significantly reduce major repairs and extend vehicle performance. The same philosophy holds true for buying a new home or major appliance. These same proactive care measures are needed with online marketing platforms and is known simply as Web Care. Just like any other major expense, building a website is an investment of capital and sweat equity. For a business, a website is their primary means of communication with existing customers and attracting new business. As a new car requires frequent oil changes, and tune-ups to efficiently transport its owner across town, a website needs the same tender loving care.
Although many professional website designers develop their websites with top-notch security programs and SSL certificates, there are still threats. A compromised website that develops a bug or virus will develop symptoms like a car struggling with a mechanical problem. Some of the common symptoms of a compromised website include:
Slower site access Increase page loading times Lower security and consumer identity theft concerns Reducing search engine ranking Possibility of site being hacked To protect their business or personal websites from these threats, smart businesses employ a team of WebCare experts. These dedicated online professionals monitor, update and provide routine maintenance to websites. They also provide monthly reports, create client dashboards and communicate with clients on potential security threats. WebCare professionals stay on top of growing trends in cyber security and have access to the latest technology to keep the website running strong always.
There are several specific services that are included in most WebCare packages offered by professional online marketing companies including:
Priority Website Support: When a business hires a WebCare specialist to keep their sites running strong they receive priority and dedicated website support. This means that the company often employs multiple online security experts, that are alerted as soon as a threat is recognized. When the client has a question for the WebCare provider, they are available to answer quickly. Consider this as having a personal mechanic on call to keep the car running strong.
Software Updates: Website development is essentially software or series of web coded platforms that are strategically placed together to produce a visually stunning and easy to navigate website. However, like a car needs frequent oil and filter changes to extend engine life and efficiency, the website also needs frequent software updates. By updating the software to evolving security standards, the site stays one step ahead of the cyber thieves who live off finding weak websites and exploiting them.
Security Monitoring: If you wouldn’t leave your car unlocked in New York City, why would you leave your website unprotected when thousands of online hackers are looking to steal your private information? Security monitoring is the process of setting up multiple security protocols that will alert the WebCare team if a threat is recognized. This permits them to instantly shut down the threat to ensure the website is not compromised. Essentially, this is like having a home security system that not only
instantly calls the police, but would also beam the police (like in Star Trek) to the house within a few minutes of the alarm being triggered to chase off the thieves.
Performance Optimization: As technology advances, so do the tools that allow a website to maintain optimization. Today’s cell phones are much smaller than the bricks of the 1980’s. The same thing applies to new website optimization tools. Software developers are continually upgrading their web-based tools to let WebCare experts update their client’s websites to keep them running quickly, strong and continue ranking well on search engines. Most WebCare packages include performance optimization programs.
Daily Site Backups: There is nothing worse than having a website crash. However, if you choose to host your own account, you can’t be 100 percent certain that your website is updated daily and saved to a redundant server or hard files that can be accessible in case of website crash. Most WebCare companies will offer daily, weekly and bi-monthly site backups that will keep up-to-date file information on your website so that it can be quickly uploaded if needed.
Detailed Monthly Reports: When you have a professional HVAC, contractor come to your home to tune-up your AC or heating system, or take the car in for a tune-up, you are often handed a report of what services were complete. This not only informs you as to how your money is being spent, but also lets you know what services were completed – so if something comes up, you have a record on file. Consider WebCare professionals as having your own IT department on call – that will provide you with monthly reports on your website performance, potential security threats, site visitation, and areas that could use improvement to improve website load time, or the customer experience.
Email Support & Consulting Calls: When you work with a professional online marketing company, they will take pride in helping you with those troublesome email support issues that tend to pop-up when you least expect or can afford. There is no denying the fact that every business depends on email to stay in contact with customers, suppliers, vendors and maintain company communication. By trusting a WebCare firm to help you with email support and provide consulting calls when needed, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your company’s online communication is protected.
A website is a major investment, that takes time to design, develop and continually add content. In many ways, building a website is no different than building a new car or home. But like those major purchases, investing a fraction of the cost of the website in routine service and maintenance; in this case called WebCare – is simply put – a common sense investment. A WebCare program that is effective is always customized
to meet the needs of each customer. Although there are several companies that offer ‘packages’ to choose from, the best way to protect your online presence is to contact a WebCare specialist and inquire about all of the services they offer.