Total Cost Regarding Website Maintenance

Ongoing website maintenance cost includes domain renewal, license fees, backups, hosting, site maintenance and software updates.

Domain Renewal

Though it is a small issue in terms of cost, but holds extreme importance. In case of new website and URL, it is good to purchase the web address, also known as domain through reputed providers like GoDaddy, Network Solutions etc. It is better to prepay for multiple years in advance in order to ensure automatic renewal.

Its cost is generally between $10 and $20 on yearly basis. In case somebody forget to renew the domain, the site will definitely go down. In serious cases, the site may not come back at original state ever. Hence, domain renewal must not be taken for granted.

Hosting

There are a myriad of hosting options available. The companies selling web address also offers hosting. The cost for the same is generally less than $10 per month, but may go up to $100 or more as per situation. The range depends upon the size of web traffic along with the size and complexity of the website.

The bottom line is that in case of a small to medium-sized business, the monthly website maintenance cost can be expected to be in lower range. Some considerations that are more than expense include security, reliability, up-time and support.

Backups

This is the only area about which maximum companies do not think about until it gets too late. Taking backup of the entire website frequently is a good idea. It will be better to have it backed up in a separate location from where the site is currently hosted.

In case of an e-commerce company or presence of a lot of highly important data on the website, a disaster recovery plan can literally save the business in case of getting hacked or if something goes wrong with primary hosting. There are many companies that offer backup services where the cost of backups will be similar to the range of hosting.

In case the website goes down, technical assistance will be helpful in restoring the site through backup.

License Fees

Until the site is built up in pure HTML/CSS, one will require in need of some type of special software to facilitate some important functionality. Even popular open-source CMA which includes WordPress, Drupal and Joomla require downloads of software and certain types of servers for proper functionality.

Open source CMS are generally free, i.e., requires no license fees. Other CMS options require license fees that can go into the range of thousands of dollars.

Software Updates and Site Maintenance

This is the place where real expenses take place. It must be noted that free CMS options like WordPress require a lot of software updates. Most of the WordPress sites comprise of software plug-ins to create various functionality on the website. It is not uncommon to have about 10-20 plug-ins on a site.


Each and every piece of software requires updates over time. Though WordPress itself hold upgrades, where each and every plug-in requires upgrades.

Technical expertise costs ranges between $60/hr and $150/hr.

Realistic Website Maintenance Costs for Small Businesses

In order to keep driving in a smooth manner, regular service must be given to the car. But in case of website, well oiling of some parts will enable proper running of the website. In other words, an unattended website will soon become outdated, slow, hold an unattractive look and finally become vulnerable to hackers.

Visiting A Beater Website – A Daunting Task

Visiting a beater website is quite a daunting task. Breaking of timing belts becomes a huge matter of concern when left unnoticed. It is important to set priorities for the level of support to outsource in order to prevent massive budget for regular website maintenance.

Points To Look Into While Considering Website Maintenance Cost:

While considering website maintenance cost, it is very much essential to look into the following points in depth for preventing inconvenience:
 

• Keeping the Website Secured – It is good to have a service which includes website backups along with package which installs patches and software updates. CMS such as WordPress are constantly on the way of updating plug-ins to keep one step ahead of hackers.
  
  It is the duty of a good webmaster to find out the best source of problem along with creating a temporary work-around.

• Keeping the Hosting Account and Domain Name Registration Active – Failing to re-register the domain name may lead the rival grab the same and sell it back to the owner at a relatively high price. Hence, in case of a maintenance agreement, it must be ensured that the hosting account remains active in order to avoid problems which may lead into an interruption in service.

• Having a Dedicated Server – Shared hosting service is a great option in case somebody has started out with a website. This implies hosting of the website on the same server where several other sites have been hosted hence reducing the cost. But in case of a lot of traffic paying the hosting company for dedicated server hosting will hold several advantages like safe storage, more backups, and preventing load times.

• Hidden Costs – Website maintenance companies hold a lot of hidden costs in proper maintenance of the website. It is very important to detect the inclusion of hacking or of a malicious feature. This will enable easy protection of the details.

• About Cleanups – It is very much important to know whether the virus cleanup and restoring cost is included in the package or an extra charge needs to be paid. In case of the latter, it is better to know the actual package required. One may choose the most suitable one from silver, bronze and other advanced packages.