Most website owners understand the importance of website security, but why do so many fail to protect and secure their own websites most critical data?
We all know the value of the information stored on our website, but we often seem to ignore the need for securing that information until something goes wrong.
Regular website maintenance is of key importance, not only does it ensure your website is functioning properly, but also helps to keep its data safe and secure from hackers.
Cyber attacks are becoming more and more frequent, and recent studies show that close to four million records are stolen by hackers on a daily basis.
Since 2013 there are 3,809,448 records stolen from breaches every day. 158,727 per hour, 2,645 per minute and 44 every second of every day.Source: Cybersecurity Ventures
Understanding the Importance of Website Maintenance
Websites are not a “set and forget” investment. There is far too much malicious activity to not keep your website well maintained and secure.
As already mentioned, cyber breaches are incredibly common and a study at the University of Maryland even quantified that these hacks affect one in every three people every year.
The rate of hacker attacks of computers with Internet access are every 39 seconds on average.Source: Cybersecurity Ventures
As if that’s not enough, regular maintenance can also ensure that every component of your website is functioning the right way and can often remove the unforeseen expense of fixing a poorly maintained or hacked site.
With this in mind, website maintenance can be compared to maintaining a vehicle.
Let’s assume you’re a courier delivering goods and services to your clients. Your delivery vehicle due for a service, but your just too busy to go to your mechanic, your clients need their goods after all.
You hear the brakes squeaking, but you let it go. A couple of months goes by and you lose your brakes and you crash into another car.
Now you can’t deliver for a number of days and you’ve got a far bigger headache than just going for your regular service. You’re actually losing income, and in the meantime upsetting your clients.
As you can see, regular maintenance is imperative for your vehicle, so it’s the same for your website.
Sometimes you need to keep things up to date, and the result of not taking action on a regular basis will often lead to problems that should never have happened.
The Benefits of Regular Website Maintenance
For the most part, regular website maintenance enables your website to not only look appealing, but function as it was intended. On the other hand, this maintenance is also tasked with keeping the website secure.
While this can sometimes seem like an unnecessary process, website maintenance is essential for the security and performance of any website.
As you can see the following statistics on cyber crime may surprise you.
43% of cyber attacks target small business.
64% of companies have experienced web-based attacks.
62% experienced phishing & social engineering attacks.
59% of companies experienced malicious code and botnets and; 51% experienced denial of service attacks.Source: Cybersecurity Ventures
The Pitfalls of Updating Your Own Website
While certain aspects of a website are relatively easy to update, you should know that there are considerable risks involved.
Like any software update, things can go smoothly or they can break and go horribly wrong. There are certain processes involved in updating and backing up data, and other processes involved in fixing the break if it occurs.
At the same time, the vast majority of cyber breaches are due to human error. When you think about it, this means that taking care of your own security can be a risky practice, and it is often best to left to a professional.
95% of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error
Cyber-criminals and hackers will infiltrate your company through your weakest link, which is almost never in the IT department.Source: Cybersecurity Ventures
The True Cost of Website Repairs
Neglecting maintenance can damage the look and functionality of your website. When that happens, you have a choice to make.
One, you stop what your doing and try to fix it yourself, and hope you do the right things to fix, or potentially cause other issues. Or two, you can then pay the (sometimes hefty) price for someone experienced to fix it.
As with most things, prevention is better than a cure, and the process of identifying and fixing website problems can be far more expensive than the cost of regular maintenance.
If we think back to the analogy of the courier, failure to maintain the condition of the vehicle can result in loss of revenue.
Final thoughts
Website maintenance requires a sustainable effort to keep your investment running smoothly.
It’s true, you could take time and learn to tackle these issues yourself and without professional guidance, but at the same time most website owners simply do not have enough time, or want to go down this road.
Or you could leave it to an experienced professional and be safe in the knowledge that its looked after, saving you time and the potential of lost visitors and sales.
There is a right and wrong way to tackle these issues and professional assistance is at hand to provide you peace of mind.
After all, like the courier, if you can’t deliver to your clients then you may just lose them.
AOG Design has Website Care Plans that can help you protect, secure and improve the performance of your website. Get in touch today!