Annual and Ongoing Website Costs
Annual and ongoing website costs can vary widely between websites and website developers, and this can make it confusing to know if you are being over-charged. In this article we break down website maintenance and servicing into six main components. But before we do that, let’s take a look at the two main types of website builders.
- Commercial or Proprietary Owned Website Builders
- Open Source Website Builders
Type of Website
There are two main types of websites – WordPress (open source) and the others (closed source).
Commercial or Proprietary Owned Website Builders
Many website builders are proprietary or commercially owned. They use closed-source software. That is, the source code is kept confidential to the company that created it. This means that as end-users we cannot access the underlying code. Examples of commercial, or proprietary owned, website builders are
- SquareSpace
- Wix
- Weebly
- Canva
The good news for you if you have a website built using this proprietary owned software is that software up-dates are not required. These platforms are more like Facebook in the way they operate. They handle the updates and push these out without you having to do anything.
These software updates are included in your monthly or annual subscription fee.
Open Soure Website Builders – WordPress
The most well known open source website builder is WordPress. Examples of open source website builders are
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
WordPress is by far the most popular and accounts for over 40% of websites worldwide.
Open source website builders have many different authors writing software for them (eg. themes, pagebuilders, plug-ins). This makes them unique and complex.
Six Main Components of Website Servicing
Websites are best if they receive regular maintenance. They are not a set and forget proposition. However how much, and what type of servicing and maintence you have, will vary according to what your business is, how important it is for the website to be discovered when people search on Google and your risk profile.
Here’s the six main components of website maintenance and servicing.
- Software Updates
- Back-ups
- Security Monitoring
- Content Updates
- Search Engine Optimisation (Being Found on Google)
- Support Desk
Software Updates
You’re probably familiar with computer updates. Every now and again your computer or phone will let you know there is a new version of your operating system, app or browser. Website software is no different. It is continually being updated to keep current with the software it relies on and partners with, to fix bugs, or to add new features. A bug fix may be because something was found to be causing an error, or it could that something was identified as a security vulnerability having been used by a hacker with malicious intent.
As mentioned above, if your website is built using proprietary owned software, you do not need to do anything as updates are included in your monthly or annual subscription plan.
However if you have a WordPress website, updating the software is highly recommended. Any software not kept-up to date risks being the target of hackers. Giving hackers this window of opportunity is somewhat asking for trouble. In addition to this, keeping the software up-to-date keeps the site working properly. If you are feeling confident you can do these updates yourself (although occassionally the updates themselves can cause issues on your site, so learning how to troubleshoot these issues is part of the process).
In our view paying someone to do this for you, if you are not doing it yourself, is part of a good website service plan.
Back-ups
Unexpected problems happen from time to time with websites – it’s just the nature of the game. Regularly creating a file of your whole website can be your Get out of Jail free card. With a back-up file, if your site is hacked or something mistakenly goes wrong, you can restore it.
Paying your hosting provider or website developer to do this makes good sense. Having a back-up file outside of the hosting company (i.e. off-line) is also recommended.
Most websites built using proprietary owned software have a back-up stored by the company, but many do not have the ability to create and save a back-up file off-location (i.e. as a file on your own computer). If your website is built using one of these builders we’d recommend doing some research to discover how you might best approach backing up your website.
Security
With proprietary owned website builders the security of the site is in the hands of the company.
However with WordPress and the other open sourced software websites, security is in your hands. Software updates go some way towards keeping your site secure – but it’s not the whole picture.
There are specialist firewall and malware scanner plug-ins that are used on WordPress websites to
- run the latest in firewall rules
- look for malware signatures
- find malicious IP addresses
Many website developers will include (and charge for) this extra layer of security monitoring by default. At DIY Digital we feel its a bit like taking out insurance – you can take it out or you can risk not having it. Different businesses and different individuals will have different risk profiles.
Content Updates
If your site is languishing from old and out-dated content your customers will notice. It’s not a good look and most businesses can ill afford to turn customers away. Many small business owners underestimate how valuable good content is.
Some website maintenance packages include content updates in them, often stated as 30min or 1 hour of website updates each month. If you have this included in your package you may as well take advantage of it. If you don’t want or need content updates, you may wish to look for, or request, a package that doesn’t include this.
Search Engine Optimisation – Being Found on Google
Good, updated content is not only good for website visitors, it’s also important in getting noticed by Google. The technique for getting on page one when somebody searches for your product or service on google is known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO.
There are many businesses who offer SEO services, looking for a reputable one that is a good fit for you and your business will likely require some investigation.
If you work in a highly competitive market and your business relies on an effective online presence ensuring your site is optimised for search engines is a must. If you are paying a high monthly retainer fee for your website it most likely includes activities that are helping with your SEO.
If your website is an information site that you need to have to maintain a professional presence online, but you don’t need it to drive new clients to your business (for example you might get most of your work via referrals or industry leads), then optimising it for search engines is not a wise expenditure to incur.
Support Desk
Things go wrong with websites – it’s just part of the landscape. Website agencies take phone calls or respond to emails from their clients. We typically receive many emails that begin with “just a quick question…”. These emails are rarely quick answers. Most of our email answers will take 20minutes to investigate and compile an answer, some will take an hour.
Website developers somehow need to factor this into their costs. This may be factored into the original development cost or a monthly or annual service fee.
Are You Being Over-Charged?
So we come back to the original question – are you being overcharged?
We’ve certainly seen some monthly subscription costs that make our eyes water. We can’t understand how the costs can be so high and what service the client is getting for that money. We’ve also seen businesses pay nothing for website servicing and 3 years down the track they have significant issues with their site as it hasn’t been maintained. In our business we search for the happy medium for budget conscious clients. But in general, although there are some outliers, as with most things, you get what you pay for.
Search engine optimisation is by far the biggest cost, and understandably so. Agencies undertaking SEO are, or should be, regularly working on your site and creating good, authentic content. This takes time. And time is money.
In our experience, most website developers are not over-charging (although there are definitely some dubious ones out there), but they may be over-servicing.
If you don’t require SEO, security monitoring or content updates then you are being over-serviced.
If you reckon you could do some of the stuff yourself, or you are already doing it yourself, then paying someone else to do it is wasting your money. If you don’t need or want the service, paying someone to do it is wasting your money.
We hope this article helps you to better understand your website service contract and make a decision on what you are, up until now, unknowlingly or unwillingly paying for.
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