Today's CMS Websites are more complex, and preventative maintenance is more critical than ever for your website's health and performance.
I Design is starting the new year with a focus on website maintenance, compliance policies and accessibility. We'll be posting another blog article later this month about how we can help your website avoid lawsuits and protect personal information with dynamic compliance policies that update as new laws are published.
But, the focus today is on maintenance plans. You know that your website needs maintenance, but what types of maintenance does a website need? Does my website require a monthly plan, or a quarterly plan? As you can expect, the plans are suited to match the complexity and types of websites you have.
We decided to get an unbiased opinion regarding maintenance by generating the text below from ChatGPT with the prompt "Do CMS websites need regular maintenance?" (Out of curiosity, we also generated the AI graphic above with Firefly using the prompt, "Generate an AI prompt").
From ChatGPT:
Yes, all CMS (Content Management System) websites need regular maintenance to ensure they perform well, stay secure, and remain up-to-date with the latest features. Here's why regular maintenance is essential:
1. Security Updates
2. Plugin and Theme Updates
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- Plugins and themes are critical components of most CMS websites.
- Outdated plugins or themes can lead to compatibility issues, broken functionality, or security risks.
3. Performance Optimization
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- Over time, websites can slow down due to database clutter, unused plugins, or unoptimized media.
- Regular maintenance ensures your site loads quickly, which is vital for user experience and SEO.
4. Content Updates
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- Content may need to be refreshed to remain relevant and engaging.
- Broken links or outdated information can harm your credibility.
5. Backup Management
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- Regular backups are essential for recovering your site in case of a failure, hacking, or accidental changes.
- Maintenance ensures these backups are current and functional.
6. Compatibility Issues
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- CMS platforms, plugins, and themes evolve. Regular maintenance ensures all components remain compatible after updates.
7. SEO
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- Search engine algorithms change, and CMS maintenance allows you to implement best practices and optimize for new requirements (e.g., mobile-first indexing).
8. User Experience (UX)
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- Regular maintenance ensures forms, buttons, and other interactive elements work as intended.
- It helps maintain accessibility compliance and user-friendly design.
Recommended Maintenance Schedule
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- Weekly: Check for updates, backup your website, monitor uptime.
- Monthly: Review website performance, update content, remove unused plugins.
- Quarterly: Test site functionality, analyze security, and review SEO practices.
- Annually: Renew domain names, assess overall website design, and review hosting plans.
Regular maintenance is crucial to keep your CMS website running smoothly, secure, and relevant in an ever-changing digital landscape.
This AI generated list is through, and we couldn't have written cut and pasted it any better. Since ChatGTP is collecting information from its training data, its results come primarily from high ranking websites which tend to be larger and more complex than the average. None of our clients need weekly checks. Some have monthly contracts, and most others have quarterly updates.