Many designers and developers think that their clients come straight from hell.
La verdad es que los desarrolladores de sitios Web tienen una gran variedad de clientes.
Algunos de ellos no están familiarizados con WordPress y el Web design y dejan que los expertos hagan lo que saben hacer, mientras que otros creen que su opinión siempre es correcta pese a que no tienen experiencia en desarrollo web. Dispuestos o no, los clientes deben ser educados!
One of the most common misconceptions is that a site does not need any work after it is added online.
This is a huge mistake often made by freelancers, programmers, designers, developers, and agencies.
Cada vez que un sitio se pone en marcha, el client debe ser informado de que es sólo el principio y no el final. Un sitio web necesita mejoras consistentes, actualizaciones y nuevo contents, y los clientes no siempre están al tanto de este trabajo.
Educate your customers and you won't be bothered by annoying phone calls.
Instead of a cold relationship with customers, strengthen it by providing a WordPress maintenance service.
Many clients will allow you to handle maintenance for a monthly fee.
This way, they can be sure that you will take care of their site, and you can generate recurring monthly income.
In the following lines, I'll show you what a WordPress maintenance service is, its benefits, and a list of useful tools to help you do it.
What is a WordPress maintenance service?
Un servicio de mantenimiento de WordPress cubre una amplia área, pero la mayoría incluye cosas como actualizaciones de núcleo, tema y plugin de WordPress, copias de seguridad, seguridad, hosting y análisis. Por supuesto, puedes expandir tus servicios de WordPress dependiendo de las necesidades del cliente.
Here, we will look at each type of service so that you can assess whether it is capable of offering WordPress maintenance services or if you need to hire someone to perform these tasks.
1. Regular updates
If you've used WordPress for many years, updating WordPress core, themes, and plugins is probably the most mundane activity.
Someone who uses WordPress in moderation, however, may have a different opinion and will pay a reasonable monthly fee for someone else to do this work.
This type of service is simple but can come with complications: you have to keep the WordPress core, themes and plugins up to date, but at the same time test these updates before implementing them live to make sure they do not cause errors or unwanted changes. .
Usted puede explicar a los clientes la relevance de tener un sitio actualizado.
A record of all your operations can help you justify your work.
2. Backups
The persons tienen seguro médico, de hogar o de automóvil, y pagan mucho dinero por ello. Explique a sus clientes que una copia de seguridad es idéntico a un seguro; si algo malo sucede, tienen una red de seguridad.
A good WordPress maintenance service should have a full backup at least at least once a day; backups should be tested and stored off-site and if possible in multiple locations.
Offer regular backups as part of your WordPress maintenance service.
Explain to your customers the role of a backup, and they will most likely gladly pay to 'guarantee' their sites.
3. Security
People can hardly believe that their site could be hacked until it happens. Your role as a developer is to emphasize that security is vital to a website.
Inform your customers that WordPress has a large market share, and is like a magnet for hackers. If they find just one of the WordPress vulnerabilities, they can break into a myriad of sites.
Es sólo cuestión de tiempo hasta que el sitio de su cliente be pirateado a menos que alguien experto refuerce su seguridad. Muestre a sus clientes nuestra infografía de seguridad WordPress para educarlos sobre sus acciones para proteger sus sitios.
A WordPress maintenance service necessarily includes the security of a site. Hacking methods are getting more and more sophisticated, and any site administrator needs decent skills to protect it.
Site security evolves, it doesn't work on the set and forget principle.
All of these factors combined should convince your customers that site security is serious business, and you could be their savior.
4. Accommodation
Most of the customers are afraid of any problems related to hosting. Management tools fall short on the ease of use chapter, and people hate them.
Inform your past and current clients that managing their hosting problems is part of your maintenance service package.
Unlike security or backups, being in charge of solving hosting problems means an active dialogue with your customers. Review your hosting plans and suggest improvements to get better services for less money.
Talk to them and make joint decisions. You could even ask a hosting company for a discount if you have a lot of customers willing to migrate their sites.
5. Analytics
Google analytics es una herramienta poderosa que proporciona una cantidad impresionante de datos. Un Username de WordPress sin experiencia puede tener problemas para configurar el código de seguimiento.
Others may not be able to interpret the data.
A correct interpretation of the statistics of the site is essential to improve it, so let your customers know how important it is to extract and evaluate the data correctly.
Incluya un informe de Google Analytics y de la Consola de búsqueda de Google en sus servicios de mantenimiento.
It depends on your availability, but your customers will certainly appreciate your suggestions because the numbers (at the same time known as approximate data) might not be suggestive enough for some of them. Extract raw data with analysis tools and create digestible reports.
These reports will convince people that they are not wasting their money and that you are the best maintainer of the site.
6. Improved site performance
Site performance is a broad term that covers many activities.
Some agencies and freelancers consider site performance improvement a separate activity and do not include it in a maintenance service package.
It is up to you whether or not you want to add this service to your maintenance plans. Consider selling tiered plans and including performance improvement on higher plans.
Site performance improvement services should include the following basic operations:
- Speed improvement. Revise el sitio utilizando herramientas como Google Page Insights para determinar la situación actual y siga las mejores prácticas sugeridas para acelerar el sitio. Añada plugins de cache y rendimiento para promover la experiencia general del usuario.
- Remove unused themes and plugins. Reduce site load by removing unused themes and plugins. They can contain security vulnerabilities and slow down the loading speed.
- Clear the broken links. Too many broken links affect the credibility of the site, but you can easily remove them with the help of plugins.
- SEO básico a una página. Optionally, you can offer a SEO consulting page. A client who hires you for maintenance services is probably not an SEO guru, so educate your clients by introducing the role of SEO in site effectiveness.
7. Code Audit
A code audit is another optional item to add to your WordPress maintenance plans. Consider including a free code audit when you are first hired.
A code audit is useful when customers already have a site and hire you to handle maintenance.
Most likely they have used a free theme or buggy plugins, or the developers stopped providing support and updates for them. If so, suggest buying a new item that meets the WordPress coding standards.
Disclaimer:
To do a proper code audit, you have to know a thing or two about coding.
Do not offer this maintenance service if you are not familiar with coding best practices.
8. Content Audit
It is true that content creation is totally different from WordPress maintenance.
Typically, designers and developers are responsible for maintaining the site, and many of them are not passionate about writing. However, experienced maintainers needed to review the content of the site.
The success of any online presence is highly dependent on the content.
If you've managed content-heavy blogs or sites, you might be the right person to do a basic content audit.
Una auditoría de contenido completo es un mundo totalmente diferente, pero una auditoría básica toma poco tiempo y puede ser realizada por un blogger medio o avanzado.
Puede combinar datos de informes analíticos para informar a sus clientes sobre las keywords de mejor rendimiento.
A la vez, una auditoría de contenido básico debe analizar la meta description, las palabras clave, la longitud, los enlaces y el formato de cada mensaje.
9. Miscellaneous Services
No matter how many pricing plans a WordPress maintenance agency has, they cannot meet the needs of every client.
We offer a wide variety of WordPress maintenance services, but from time to time, we have clients with special needs who need custom solutions.
We love new inquiries, and we will do our best to help you;
This approach should be implemented by anyone willing to satisfy customers by offering a WordPress maintenance service. Expect the unexpected when dealing with WordPress users!
WordPress maintenance is still an unsaturated market, and you can benefit from this situation.
Luckily, entrepreneurs have created tons of tools and apps to help you streamline WordPress maintenance.
Some of them take the form of plugins while others are web apps. Here is a selection of useful tools for WordPress maintenance service providers.
1. Spread the word
If you take care of 30-40 sites, it will take you an hour a day to log into each site, update WordPress core, themes, and plugins, and test updates for compatibility issues.
It is hectic work for a mundane task.
It is undeniable that a single panel with full control over each managed site will significantly reduce the time spent on these updates.
Sync by iThemes is a great tool that streamlines the management of your sites. It enables you to perform the following actions:
- Bulk install themes and plugins
- Log in remotely to sites
- Perform a basic audit of pages and messages
- Share your sync dashboard with other users (useful for teams)
- Send reports to clients with all their activity
- Update everything with one click (a real-time time saver)
It impresses not only for its functionality but at the same time for its transparency for developers. iThemes at the same time has created a Trello card with cards dedicated to customer requests. Pretty cool, huh?
2. MainWP.com
MainWP is a serious competitor because it comes with many great features that simplify website management.
First, it enables you to manage an unlimited number of sites from a single dashboard.
Second, it enables granular control over installed themes and plugins.
Al mismo tiempo le notifica instantáneamente cuando un sitio se cae y, a la vez, realiza un simple análisis de sitios en busca de malware y vulnerabilidades.
3. TemplateMonster
Do you have a WordPress site and you worry about its security?
Maybe you had a bad experience when your website was down and you didn't know where to go for help.
Now you know!
We would like to inform you of the web maintenance services and technical support from TemplateMonster. This type of maintenance guarantees you emergency care at any time you need it, the assistance of qualified agents and the absolute security of your website.
You can choose between 2 packages of services that are available under the monthly or annual subscription. Check the following list of services that you can get when you get one of the subscriptions:
- Upgrade regular WordPress core and installed plugins
- Depuration of the weekly site, so that nothing can hinder the proper performance of your website
- Speed optimization weekly
- Maintenance of your database so that it is error-free and efficient
- 3-5 hours change and update content
- 24/7 website monitoring by means of a special plugin
- Immediate problem solving in chat, by email or via the ticket system
- 1 year InMotion web hosting free
Sounds great right?
And these are just some of the basic options you get with the plan. Essential: 39 $ per month / 289 $ per year, and you can take advantage of even more additional tools if you opt for the plan Premium: 69 $ per month / 689 $ per year.
Thus, if 24/7 support is what you really need, we suggest you try this maintenance service.
4. Backup plugins
Any WordPress maintenance service plan should include site backups.
The WordPress repository is a good starting point for identifying reliable backup plugins, but in most cases its functionality is limited.
If you manage some sites, you can choose for free plugins and do backups manually.
However, a premium plugin creates full backups at scheduled intervals. To avoid any kind of problem, keep at least two backups in different locations.
Here are some suggestions:
- UpDraftPlus. The slogan on the main page - 'The World's Most Trusted WordPress Backup Plugin' - is not far from the truth. It enables full or partial backups, and you can save multiple copies to multiple locations, including the cloud. At the same time it works for WordPress multisite.
- BackupBuddy. Another massively used plugin, BackupBuddy allows you to schedule automatic backups and store them in multiple locations.
5. Security plugins
You have a ton of little chores to do to protect your managed sites, and a security plugin is a necessary tool in your arsenal. Luckily, there are many reliable security plugins. We recommend the following:
- Wordfence. It is one of the few plugins that has more than two million installations. It comes in two versions - free and premium - and Wordfence really makes your sites stronger.
- iTemas security. Previously called Better WP Security, iThemes Security is another security plugin that should be on your to-buy list to protect the sites you manage.
6. UptimeRobot.com
There is nothing more frustrating for customers than dropping their sites and their maintenance provider unknowingly.
Uptime Robot is a golden tool in this regard.
Monitor site availability and instantly inform users about site outages.
You can go for the free plan if you have less than 50 sites to monitor, but you will miss out on some useful features.
7. Pingdom.com
Pingdom is a famous tool for site monitoring.
Es una de las herramientas más confiables para monitorear el tiempo de actividad, pero al mismo tiempo realiza muchas tareas adicionales, como monitoreo de usuarios, análisis de velocidad de página, notificación por correo electrónico y SMS, pruebas de rendimiento, etc.
It is suitable for site maintainers who want to have full control over site uptime and get some additional data related to performance and user experience.
8. WP.com Audit Security Log
This plugin is an irreplaceable tool to check user activity.
Provides clear data on the login and logout of each user, their actions and profile changes.
The WP Audit Security Log works best when both you and a customer log into the site normally.
Clients may accuse you of mismanagement, but this plugin reveals what you did and who performed unwanted actions.
This can be very useful when something breaks and you want to know what actions were taken to cause it.
9. Toggl.com
Toggl is a time management application that is easy to use and efficient.
Anyone can use it, but it works great for site maintainers to keep track of the time they spend on each site.
At the same time, Toggl is suitable for recording the time spent offering consultations or modifying a site. It is an exceptional solution for both individuals and teams.
10. HARVEST (getharvest.com)
Harvest is an alternative for people dissatisfied with Toggl.
It enables you to track time spent on various clients and tasks, plan future projects, manage and evaluate your team members, email invoices, and set reminders.
Harvest can be integrated with more than 100 apps, and you can test the waters by signing up for a fully functional 30-day trial (no credit card required).
There are many other tools to assist site maintainers, which are only a limited selection.
Please leave a comment with your favorite tools. The more suggestions, the better for all of us. At the same time, don't forget to share your thoughts on maintaining the WordPress site.
How to make money offering WordPress maintenance
Are you interested in an extra € 100-300 + per customer each month? If your WordPress development, design, or marketing business isn't offering a WordPress site maintenance package, you're missing out on a great opportunity.
Give your customers peace of mind and spare them the horror they would suffer if left to their own devices, while establishing yourself as your one-stop web solution. It is a win-win situation!
If you're thinking, "It sounds amazing, but I don't have time for that," don't worry.
In this post voy a mostrarte cómo puedes añadir el mantenimiento de WordPress a tu negocio utilizando la automatización y las asociaciones con servicios de terceros.
At the same time we will see how to price your services and manage your costs so that you can make a healthy profit. If you are looking to increase your earnings, this is for YOU.
Pricing strategy
Price maintenance services are an ideal way to get started with value-based pricing.
With value-based pricing, you are not tying your price to your hourly rate, but to what your customer receives in return. This enables you to charge a higher rate.
More money sounds great, right?
So what is the catch?
Well, being able to show how much value you are bringing can be difficult to communicate.
When you are building a new site, you cannot predict with certainty how your talents will benefit the business, but with maintenance services, it is an entirely different story.
If you know how much your site makes per day or per month, you can shift your customers' focus on what they might lose if your site goes down, which can be a lot depending on how much your site makes.
As an example, a site that earns $500 per day can lose thousands if it is down for several days. In that context, it makes sense to pay several hundred dollars a month to protect the site.
It's like insurance.
Communicating how value is generated by protecting your site on an ongoing basis is essential.
When offering maintenance services, be sure to submit ongoing reports on the health of your site, so your customer can take note of your behind-the-scenes efforts.
Work, work, work, work, work, work
When your site maintenance fee is no longer tied to how much time passes, you can create time-saving shortcuts that will benefit your bottom line.
Isn't that ingenious?
You are rewarded for being more efficient.
- You can maximize your profits by offering only high value return services for a minimum of manual labor.
- Create processes and checklists so you can get to work quickly.
- If you have to complete a task continuously, you should find ways to automate it to save time.
How to set up your WordPress maintenance service
Doing work at home
If you want to maximize revenue and take full responsibility for your clients' sites, you will need some tools and / or plugins to help you get the job done.
To keep your costs down, remember the following:
- Automate everything (well, almost everything)
- Choose tools and plugins that don't charge you a license per site
- Avoid hosts / services that charge an additional fee for ecommerce or multisite
WPMU DEV te ofrece todas las herramientas que necesitas para iniciar tu propio negocio de mantenimiento de WordPress incluido en tu subscription.
WPMU DEV not only offers you all of the above with no restrictions on number of sites, e-commerce or multisite, but at the same time you have access to a host of additional plugins, our first class support team, member forums, The Hub, white label reports and much more.
WordPress maintenance services to offer to your clients
To provide a full service website solution, here are some website maintenance services that you can offer to your clients.
Scheduled backups to the cloud
Even if the host your customer is using already backs up, you really should have backups in multiple places. Snapshot Pro makes it easy. Offer automated daily backups as a precaution to protect your site. If the host doesn't offer daily backups or if you want to create a backup elsewhere, you can use a plug-in like Snapshot Pro to schedule automated backups.
Having a reliable backup is essential and redundant backups protect against technical and user errors.
At the same time, not all backups are clean. If a site was hacked and no one noticed for a while, all your backups could have nefarious files. This is something that is avoided by keeping the copies clean.
Security scans
Speaking of hacking, actively searching for vulnerabilities will show you what you need to improve upon. There are plugins that can scan your site for recognized vulnerabilities and return you a list of suggested improvements.
Defender runs automated security scans and sends you vulnerability reports and security recommendations that you can pass on to your customer.
This at the same time can open the opportunity for you to suggest the necessary changes to your clients that can bring more income to you.
Secure updates
Although WordPress makes it easy to automate plugin, theme, and core updates, you need to make sure the update doesn't destroy your site. You need to be able to test the updates on a staging site and see how the update affects critical functionality.
Setting up a staging environment can be a bit of a hassle, so choosing a host who offers this service is the best way to go.
A staging environment at the same time is useful for testing new functions. If you've already gone to the trouble of setting up a tuning environment for updates, you can inform your customers that you can test the changes on your site at the same time. This will give you the opportunity to do custom development that you can bill at your hourly rate.
Run time monitoring
Un sitio que está periódicamente caído pierde su credibilidad a los ojos de los visitantes y los search engines. Algunas veces tus visitantes te harán saber que hay un problema y otras veces, pueden ir a tu competencia.
This is why uptime monitoring is so important. Sending your customers an uptime monitoring report can show them that you are making sure your site is available at all times so they don't miss a sale.
Deciding Databases
Think of cleaning up your database like a pre-move garage sale. The less you have, the easier it is to move.
Declaring your database will allow backups to run faster and use fewer resources, which can save you a lot of time on hosting.
Eliminar los plugins no utilizados, los temas no utilizados, los comentarios de spam, las revisiones excesivas de las publicaciones, las etiquetas/categorías no usadas, las entradas de formularios procesadas, las imágenes no usadas manualmente o con plugins de limpieza le proporcionarán un mejor rendimiento del sitio.
Not to mention, removing unused plugins and themes prevents hacking through out-of-date files.
Optimization reports
As I mentioned previously, reports are a valuable tool to help you communicate your value to your customers. Some valuable optimization reports can focus on SEO, site speed and performance, and analytics.
Look for reports that you can automate and white labels for maximum efficiency.
Putting it all together
Since maintenance is ongoing, I suggest a monthly pricing model. You can have a flat fee or divide your services into several tiers.
As an example, a tier for services that are easily achieved and a VIP tier that includes support and / or custom development for you to make a good profit. For support, you may charge an additional fee for on-call telephone support.
The key is to set the expectation that your time is not free so that you don't have customers asking you for more and more.
Be sure to describe in detail what each plan covers so your customers know where your plan starts and ends.
Better yet, include a maintenance and support package for a few months with the initial construction of your site. They will get used to the benefits of your viewing their site and lose it when the service expires.
Howdy Partner
While automation can help you grow your business exponentially, a WordPress maintenance business isn't exactly passive income. What if you can't keep up with your clients' work and all the maintenance work?
Fortunately for you there are third party services ready to partner with you.
Usted puede actuar como un «broker» y trabajar con otras compañías que ofrecen servicios de mantenimiento de WordPress. Desarrolle una sociedad o simplemente actúe como affiliate.
Acting as a maintenance services broker means:
- Minimal investment of time on your part
- Less income
Here are some WordPress maintenance service providers that you can outsource some work to. At the same time I suggest that you visit their sites so that you can see some examples of how to market your services.
Work package maintainer
From $99 per month
Includes updates, backups and Sucuri security monitoring, support
Keep
Starting at $59 per month (additional charge for e-commerce sites)
Includes weekly updates, security monitoring, backups, weekly service reports, support
WP Elevator
From $59 per month
Incluye monitorización del tiempo de actividad, copias de seguridad, actualizaciones, informes mensuales, alojamiento gratuito durante un año, nombre de domain gratuito, soporte técnico
WP Site Care
From $79 per month
Includes backups, updates, security monitoring, hacker cleanups, support
Guarantee WP
From $35 per month
It includes SSL, CDN, alojamiento gestionado, soporte, actualizaciones semanales, supervisión del tiempo de actividad, informes mensuales
WP buffs
From $50 per month
Includes weekly reports, weekly updates, uptime monitoring, backups and connection to Google Analytics
Encodable
Pay per project
If you just need additional help from the project, use Codeable.io for reliable WordPress developer support. And as a WPMU DEV member, you receive a special discount.
The monthly price varies as some offer additional services such as custom development or hosting, so don't let the different prices fool you. You could be comparing apples to oranges.
But with the right partnership you don't have to worry about sacrificing quality or leaving money on the table.
That's all folks
You will find that offering maintenance services will allow you to build better relationships with your clients and do more ongoing work on your sites.
WPMU DEV puede ser su socio en el crecimiento de su negocio de mantenimiento. Todos estos servicios están incluidos en su membership de WPMU DEV:
- Automatic cloud backups in multiple locations
- White label reports
- accommodation
- Run time monitoring
- Security, SEO and performance optimization
- The Hub site manager
- And much much more
You can get more value from your membership and start your maintenance business today without incurring additional costs. It's a smart move on your part and it will allow you to offer the peace of mind that your customers need.
Top 4 Reasons to Hire Professional Maintenance Support for WordPress
If you are running a business in today's times, having an online presence for it becomes a must, no matter how big it is.
No hay manera de trabajar sin tener un sitio web para su negocio. Un sitio web da a sus productos o servicios un mayor scope y por lo tanto ayuda a aumentar su negocio.
Therefore, a good, attractive website that can keep your potential buyers engaged is a must.
Developing a website is not an easy task. Basic websites with a minimum of information are a thing of the past: on today's websites, complex and extensive information can be accessed in a few seconds.
It is not development, but keeping the website up to date and constantly secure is more difficult.
Just a small mistake can cost you the operation of your website, which will ultimately affect your business.
Here we list the reasons why you should use the services of an expert when it comes to WordPress maintenance.
Less things to worry about
Designing your own website or not keeping it updated will require a lot of time and effort, which could affect the proper functioning of your business.
In order to keep your website fresh various tasks such as bug fixes or updates will be necessary from time to time. Therefore, the first advantage of hiring an expert is that you can make an unlimited number of task requests.
Another advantage of hiring these professionals is that they will review your website on a daily basis and if it requires any updates, for example for WordPress plug-ins, it will be done at the right time with your permission.
Currently, approximately 32% of websites are powered by WordPress. Therefore, having a fresh and up-to-date website enables your business to compete in the market.
Constant proactive monitoring
Ni siquiera las grandes compañías como Facebook and Twitter están a salvo de las interrupciones del sitio web.
These companies have billions of users, so when an outage occurs, developers know about it almost immediately, and they start working on restoring service.
But for a small company, you may not be quickly aware of such a blackout. Therefore, it is beneficial to have someone constantly monitoring your website and if you face a power outage it can be restored immediately.
Daily backups
Tener copias de seguridad de cualquier tipo de información digital es una necesidad en el mundo de hoy. Suponga que usted tiene que sufrir el desafortunado event de que su sitio web se caiga, si no tiene respaldo tendrá que empezar a construir su sitio web desde cero.
But maintenance companies will take backups on a regular basis and store them in the cloud. Therefore, you will have a large amount of data to start with in case your website goes down.
Ease of a support center
There are times when you cannot explain certain problems by writing about them. But if you could tell someone over the phone, that would be great, right? If you are using the services of an expert, being able to call a support center for any difficulties you encounter is an added bonus.
