Website Upgrades - Assuring Security, Stability and Success for your business operations
Ask any web designer what their biggest nightmare is, and they’ll likely tell you it’s the fear of knowing the website they designed has been left un-upgraded for a while. Professionals in the website design industry care deeply about each site that they help put online and, as a business owner or online marketer, so should you. Read on to find out why website upgrades play an important role in the security, stability and success of your business.
What does an upgrade cost?
When reaching out to a website designing agency, the first question that most business owners and website operators ask is: What does a website upgrade cost? In asking that question, many mistakenly equate cost to value.
When you think of website upgrades as a “cost”, it’s very likely that you’ll also look to your website as a prime “cost cutting” opportunity. And that’s where most website designing professionals say the issues lie. If your website upgrade is a “cost”, then perhaps cost savings can be achieved by performing an upgrade only once every three years – instead of annually or more frequently? WRONG.
The real question that you should be asking your web designing partner is: “What is the upgrade worth – to me?”
To answer that question, think about a restaurant owner whose kitchen fire-detection and extinguishing systems cost him/her €1,500 a year to maintain and upgrade. The question now is: Should he/she skip that yearly maintenance/upgrade cycle, and move to a 3-yearly cycle? Is the risk worth it?
No web site design project, even one that’s done by the most experienced designers in the industry, is ever static. They all need upgrades to be relevant and functional. Foregoing or postponing your next upgrade is like running an industrial kitchen with un-upgraded fire sprinklers – it’ll burn your kitchen down at some point.
What’s an upgrade worth?
Most reputable web designing services will advise their clients to consider reviewing their websites, for possible upgrades, every year – if not more frequently. Here’s why?
Security: There are new security threats uncovered every day. According to the Law Society of the UK, 43% of UK businesses that rely on online communication have experienced hacks over the past 12 months (ending Sep 2018). Could your website be vulnerable? And if there is a security breach on your website – what would it cost you in:
- Legal fees
- Web design remediation costs
- Loss of reputation
- Customer compensation costs
Some security threats are so stealthy in nature, that business owners won’t even know their websites are compromised until its too late. A website designing agency, applying security upgrades could, however, potentially forestall such security threats.
Is the risk of a potential security issue truly worthwhile ignoring a website upgrade?
Stability: Even the most seasoned web designing firm can’t guarantee that your website will be stable and functional without upgrades over many years. Technological changes to your hosting platform mean older components of your website might not function as they previously did.
Your web design service may also have used other 3rd-party plug-ins and add-ons to your website, that either become redundant or outdated as time goes by. As a result, visitors and prospective customers using newer devices, or the latest operating systems and browsers to visit your site may face outages or delays.
The only way that any web design agency can address those issues is by frequently and proactively applying upgrades to your website.
Is an unstable website worth it, when you could easily add stability through frequent upgrades?
Success: When visitors and potential customers view your website, they expect it to always be available to them. They also expect that your web designing agency will continually provide them with a fresh-looking website that has frequently updated content.
Imagine how those visitors – some of whom could very well be future customers – will react to a tired-looking site with stale content. If your web designer doesn’t upgrade your site frequently, it could threaten the very success of your business. Your customers will go elsewhere with their business.
Providers of web designing services also need to constantly upgrade the website in order to ensure visitors have access to latest product and service information, pricing, business terms and conditions, and other important notifications.
Disgruntled website visitors don’t lose out because of a poorly upgraded website. Nor does your website designer. The business owner does. Is risking your businesses’ success a worthwhile price to pay for ignoring overdue website upgrades?
It’s time to act
Ignoring an overdue website upgrade can severely jeopardise your business. From lost revenue, permanent damage to your reputation, and potentially costly litigation – it could all cost you in a big way. It’s time to act now, and work with your website designing team to do a full audit of your website, and execute any outstanding upgrades required.
