Auburn Website Maintenance Services

What is Involved in Maintaining Auburn, AL Websites

We see web maintenance as a reactive support service where we provide your Auburn business with the right web developer resources to fix just about any problem. There are many examples of website issues that might require service from Auburn website maintenance agencies, including:

• Updating your website platform.
• Installing app or plugin updates to improve security and functionality.
• Adding new web pages as you release new products or services.
• Freshen up your blog with new content.
• Rearranging your Auburn site's navigation menu.
• Making your page faster to pass Google Core Web Vitals.
• Take backups of your website's files and databases.
• Making your website look and feel better.
• Troubleshooting Google Search Console coverage issues.
• Improving technical SEO by adding structured data, open graph tags, etc.
• Providing solutions to other website problems.

The previously mentioned services are just a glimpse of what we view as possible Auburn website support services. In fact, Auburn web maintenance is really anything a web developer or digital marketer does to your website to change it in some manner.

Reactive Auburn Website Support

Most Auburn website owners wouldn't want a web developer messing around with their site without their permission. That's why we consider web maintenance a reactive service. You can count on our company to keep your Auburn website running smoothly. However, we can offer some proactive Auburn web support services.

View Auburn Website Maintenance Pricing

Proactive Auburn Website Support

We're happy to help website owners in Auburn who need proactive website upkeep! There are several website support services, including platform upgrades, app / extension updates, website backups, performance monitoring, and broken link monitoring, that our website maintainers can handle in a proactive manner.

View Auburn Website Management Pricing

If you live in Auburn, you probably love the Auburn Tigers football team. Go Auburn Tigers! In addition to supporting Auburn-area websites, our web maintenance firm also offers Birmingham, Decatur, Dothan, Florence, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa small businesses and large corporations help with their websites.

Who Needs Web Support in Auburn, AL

There will come a time when every Auburn website needs some sort of maintenance. The reason is simply that the internet is always changing. However, we don't charge a lot for Auburn website support, so you'll be able to afford it! Here are some common reasons why a website in Auburn might require web maintenance services:

• When a hosting company upgrades their servers, they may remove older versions of PHP that your Auburn website was originally developed to support. That means you'll have to refactor your app or upgrade to a newer framework that supports the latest PHP release. There's no way you can expect custom web functionality to work forever.
• Content management systems or ecommerce platforms eventually deprecate old versions so their teams can focus on the new ones. Magento 1.x store owners recently had to migrate to Magento 2.x, or an alternative ecommerce platform, because Magento 1.x was no longer maintained by Magento after it reached "End of Life". Because of that, Magento 1.x ecommerce businesses in Auburn were suddenly looking for an ecommerce developer to help migrate their website to a supported platform.
• Whenever a website owner falls victim to malware or some other form of malicious activity, the website needs to be cleaned of malware and reviewed for security exploits. This can be a time-consuming activity, and often happens because the website owner wasn't being mindful of the first two web maintenance examples, listed above.
• You need to refresh your Auburn website content when it's outdated or doesn't explain your organization, products, or services well enough for future visitors. This type of website maintenance is critical to ensuring your Auburn website is benefiting you.

As you can see, there are many reasons a website may require maintenance above and beyond the obvious reasons of just wanting to update something on the website. Plan your budget and schedules for website support and maintenance based on your Auburn business's potential future needs.

How We Perform Auburn, AL Web Support

It's our job to understand your website support needs, schedule your work in a timely fashion, and follow up with your Auburn business after the work is done.

Most web maintenance services start with an email from you, the owner of the Auburn website. Your email gets routed to our ticket system and automatically gets assigned to your project manager. From there, anyone on our team can work on the ticket without delay, leading to faster turnaround time and simplified internal communication.

For requests that originate from phone or live chat, a similar process to handling your Auburn website maintenance services unfolds. A support request is entered into our ticket system by the person in the conversation with you, so the work order can be routed to the right web developer.

Example Web Support Service List for Auburn, AL Businesses

After the launch of a website, we're often asked for detailed examples of Auburn website support requests. Here are several examples of Auburn web maintenance services we've been asked to perform in the past and would be more than happy to provide to you!

Simple Auburn Website Updates

A simple change to your Auburn website might include updating a paragraph on a page, swapping out an image, or adding a new page. These are just normal, routine web maintenance tasks to keep content fresh for both search engines and visitors.

Auburn Website Speed Improvements

Let us check your Auburn website for hosting, caching, image optimization, console errors, broken links, poor database queries, and other potential problems that might be impacting your page speed. User experience and SEO will both benefit from better page load times.

Platform Upgrades / Security Updates

Keeping your Auburn website's content management system updated is important if it's running on WordPress. Updates help improve security and functionality - and they're usually quick, so it might be a simple task.

Plugin / Extension Updates

It's important to update your Auburn website's plugins and extensions to reflect the latest changes by the developers. This is similar to the idea of updating the CMS platform since it helps patch security and functionality issues.

Google Search Console Fixes

Did Google Search Console tell you about a coverage problem? If so, we'll look at the coverage issues, fix them, and update you on the status. Make Google happy, and you'll rank higher throughout Auburn and beyond!

Implement Structured Data

Do you ever see product prices or reviews in Google organic search results? This is structured data, which is a standardized way to describe the content on a webpage, whether it's a local Auburn business, or an ecommerce product.

Add Open Graph Tags on Your Website

By adding Open Graph Tags to your website, digital platforms can better understand the content of your page, which improves its appearance on social media.

Setup Google Tag Manager

Are you interested in adding Google Tag Manager to your website to help you manage custom scripts more easily? No problem at all! We'll happily install Google Tag Manager on your Auburn website and teach you how to use it.

Setup Conversion Tracking

Tracking conversions is important if you want to understand the benefits of online advertising for your Auburn website. Then you'll know where your conversions come from, whether it be direct traffic, organic search, or paid ads.

Image Compression (Optimization)

Are large images slowing down your Auburn website? That won't be a problem! We can run all your images through our image compression tools and even setup recurring image compression for newly added images in the future!

Setup Live Chat

Is your website ready for live chat? If you'd like us to recommend the best live chat system for your Auburn business, install the tracking code, and customize the design for your branding, we can do it!

Review Error Logs for Issues

Are your error_log files big? If you're getting recurring error messages, we can update programming code or fix platform issues.

Reduce Spam with reCaptcha

If spambots are attacking your Auburn website, we can setup a checkbox or invisible reCaptcha to help minimize unwanted submissions on your forms.

Install a Caching Plugin

Are you interested in installing a caching plugin in your Auburn website, but not sure how to properly configure the settings for best website performance? We can help recommend caching plugins, or just install and configure them for you!

Send Website Emails Over SMTP

If you want to improve email deliverability, we can set up your contact form and website platform to send emails via SMTP instead of PHP mail.

Restrict Malicious IP Addresses

Have you been getting fake orders, contact submissions, or live chats from a particular network? If you want to protect your website from malicious traffic, we can help by implementing IP restrictions.

Create Website Backups

Do you want to create a backup of your Auburn website? We can help you create one-time or scheduled backups that store locally or at an offsite location.

Create a Development Website

It is often recommended that you setup a development or staging website before proceeding with a major upgrade or extension installation. If you'd like help creating and managing that development / staging site, just let us know!

Implement A/B Testing

Do you prefer to make design changes based on statistical data regarding how users interact with your Auburn web page? If so, we can help you implement A/B testing to gather data to help inform you of the best choice between two or more design layouts.

Create 301 Redirects

Are you launching a new website or removing pages from your website? You should create 301 redirects for your Auburn website. We've seen businesses in and around Auburn lose huge amounts of organic traffic due to widespread broken pages. We can help you create 301 redirects within .htaccess files, nginx templates, and CMS platforms.

Provide Website Training

Do you need help learning how to make changes to your Auburn website? If your Auburn site was developed in a platform we work within, such as WordPress or Shopify, we'll be happy to help!

The Platforms We Maintain for Auburn, AL Websites

With years of experience developing websites for Auburn businesses (and those in other areas of the country), our web designers and web developers have been immersed in multiple platforms. That said, it is better to become a master of a handful of platforms rather than try to specialize in them all. Because of that, we tend to service only these platforms for Auburn websites:

• Auburn WordPress Website Maintenance
• Auburn WooCommerce Web Support
• Auburn Shopify Website Support

As a web maintenance firm, we used to maintain and support Joomla and Magento websites for Auburn-area businesses. The reason we moved away from those platforms was to let our web support experts focus more on training and support.

Questions to Ask Auburn, AL Website Support Firms

Ask the Auburn web maintenance company some questions about their services before you sign up for a package. This will help you get a better idea of the experience you will have with their professional Alabama web support services before you submit payment and provide website access. You can ask these simple questions:

• How do you handle website security? Do you run security scans of customer websites?
• What is the turnaround time for Auburn website support requests?
• Are you outsourcing your Auburn web maintenance services?
• How much might it cost to maintain an average Auburn website?
• Are there any minimum deductions or minimum billable expenses for Auburn website updates?
• At what times of the day are you working and able to take our maintenance requests?
• How will I know about new updates to my platform?

If you ask these questions to a Auburn website services firm, you'll gain a better understanding of the future relationship, the security of your website, and the turnaround time for important maintenance requests.

Auburn, AL Web Support Plans and Tips

Companies in and around Auburn often ask us for a website support plan to establish routines and procedures. We are happy to help your Auburn business develop a web maintenance plan to ensure all aspects of your website, hosting, and domain name are routinely checked to ensure optimum performance and uptime.

Read through this list of annual Auburn web maintenance tasks to consider:

• Ask your web hosting company if they have newer servers you can migrate to.
• Check if your website platform has a new major release that will require an extensive website migration.
• Restore a website backup to make sure the data is enough for full recovery. Also, make sure your backups are stored remotely.
• Take a look at the websites of your competitors (even those outside Auburn) to see if you're missing out on anything.
• Ensure your website is secure by performing a full security review.
• Ensure that structured data, open graph, and social links are all working.
• Check if any 3rd party tracking, live chat, or heat map scripts are installed but no longer necessary.
• Take down any unnecessary development or staging sites.

Here is a list of semi-annual Auburn website maintenance tasks to consider:

• Check that your domain name doesn't expire soon and that you have access to it. You'll appreciate this when it's time to renew your domain.
• Ensure you have access to your hosting account and that it isn't expiring soon.
• Ensure you have access to your DNS in case you need to change anything.
• Find out if your SSL certificate will expire soon.
• Make sure you have remote backups outside Auburn and that your website backup schedule is working.
• If you have an automated image optimization service, verify it is working properly.
• Make sure the website doesn't throw any console errors.

Check out this list of monthly Auburn web support tasks to consider:

• Look for broken links on your website, which hurts SEO and user experience.
• Check for website performance issues from recent updates or changes on the website.
• See if there's anything wrong being reported within Google Search Console.
• Provide some kind of update to your content to keep your website fresh.
• Check if there are available platform or extension updates.

The Cost of Website Support Service in Auburn, AL

The starting price for our Auburn website maintenance services is $119.50/hour, but we offer discounts for pre-purchased blocks of time that bring the rate as low as $99.95/hour. We also offer website management for Auburn websites, starting at $50/month, if you'd like the peace of mind knowing a company is proactively upgrading your site.

To get started, if you are new to our web maintenance company, we'll need you to pre-purchase a block of time which includes a discount on our hourly rate. If you are an existing client in Auburn, you are welcome to choose monthly billing at our higher hourly rate or continue to pre-purchase time and receive discounted hourly rates for your website updates.

If you pre-purchase a block of time for your Auburn web maintenance services, you will be happy to know there are no contracts, there are no hidden fees, the time never expires, and there are no minimum deductions for small website update requests. Please keep in mind we rarely see tasks take less than 10 minutes, since the process of reviewing an email or taking a phone call, checking on whatever was asked, providing some form of feedback, and then logging the task usually takes at least 10 minutes of time. To keep you informed of the time usage on your pre-purchased block of web maintenance time, you will receive a monthly email update letting you know how much time remains on your account.

What is Considered Billable Time?

When talking with prospective Auburn website maintenance clients, we are often asked what is considered billable time. You will find the answers to vary greatly within the website support industry. In some situations, you may find a website maintenance company in Auburn to charge a much higher hourly rate, but not bill out for communication and organization. Likewise, there are website support companies in Auburn who charge a more affordable hourly rate, but also bill out for most communication and organization. This is the approach we take. To help provide clarification, let's go over some examples of what we consider billable time when it comes to maintaining and supporting your Auburn website.

Here are examples of what is considered billable time:

• Reading through lengthy emails to understand what is being requested.
• Preparing responses to lengthy or complex email messages.
• Helping you figure out your domain name or web hosting provider.
• Scheduling your website maintenance to be completed by the best team member.
• Talking with you on the phone about ideas or tasks you want to discuss.
• Reviewing completed work for quality control purposes.
• Providing you training on how to handle administrative tasks.
• Researching unique solutions to difficult questions you present our team.
• Providing more detailed time usage reports, beyond the automated monthly update email.
• Helping you figure out email client issues within Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.
• Almost any other task not specifically mentioned in the list below.

Here are examples of what is not considered billable time:

• Talking with you about personal matters, such as the weather, a recent vacation, or a sporting event.
• Responding to simple email messages that don't require research or lengthy feedback.
• Handling accounting-related tasks, such as invoice generation, payment confirmations, etc.

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