Baltimore, MD Website Maintenance Services

What is Involved in Maintaining Baltimore, MD Websites

We view web maintenance to be a reactive support service that provides your Baltimore business with the appropriate web developer resources to solve nearly any website problem. Here are a few examples of website problems that might need Baltimore web maintenance:

• Upgrading your website platform to the latest version.
• Keeping apps and plugins updated for better security and functionality.
• Adding new web pages as you release new products or services.
• Staying fresh with new blog content.
• Rearranging the navigation menu of your Baltimore website.
• Improving page speed to help you pass Google Core Web Vitals.
• Take backups of your website's files and databases.
• Changing the look and feel of your website.
• Troubleshooting Google Search Console coverage issues.
• Enhancing technical SEO with 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 Baltimore website maintenance services. Basically, Baltimore web support is anything a web developer or internet marketer does to change your website.

Reactive Baltimore Website Support

Most Baltimore website owners wouldn't want a web developer messing around with their site without their permission. That's why we consider website support a reactive service. When you choose to have our company maintain your Baltimore website, we'll be your web support team on standby for any request. However, we can provide some proactive website maintenance services for your Baltimore website.

View Baltimore Website Maintenance Pricing

Proactive Baltimore Website Support

For website owners in Baltimore interested in a proactive management service for some of their website upkeep requirements, we are happy to accommodate! We can take care of platform upgrades, app/extension updates, website backups, performance monitoring, and broken link monitoring as part of our proactive website management service.

View Baltimore Website Management Pricing

If you live in Baltimore, you probably love the Baltimore Ravens football team. Go Baltimore Ravens! In addition to supporting Baltimore-area websites, our web support company also offers Annapolis, Bethesda, Columbia, Frederick, Rockville, Salisbury, and Silver Spring small businesses and large corporations help with their websites.

Who Needs Web Maintenance in Baltimore, MD

At some point in time, every Baltimore website will require some form of web maintenance. It's because the internet is always changing. Not to worry though, our Baltimore website maintenance cost isn't expensive so it should be affordable for you to maintain your website! There are a few reasons why a website in Baltimore might need maintenance:

• When a hosting company upgrades their servers, they may remove older versions of PHP that your Baltimore website was originally developed to support. This means you have to refactor your app or upgrade to a newer framework that supports the new PHP version. You can't expect custom web functionality programmed in the past to work forever without any improvements.
• When an ecommerce platform or a content management system releases new versions, they eventually must deprecate the old versions so their teams can focus on maintaining the newer technologies. 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". As a result, Magento 1.x ecommerce businesses in Baltimore were looking for ecommerce developers to help migrate their websites.
• 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 is time-consuming, and often happens when the website owner isn't paying attention to the first two web support examples.
• You need to refresh your Baltimore website content when it's outdated or doesn't explain your organization, products, or services well enough for future visitors. This type of website support is critical to ensuring your Baltimore website is benefiting you.

There are many reasons why a website might need maintenance, other than just to update something. It is important to understand the future needs of your Baltimore business when planning budgets and schedules for website maintenance and support.

How We Perform Baltimore, MD Web Maintenance

We have an experienced website maintenance team who puts forth great effort to understand your maintenance needs, schedule your work in a timely fashion, and follow up with your Baltimore business after the tasks have been completed.

A Baltimore web support service usually starts with an email from you. That email is routed into our ticket system and automatically assigned to the project manager on your account. We can then work on the ticket without delay, which leads to faster turnaround and easier internal communication.

For requests that originate from phone or live chat, a similar process to handling your Baltimore website support services unfolds. We route the support request to the most appropriate web developer on our team based on the nature of the work needed on your website.

Example Web Maintenance Service List for Baltimore, MD Businesses

We are often asked for detailed examples of Baltimore web maintenance requests that might come up after the launch of a website. The following are some examples of Baltimore website maintenance services we've provided in the past.

Simple Baltimore Website Changes

Changes to your Baltimore website could be as simple as updating a paragraph, swapping images, or adding a new page. These are just normal, routine web support tasks to keep content fresh for both search engines and visitors.

Baltimore Site Performance Improvements

If your Baltimore website isn't running as fast as it once was, we can review your website for hosting issues, caching issues, unoptimized images, console errors, broken links, poor queries, and much more. This will help improve page load times, which are beneficial to user experience and search engine optimization.

Platform Upgrades / Security Updates

It's important to keep your Baltimore website updated if it runs on a CMS like WordPress. Updates help improve security and functionality - and they're usually quick, so it might be a simple task.

Extension / Plugin Updates

It's important to update your Baltimore 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 Issues

Did you get a report from Google Search Console telling you about a coverage issue? If so, we'll look at the coverage issues, fix them, and update you on the status. This will help your search engine rankings, throughout Baltimore and beyond, by making Google happy!

Add Structured Data

Have you ever noticed information like reviews or product prices in the listing of a Google organic search result? This is brought to you by structured data, which is a standardized way of describing the content on the web page, whether it be of a local business in Baltimore, and ecommerce product or some other common data type.

Add Open Graph to 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.

Add Google Tag Manager

Interested in using Google Tag Manager for managing custom scripts? No problem at all! We can add Google Tag Manager to your Baltimore website and even give you a crash course in using Google Tag Manager.

Add Conversion Tracking

If you are interested in understanding the benefit of an online advertising campaign for your Baltimore website, it is important to setup conversion tracking. It'll help you understand where your conversions come from, like direct traffic, referral links, organic search, or paid ads.

Optimize Images

Do you have a Baltimore website that's slow because of large images? No problem at all! We can run all your images through our image compression tools and even setup recurring image compression for newly added images in the future!

Integrate a Live Chat

Is your website ready for live chat? If you'd like us to recommend the best live chat system for your Baltimore 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? We can help diagnose the issue and update programming code or repair platform issues to prevent recurring error messages.

Setup reCaptcha on Forms

If spambots are attacking your Baltimore 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 Baltimore website, but not sure how to properly configure the settings for best website performance? We can recommend caching plugins, or we can install and configure them for you!

Setup SMTP Email

To help improve email deliverability, we can configure your contact form and website platform to send emails through an SMTP account instead of PHP mail.

Restrict Malicious IP Addresses

Have you been getting fake orders, contact submissions, or live chats from a particular network? Our team can help set up IP restrictions so your website doesn't get hit with as much malicious traffic.

Run Website & Database Backups

Would you like a backup of your Baltimore website? We can help you create one-time or scheduled backups that store locally or at an offsite location.

Create a Staging Website

It is often recommended that you setup a development or staging website before proceeding with a major upgrade or extension installation. Whenever you need help with creating and managing your development site, just let us know!

Implement A/B Testing

Would you like to make changes to your Baltimore website based on statistical data? 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

Have you launched a new website or removed pages? You will want to create 301 redirects for your Baltimore website to prevent broken pages from hurting your SEO. Having broken pages will cost your Baltimore business a lot of organic traffic if they aren't fixed with 301 redirects. We are happy to help you resolve broken pages through the creation of 301 redirects within .htaccess files, nginx templates, and CMS plugins.

Offer Website Training

Do you need help learning how to make changes to your Baltimore website? If your Baltimore 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 Baltimore, MD Websites

We have a diverse team of web designers and web developers, for Baltimore businesses, who have been immersed in multiple website platforms over the years. Having said that, it's better to master a few platforms than try to specialize in them all. For that reason, our website support company for Baltimore websites tends to service only the following platforms:

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

As a web maintenance agency, we used to maintain and support Joomla and Magento websites for Baltimore-area businesses. However, we chose not to use those platforms so our website maintenance experts could focus on training and support within the more popular platforms.

Questions to Ask Baltimore, MD Web Support Agencies

Before signing up for any Baltimore web maintenance package, it is important to ask the Baltimore website maintenance company some questions about how their services work. It'll give you a better idea of the experience you'll have with their expert Maryland website support services prior to making payment and providing website access. Let's go over some simple questions to ask:

• Can you tell me how you handle website security? Do you run website security scans for clients?
• What is the turnaround time for Baltimore web maintenance requests?
• Is your Baltimore web maintenance outsourced?
• What are your Baltimore website maintenance costs?
• Do you have minimum deductions or minimum billable expenses for Baltimore website updates?
• At what times of the day are you working and able to take our maintenance requests?
• When there are new updates on my platform, will you let me know?

If you ask these questions to a Baltimore 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.

Baltimore, MD Website Support Plans and Tips

We are often asked for a web maintenance plan by larger companies in and around Baltimore looking to establish routines and procedures within their IT department. We can help your Baltimore business set up a website maintenance plan so all aspects of your website, hosting, and domain name are monitored regularly.

Here is a list of annual Baltimore web support tasks to review:

• Message your web hosting firm to see if they have upgraded servers you can switch your website to for faster page speeds.
• Check if your website platform has a new major release that will require an extensive website migration.
• Try restoring a website backup to make sure the data is good enough for a full recovery. Also, make sure your backups are stored somewhere else besides Baltimore.
• Look at competitor websites (even those outside of Baltimore) to see if you are missing out on new functionality for your own customers.
• Perform a full security review of your website to ensure nothing has been compromised or left vulnerable.
• Ensure that structured data, open graph, and social links are all working.
• Remove any unnecessary 3rd party tracking, live chat, or heat map scripts that may have been installed in the past.
• Take down any unnecessary development or staging sites.

Read through this list of semi-annual Baltimore website support tasks to review:

• 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.
• Make sure you can access your DNS in case anything needs to be changed.
• Check if your SSL certificate will be expiring in the near future.
• Make sure you have remote backups outside Baltimore and that your website backup schedule is working.
• Check if you have an automated image optimization service running.
• See if there are any console errors on the website.

Here are a list of monthly Baltimore web maintenance tasks to review:

• Check for broken links on your website, which negatively impact user experience and SEO.
• Make sure your website isn't having performance issues after recent updates.
• See if there's anything wrong being reported within Google Search Console.
• Update some of your service pages or blog articles to keep your website fresh.
• Take a look at your website platform and extensions for any available updates.

The Cost of Web Maintenance Service in Baltimore, MD

The starting price for our Baltimore 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 Baltimore 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 Baltimore, 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 Baltimore 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 Baltimore 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 Baltimore to charge a much higher hourly rate, but not bill out for communication and organization. Likewise, there are website support companies in Baltimore 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 Baltimore 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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