What is Website Support and Maintenance?

At Modular, we often get asked to define what Website Support and Maintenance is and how it works.

The easiest way to get your head round it is to think of your website as a car. Just like cars, websites are made up of multiple different parts that need to work together in harmony for the car to run smoothly.

Like cars, they need regular servicing to make sure they are fit for the road and from time to time they may break down for no apparent reason. Parts will need updating and replacing due to wear and tear. Old cars and new ones need looking after and can throw a spanner in the works when you least expect it.

No doubt you will have found yourself a garage who feel is reliable and you can trust.

Website Support and Maintenance provide you with a virtual garage and a team of handy mechanics, who you can all upon for your website servicing, breakdown recovery and repairs.

Website Servicing and Breakdown recovery

Once your website is in the garage (we call it the development environment) you can really look after it.

Website ‘Servicing’ (the maintenance bit) includes regular updates to software and plugins, keeping the site healthy and ticking over. Plus, performance reports keep an eye on site speed and security.

If websites are not regularly updated and maintained, something is likely to go wrong with it at some point. Bits of tech stop talking to each other and then all of a sudden, something is a bit amiss but you don’t know why. Mobile phones do the same thing. If an app or update has not been installed, things sometimes just seem to stop working properly, driving you mad until you twig. Updates are due! Unless you have specialist knowledge, it can often be very difficult to look under the hood and work out what exactly the problem is or how to solve it. 

Website ‘Breakdown recovery’ (the supportive bit) is there for when you need it. An emergency service you can dial up quickly when your website malfunctions and you need to raise an incident, and get a rapid response. Basically, a helpline for troubleshooting problems as they arise. 

Common problems include issues with running speeds, logins and authentication, database architecture, interfaces and user journeys, cross-platform integration, search engine optimisation, and security concerns. 

Having a good support contract in place is like insurance, it gives you piece of mind that you have backup if something goes wrong. 

Backup

Having a support and maintenance contract really means having a trusty Digital Delivery Team on hand when you need it. A ready made external part of your team, who understands you, your team and your website.  Safe in the knowledge that someone has got your back when something happens and your site will be fully operational again within a short time-frame if something goes wrong.

With a dedicated team looking after all the strategic, technical and design aspects of your website, you’ll have the support and resources required to constantly improve it. Making it super easy to undertake ongoing improvements and iterations to your website in line with the vision and goals of your organisation. 

Future proof it to whatever spec you need.

Sustain…

At Modular, we have extensive experience of providing website support and maintenance to a portfolio of some amazing businesses and organisations. We help lots of small teams plus larger global publishing teams. All of them are doing BIG things. 

We normally start out launching a new website or adopting an existing website. We then set about sustaining and nurturing the site for years to come. 

Our affordable Support and Maintenance packages are tailored to your specific digital needs. We offer affordable Support Essentials, which you can boost with additional services such as site performance management or website health checks. How frequently you purchase the boosters is up to you. 

If you do have to raise an incident, you only pay for time used, not a penny more. We don’t want you to worry about retainer hours and how to use them up at the end of a month. Small development iterations can be carried out throughout the year or we can help you create a Digital Roadmap, plotting out all the key updates and helping you make the most of your time and budget to deliver them. 

We’re here for you Monday to Friday 9.30am until 5pm, plus we offer weekend/bank holiday cover for those who need it. 

For us, website support  is all about getting to know you, your team and your website. Balancing the technical yin with the friendly yang. Deliver expertise, technical ability and the knowledge to be able to look under the hood to see what is wrong and to fix it but also having friendly folk at the end of a phone, ready to listen and help.

…and Nurture

Sustaining your website is one thing, nurturing it is another. 

Website support keeps the website healthy, but it also opens the door to so much more. The longer we work with you, the stronger the partnership, the better the relationship and the results. 

Our goal is to keep the website healthy, but we also want to feed and nurture it. So not only does it live a long life, but a prosperous one.

Nurture can take many forms. For existing websites it may involve reviewing the customer experience and user journeys, making changes where required. Adding new bits and bobs, more exciting functionality that allows you to really mature your online service. Sometimes it means redesigning the whole thing, but keeping the soul and skeleton in place. Re-using what you have rather than starting from scratch. 

Sometimes you might want to treat it to some new imagery, animations, or give it a little brother or sister. Micro sites make wonderful campaigns. 

Our Nurture also means looking after you and your team. Onboarding and welcoming new staff, upskilling where needed, and working side by side to craft a Digital Roadmap that sets you up for success. 

No matter your goal, we’re here to help you get there. 

You’re in this for the long haul, but so are we.

At Modular we help organisations of all shapes and sizes find the right Website Support Contract for them.

If you want some help working out what is right for your site and your organisational needs, give Emma a call on 07584 652285 or drop an email to emma@thisismodular.co.uk and she’ll gladly talk you through the options.