Why Should Businesses Use Managed Website Services?
In a predominantly digital world, maintaining a website is a task that requires a lot of care and attention. A well-designed website that offers a user-friendly experience is a powerful marketing tool. However, managing a website can be a time-consuming and technically challenging task. This is where managed website services come into their own.
So, is a managed website service right for you and your business? What are the benefits? Why are they an excellent solution to improve your online presence?
Let’s explore the concept of managed website services, their benefits, and why they are an excellent solution for businesses looking to increase their online presence.
We will cover:
- What is a managed website service?
- Hosting
- Securing your website
- Website backups
- Important hosting to consider
- Beyond Your Brand’s 100 Club
What is a managed website service?
Just like your smartphone, your website requires regular maintenance in order to achieve maximum performance; alongside keeping your website updated and protected. A managed website is made up of four key services:
- Hosting
- Security - SSL certificate/software
- Backups
- Website updates
A managed website service often works on a pay-monthly web design model which is more affordable for businesses of all sizes.
Hosting
Website hosting is an online way of storing content. It allows businesses and organisations to make their services available on the internet. The process involves storing the website’s files and data on a server that can be accessed via an internet connection.
A website hosting server is a space where websites are stored. For example, if you were to type in the name of your favourite restaurant, the domain name is recognised by the server, taking you to its website.
There are hundreds of website hosting providers, here are a few examples:
- A2 Hosting
- Wix
- Krystal
- Siteground
Important considerations when it comes to hosting
When it comes to choosing a hosting provider, there are a few considerations to think about. Why should you choose them?
How safe will your content be if stored with them? As a digital marketing agency that is responsible for the maintenance of our clients’ websites, it is imperative that we choose a provider that is trustworthy, reliable, and sustainable. Our chosen and preferred hosting provider is Krystal Hosting - it is a UK-based data centre that maintains 99.999% uptime.
Uptime is the time that your website is available and accessible to users, which is often attributed to the amount of time your hosting server is working correctly. To put it simply, 99.999% uptime means that there is only a 5-minute and 26-second duration of potential downtime of your website per year. If your website is not functioning properly, the 99.999% uptime guarantee allows the disruption of the matter to be quickly resolved.
Data centres are essentially buildings containing thousands of servers. Like any computer, they require power to run. Therefore, data centres can consume vast amounts of power to keep websites and software online. Krystal Hosting is run on 100% renewable electricity. Sources from the sun, wind and sea generate the electricity needed to power the data centre - making your website secure in a green way - bonus!
Securing Your Website
You have your website hosting sorted - now, what about the SSL Certificate?
Securing your website from hacking, spyware and malware is extremely important - it protects your website, your data, and your reputation. Failing to apply appropriate security to your website leaves you open to data breaches and hacking. It will also lead to loss of website traffic as the search engines are reluctant to send users to an unsecured website. If users can see that your website is not secure or if they are subject to a data leak, you will instantly lose customer trust and that can significantly devalue your business.
One way to stay protected is using an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate. It essentially works as a digital passport. It confirms a secure connection between the web browser the user is using and the website that the browser takes them to. The certificate ensures that the website is protected, private and secure. It is a way of verifying that the user is interacting with the authentic website, rather than websites that try to impersonate the intended site.
Another form of security to consider is anti-virus and anti-malware software. They are digital tools that scour and remove any potential threats to information security. Their job is to act on patterns and behaviours that pose a risk to your website and block these threats.
While anti-virus software concentrates on detecting and preventing computer viruses, anti-malware software focuses on ransomware, spyware and trojan viruses. Think of them as your bodyguards!
Krystal Hosting conducts weekly/real-time file scanning to detect any malicious files.
Website Backups
Undeniably, backing up any work that you do can prevent data loss, errors, crashes and malfunction. This goes for your website too! It’s imperative to ensure you have a backup in case of any malware functionality, software faults, human error and potential hacking that could happen. It is also worth having a backup of your backups!
It is strongly recommended that websites are backed up using data stores, meaning you can completely restore the information that was lost/interfered with. Website backup software using a web hosting company enables your data to be backed up within a physical data centre, as well as in an additional location elsewhere, allowing you to access website files for restoration in just about any eventuality.
In addition to your backup locations, another important consideration is your backup frequency. If your website was hacked or a machine malfunctioned, how recent would your last backup need to be to ensure you don’t lose any files or important information? At Beyond Your Brand, we ensure daily backups of all websites as part of our fully managed service.
Updates to CMS
A CMS (Content Management System) is a platform that allows you to build and update your website in a simple way without having to learn complex coding. All CMS systems will go through iteration updates. Some updates will be small version updates with little impact, but major version releases may require your website to be completely updated. Although usually backwards compatible, a major update may be required to ensure the highest level of security or to keep your website healthy and functioning effectively. Think of it as your portal for updating and managing your site!
A couple of CMS examples are:
- WordPress: a user-friendly platform that provides an easy experience for managing, customising and updating your website.
- Joomla: an adaptable and strong platform that handles more advanced and complex websites (read our blog on the benefits of Joomla for more).
A fully managed website service takes care of all of this for you. At Beyond Your Brand, we apply CMS updates as required, ensuring that your site is kept secure and optimised.
Beyond Your Brand’s 100 Club
If you are looking for a partner to build you a beautiful, professional website and fully manage everything from start to finish and for the life of your website, then our 100 Club could be the ideal option for you. In addition, we will process up to six content updates for you each and every month, meaning that your website will not only be great when it goes live, but it can be kept updated as your business evolves.
You can sit back, relax and let us look after the website, all you need to do is send the content!
For more information on how to join the 100 Club, contact us today for a chat. We would be delighted to help you!
