Need advice on maintaining WordPress website

Posted January 5, 2022 in
Content Content

Lex Russell

Why do content marketers constantly feel cold? They’re surrounded by drafts.

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Hello! Not sure if this is the right place to post this but here we go!

I've been at my current company for about 2.5 years. Since I've been there, WordPress updates and WP Plugin updates have never been prioritized. I've been trying to fight to get them updated as I know it is a security risk and I understand it could break our website if they get TOO out of date.

I'm now in a position to make recommendations on how to move forward. The agency we currently use for website updates is charging $160 an hour and estimates that our WordPress + Plugin updates will take around 10 hours at the least - so around $1,600 total.

Once we get to that point, with everything updated, can I go in and perform the updates every week or is that risky? We have a custom website so I'm worried about anything breaking, but it seems like most people perform updates on their websites themselves from my research.

I also looked into WP maintenance plans such as WPSiteCare and maintain that seem like they might be worth the money so that we don't get into this situation again and everything will be updated consistently.

I would love to hear how other people maintain their WordPress websites when it comes to updates - do you do it yourself, use a service, or use an agency?

This is our website in case that matters: https://aquilacommercial.com/


Thanks!
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Richard Fleming
I've been working on this same thing. $1600 seems excessive. My current solution is to have a virtual assistant manage the plugin updates (not much that can go wrong there), but some of the hosting providers have more thorough maintenance they can offer you at affordable prices. I use Godaddy, but I'm sure others have similar services - including backing up your site. It isn't nearly as much money. Are you hosting your site on your own servers? And if that all fails, I can suggest specific people that could help you out.
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Lex Russell
Thank you, Richard Fleming ! The agency that built our website and performs our dev updates currently hosts our site, so it's seeming like they are going to have to be the ones who give us a package to maintain it. Not ideal!
 
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John Bendever, Jr.
Hi  Lex Russell  - I know we do not know each other personally, but WordPress is how I make my living...you are not necessarily stuck with them.  If you want to connect to share more details with me, maybe I can help guide you to a service that is far more economical and would (most likely) offer better results.
Franco Valentino
Lex Russell  What server/hosting space do you use?  Some semi-managed services like WP Engine provide a 'smart plugin manager' that does this for you automatically.  If you're hosting on your own VPN, then just make sure you have a good backup before updating the plugins.  It's usually better for you to manage that process because plugins are the #1 reason WP site go down.  Another 'must-have' is Wordfence pro.  For $99 a year, it's the best piece of mind you can buy for the site.  It prevents the most common hacking attempts like cross-site scripting, and scans your WP hosting space for viruses and WP core file changes.  Both of those problems typically come from outdated plugins.  I hope this helps!
Lex Russell
Thanks, Franco Valentino ! The agency we use for website development updates currently handles our hosting...probably not ideal. But we are looking into getting a full care package with them...TBD on pricing as of now. From further research, it seems someone who used to work at our company intended on doing the updates themselves when our website was first built so the care package was not purchased...but seems that the updates did not get done! If this agency hosts our site I assume it would probably be hard to get another agency or service to perform the updates, unfortunately.
Lex Russell
Update: These are the care packages the agency we are using is offering.

These seem steep compared to the care packages I've seen. Is it safe to do these website updates once a year like we are doing now? $1,600 once a year would be more affordable than $7,000 for the same thing spread over time. Looks like we are paying them $1,076 per year for hosting at the moment.

Also worth noting that we already get 10% off our hours for new functionality because we pre-pay for our hours in packages. 

Does anyone have thoughts/advice?
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John Bendever, Jr.
This seems really expensive for a standard WordPress website and a care/maintenance plan.  The hourly cost is over $236/hr....and that's too much.  I'd be more than happy to connect and share alternatives that will serve you more economically without sacrificing quality or response time.
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