March Madness is winding down and with lots of exciting college basketball to watch, we decided to order pizza for delivery. One medium size Hawaiian and a large sausage with veggies. But before we could click the order button, the price total came to $40+… holy cow! How in the world did pizza get so darn expensive? I mean, you could go out and buy a couple of center cut rib-eyes with all the fixin’s, come home and have a really nice dinner for the same price, if not cheaper.
So, why do people spend so much money buying pizza, when they could just go to the grocery store and buy a way better meal for the same price. I think the answer is convenience. Lets face it, sometimes you just don’t feel like taking the time to cook a meal, especially if Kansas and Duke are in the middle of playing to reach the NCAA Final Four.
However, convenience doesn’t always mean you’re getting the best value. In fact, the more convenient something is, it seems like the less value you get. Unless you’re a 13 year-old kid, most folks would prefer a nice steak dinner over pizza any day of the week.
Proactive Website Maintenance
If you’re a business owner with a website, buying a web hosting plan doesn’t buy what you really think it buys. Yes, it’s definitely convenient, but what are they doing for you? MOST plans you can buy only take care of the server you’re using, but NOT your actual website. That’s why having a website maintenance plan that is executed on a frequent basis is essential. Even if you’re doing it yourself, having that plan in place could save you down the road. You need to check the following to keep things running:
- Domain Health – check your domain to make sure it’s locked, private, and not ready to expire.
- Hosting Health – check to make sure your hosting account is not running out of space or bandwidth
- WordPress Health – make sure all files and plugins are updated. MOST UPDATES are security related!
- Contact Forms Submission – check to make sure you’re able to get notifications.
- Security Checks – Do you have a firewall installed and ready to block hackers?
- Virus & Malware Scans – scan your website files for virus or malware.
- Secure & Offsite Backups – make sure you backup all files to an offsite location or other server.
- Basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – check that your primary pages all have the basic SEO elements.
The list above represents a lot of work, but if you have the time to do this on a regular basis, your website will have fewer problems. If you DON’T have the time or inclination to run through these checks point, then plumThumb can help. Our website maintenance plans are affordable, convenient, and bring value all in one package.
