The Internet is a fast-moving and ever-changing place. Websites and web hosting require constant monitoring and fine-tuning to remain useful and functional.
If left untended, technology soon becomes obsolete, content goes out of date, and your design no longer reflects changes in brand or audience. Instead of being a powerful tool that supports your business, eventually your website will be seen as a liability.
How do you ensure it is flexible enough to adapt to the rapidly evolving web?
Europa Studio seek to manage the entire life cycle of all our clients’ websites to ensure that they evolve and remain successful. We provide an ongoing maintenance package which includes the following essential services.
Design
Just because a website looks perfect in one Internet browser does not mean it will look so in every browser. Different Internet browsers render pages in different ways.
With a growing number of browsers available and multiple versions of each, it is inevitable that problems will occur. The only solution to this problem is careful and systematic testing. It can be a time consuming and expensive process.
There are big changes ahead in the web development industry with the introduction of new browser updates. We will constantly monitor your website and make the necessary code changes to ensure it renders correctly with all the latest browser updates. This allows you to go about your work, safe in the knowledge that your website won’t break when future browsers are eventually released.
Code changes will also be required for other updates from major browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome and Opera.
- Bugs and errors – finding and fixing
- Website text – spell checking, edits, rewriting
- Images – repairing broken image links and replacing low quality images
- Website usability – providing clear, consistent navigation is key to maintaining user interest. We can assist in this specialist area
- Accessibility – we can ensure that your website meets the legal requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 2004.
Security
Complex software will always have vulnerabilities and motivated adversaries will always work to discover and take advantage of them. Regular software patching and updating will help defend against the latest threats.
Hacking is an unfortunate reality on the web and can happen at any moment. As you become popular in search engines and receive more traffic, you may be inviting hackers to test your protection system against them.
In many cases, hackers attempt to be undiscovered by any human observer, inserting hidden spam links to distribute viruses and malicious software. Therefore, you should not wait for it to happen and then take action.
The first line of defence is to stay up to date with the latest security software. We will ensure updates are done on a frequent basis that provide security fixes to give you up to the minute protection from well known security threats.
If we handle your email traffic, we will also ensure spam software is up to date and protecting your website from automated spam.
Backup
We will ensure a regular and complete backup is kept of your website software, your website files, a full backup of your database, plugins, and copies of all the images and files on your host server.
If something does happen, you will need these backups to restore your website.
Support
We’re here should you need us for consultation and advice.
We’re not just experts in building websites, we are also experts in the web. We’re aware of what other sites are doing and what is possible.
We will share what we have learnt from other projects and from the industry at large. You can then decide which of these ideas apply to your business.
Functionality
Today’s rich Internet experience is only possible because of functionality plugins.
Some plugins work independently of your website’s content and files, just adding a little something special to the page. Others require modification of content and files, including changes to your database.
Some plugins may become outdated and no longer work with the newest version of your website software. Plugins may need upgrading to accommodate the newer version, or become obsolete with the improvements in the website software.
We will monitor your website functionality to ensure that everything is working as it should and upgrade where necessary.
Hosting
Website hosting is an area that requires careful maintenance and is particularly subject to problems. Even the largest organisations have downtime. It is a problem that can never be entirely avoided.
Websites can be unavailable due to connectivity issues or any number of reasons beyond the control of your hosting company. As a result, many hosting companies provide uptime guarantees. Figures range from 95% uptime to 100%. In most cases uptime guarantees are worthless and are simply a marketing tool. They do not actually guarantee that your website will be available 100% of the time. This is merely a figure they are striving for.
The last thing any website owner wants is for their website to be unavailable. So whether it is your website going offline or a piece of functionality not running, you will need to quickly reach somebody who can help.
There is an increasing trend towards email only support with many hosting companies. However, technical problems are often hard to diagnose and prolonged conversation via email can be time consuming.
When your site is offline you need the immediacy of a phone call. We ensure that option is available and deal with any issues ourselves so you don’t have to.
Another challenge when endeavouring to resolve technical issues is that call centres are often manned by individuals with limited technical knowledge or in far-flung locations.
We deal with technical issues every day and will resolve problems as quickly as possible with as little inconvenience as possible.
Contact us for more information on how we can look after your organisation’s online presence.
