Most hosting providers today only offer you a place to rent where you can “put” your website, sort of like a room in a house with a bunch of other people. In more technical terms, they are selling “spaces” on what’s called a shared server. Each space functions almost like an individual server, but that means that the overall shared server is crowded with many people renting their space. And unfortunately, these hosting providers leave you alone to manage and monitor the your website on your own. So if you aren’t updating, scanning, and protecting against malware yourself, no one is! Having a team of experts available to keep your website healthy, secure, and functioning is essential.
What is the difference between hosting and website support - aren't they the same thing?
Hosting and website support are not the same! Hosting is just the place where your site is kept, and “website support” refers to a collection of different services designed to keep your site up to date, up to code, and functioning well. Having website support means that a technical expert does everything from updating your website code to taking and keeping regular back-ups of your website, in case something happens to the server that houses your website. With EZ Website Support by The Art of Online Marketing, we include hosting with our website support plans because we feel this is a great benefit to the client. If something goes wrong, our clients only have one company to go to in order to get help. This way, problems get solved faster and more efficiently than when you host at one place and get support from another.
What is the difference between Website Support, Website Maintenance, and Website Security?
Website Support is what’s provided when you need to make changes to your website such as adding a new blog post, changing your website colors, adding a new image, getting new social media icons displayed, adding a new module or plugin, and putting new offers/specials onto your website. A website support team should be available to you to quickly make the changes you need, when you need them.
Website Maintenance is a behind-the-scenes service that keeps your website in working order. It includes things like regular website backups, updates to your modules and plugins, WordPress Theme updates, and technical troubleshooting.
Website Security is what helps you protect your website from hackers and malware. A website security team will perform regular scanning and other countermeasures to help protect against hazardous security breaches, so that you don’t lose or compromise your data (and the data of your prospects and clients)! This is essential to your business, not only because it protects your website, but also because it protects your credibility as a company. Security breaches are expensive to fix, both technically and from a sales perspective. Prospects and clients find it hard to trust a business whose website has been compromised.
Do I need a WordPress Maintenance Service?
The short answer is yes! The long answer is that website maintenance ties closely into website security. The measures that are taken with a maintenance service are going to protect your website from security breaches. Furthermore, if anything ever does happen to your site, a website maintenance service will help you recover. This is because it includes things like website backups, which will regularly save your website data. Should something happen, you can simply go back to a recent version of your website if you’ve been backing up your data. Website maintenance solutions also include updates to your modules, plugins, and themes – which if not updated properly and regularly, will often break and mess up your website. So ultimately, website maintenance is important to keep your site working properly and protected.
Does it matter who hosts my site?
Yes – if you use a hosting provider that uses shared servers, your website’s data will be crowded and stored with the data of many other websites. Additionally, many of these hosting providers do not monitor your website for you. It is up to you to update, scan, and otherwise protect your site.
Can I upgrade after signing up?
Of course! You can choose whichever website support and maintenance plan that makes most sense for you and your business. You can downgrade or upgrade at your next billing period.
Do you offer a discount for multiple sites?
Yes, we provide a 10% discount for multiple websites on the same plan.
What types of updates do your plans cover?
Our plans cover maintenance, support, and security. This includes weekly website backups, quarterly updates to your WordPress theme and plugins, and monthly hosting. Depending on the plan you select, you will also receive a discount on any programming services you need or you will receive 60-120 minutes of programming/technical support each month.
What security changes will you make to my website?
Our team updates your modules, theme, and plugins as well as performs regular scanning of the site for malware. We will also update your password to be more secure.
*Support can vary depending on whether AOM was the original designer.
What if my website goes down or crashes?
We make these updates during times of little to no traffic, just in case anything goes wrong. However, our team has over 15 years of experience and issues like these rarely arise due to the expertise of our developers. If your website crashes or you experience a website emergency, we typically resolve the issue within the first few hours. However, we ask for 24-48 hours to make the necessary updates to bring your site back to working order, depending on the complexity of the issues.
What if my website gets hacked or is infected with malware?
Our team will take the security measures necessary to lock out a hacker or get rid of malware, and then proceed to damage control. This includes restoring a recent working version of your website. Finally, we will work to resolve whatever led to the security breach to keep it from happening in the future.
What is your cancellation policy?
Either party may terminate the agreement at any time by providing the other party with written notice of such termination thirty (30) days prior to the effective date of such termination. Clients who are cancelling the EZ Website Support services will be billed one additional time after termination, and EZ Website Support will fulfill the service for 30 days after that payment is collected.
What other services do you provide?
EZ Website Support is a service created by The Art of Online Marketing, where you’ll work with the same great team you’re familiar with! We offer a range of online services including website audits, website redesigns and new websites, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Adwords and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, reputation management, social media marketing, and email marketing. Click here to learn more about us and the services we offer.
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