Whether you are getting ready to build a website or have had one for years, it’s never too late to make sure you have a plan in place in case anything should ever happen. After all, sometimes websites get hacked, or a software update has a conflict. If you are going to hire a company to provide website maintenance on your site, be sure to ask these critical questions:
- How often will my website be backed up?
It’s important to make sure that your website maintenance company has a system in place for both automatic backups on a regular basis as well as manual backups when needed. For example, it’s important to always run a full backup before making any changes to the site or updating any software. - Is there a recent history of backups available?
Many automatic backup programs overwrite the previous version each time a new backup is performed. But this can cause issues if there is a problem with the website that wasn’t discovered until several backups had been performed. As a rule of thumb, it’s good to have access to at least a couple months’ worth of backups at all times. - Do you make off-site backups of the website in case the server goes down?
No matter how good a company’s backup system is, things happen. And just in case the server ever goes down and data is lost, you definitely want to make sure that your website company keeps off-site copies of your website’s backups at all times. This added layer of security can make all the difference in the world. - What will it cost to restore the site?
This is an important question that people often forget to ask. It’s all well and good for a website company to keep reliable backups, but if you should ever need them, what will they charge you to restore your site? Is it included in a service plan, or is there an extra charge? - If anything happens to my site, how quickly will it be restored? What about on weekends or holidays?
This is the kind of question that we often don’t consider until there’s an emergency at 6:00pm on a Friday before a holiday weekend. Will your website company be there for you when you need them?
At RWS, we’re happy to answer these questions and more for you. Give us a call today and let us know what we can do for you. 202-409-8113