In our previous article, we discussed about the problems faced with web design projects. In this article, we want to specifically highlight the problems faced after the website is launched.
Problem 1: Website or CMS got hacked
Unfortunately, any web site can be hacked. There are lots of miscreants who are constantly trying to spread spam and viruses using your website. One important point to note is that most of the time, the hack is not personal. The hacker just releases the malicious script to attack all the websites in the server. If your website is not up-to-date, you will most probably be one of the victims.
Hence, it is important to make sure your CMS and all plugins are up-to-date to reduce the risk of being hacked.
Problem 2: Website broke after an update
Ok, so we have to update our CMS so that we are safe from hackers, but here’s a corollary: shit happens. The more features your CMS website has, the more complicated it is. Fixing a bug might cause another bug somewhere else.
If you are using an open source CMS, it might be tricky to do updates due to the simple fact that the system and plugins are collectively developed by thousands of developers. Often, the developer wants to deploy an experimental module to achieve a specific feature, it might broke some other plugin developed by other developers. While we have full control over our change management process and can undo updates if something went wrong, the truth is that things go wrong all the time. We can only try to minimize the impact of anything that goes wrong as we are not able to prevent it completely. One good approach will be to create a development site to do testing on the updates before deploying on the live site.
Problem 3: User changed some content on the website and it screws up the layout
Normally, this problem will not happen if there is proper training and user’s permissions on the website. But sometimes, curiosity kills the cat. When you gave an user full rights to edit the website, you open up the risk of them clicking on things that they shouldn’t be.
When this happens, the developer will first need to study what screwed up the layout and fix accordingly. However, some problems are not so straightforward and it might be better to just restore the backup.
So be sure to do regular backups of your website. You will never know when you need them, like insurance.
Conclusion
We hope that this article makes you understand why good support from your web design company is so crucial for your website in the long run. A reputable web design company will be able to offer maintenance packages after the website is launched, so be sure to check with them.