Many companies invest thousands of euros in building a website – and then forget about it for a year or a decade. The result: outdated software, security holes, a slow site and eventually total collapse. In this article we explain why regular website maintenance is not an add-on service but an essential investment. If you are still just considering a new site, start here: building a website.
Website vs. car: both need maintenance
Imagine buying a new car and never servicing it. The first year goes fine. In the second year, something starts to squeak. In the third year, something breaks – and the repair costs ten times more than regular maintenance would have.
Websites work exactly the same way. WordPress gets several core updates a year. Plugins are updated every week. PHP, the engine behind WordPress, reaches end of life every 3 years – and an unsupported version means unpatched security holes.
What happens without maintenance?
The specific risks an unmaintained website faces:
- Hacking: Over 90% of WordPress security incidents happen because of outdated plugins or themes. An infected site gets blacklisted by Google – and loses all of its organic traffic.
- Crashes: Incompatibility between PHP and WordPress versions can take a site down overnight. Without backups, that means losing all of your content.
- Slowness: Outdated code puts a strain on the server. Google penalizes slow sites in search results – every second counts.
- GDPR violations: Outdated contact forms, cookie settings and data processing can create legal problems.
What does professional website maintenance include?
Regular updates
- WordPress core updates – security patches and functional improvements
- Updating all plugins and checking compatibility after each update
- Theme updates (with caution – requires testing)
- Checking and updating the PHP version (in 2025, the minimum recommended version is PHP 8.2+)
Backups
Every professional maintenance contract must include automatic backups. Recommended backup frequency:
- Daily full backups (database + files)
- Backups are kept for at least 30 days
- Backups are stored on a separate server (not on the same server as the site)
Monitoring and performance tracking
- Uptime monitoring – notification within a minute if the site goes down
- Page load speed tracking (Core Web Vitals)
- Vulnerability scanning (Wordfence, Sucuri or similar)
- SSL certificate validity check
Content and technical support
Depending on the contract, maintenance can also include smaller content changes (swapping images, updating text) that the company’s staff would rather not do themselves.
Three approaches to website management
- Do it yourself – possible for a technically skilled person, but requires time and knowledge. The biggest risk: an update breaks, the site goes down, and nobody knows why.
- On-demand work – you call the developer when something is broken. The problem: response times are long, the price is unpredictable and the problems have already occurred.
- A monthly maintenance contract – the best choice for most companies. A fixed cost, preventive action and a fast response when problems arise.
How much does website maintenance cost?
A professional monthly maintenance contract in Estonia usually costs €80–300 per month, depending on the complexity of the site and the scope of the contract. That means €960–3,600 per year.
For comparison: cleaning up and restoring a single hacked site usually costs €500–2,000, plus the reputational damage and removal from search engines, which can take months to recover from.
Marketing Sharks offers monthly maintenance services that include all of the activities listed above. Our client portfolio includes dozens of actively maintained sites – we know exactly what regular maintenance prevents. Take a look at our maintenance service or request a quote.
