WordPress Speed Optimization: Monthly Maintenance Package

Our maintenance package and pricing assume your site is fairly healthy to start though clients often reach out to us about maintenance because something has gone wrong with their site.

To help us provide the best solution, we'll first have a discovery call with you so we can get to understand your needs, goals and pain points better. From there we can recommend solutions and help you pick a maintenance plan that's right for you.

To get started, simply schedule a consultation here and we'll connect via Zoom to review your needs: https://www.northstardesign.studio/get-started/

Typically we'll need access to your website related accounts (hosting, domain, /wp-admin login) as well as your Analytics accounts (google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Business Page).
Most platforms allow you to add users and assign specific roles/permissions (ex: Admin, Editor, Owner).
Typically we'll ask that you add us as an Administrator to needed accounts. If you're unsure about how to access or provide access to those accounts, we can help walk you through that as needed.

1. Improved User Experience
Imagine the last time you were on a website that took more than 2 seconds to load. If you are like 90% of internet users, you would have left that website. Unoptimized website results in a poor user experience and high bounce rates. On the other hand, a speedy site allows your users to browse through blazing-fast pages.

2. Improved Search Engine Rankings
An optimized website results in higher search engine rankings. It is a well-known fact that the top positions on search engine result pages get the majority of clicks and impressions. This means that you get more traffic.

3. Increased Conversions
A website's conversion rate refers to the percentage of users who take the desired action. An optimized website can greatly impact conversion rates. Imagine buying a stroller in an e-commerce store. If the web page is loading slowly, very few people will click the "Buy Now" button.
Similarly, the purpose of a web page could be to fill up a contact form. If the page is loading slowly, very few (in fact none) would submit their contact information on that page.
According to a study, the web pages that load faster (around 2.4 seconds) have a 1.9% conversion rate. When a web page loads slowly, in around 3.3 seconds, the conversion rate drops down to 1.5%. This means that page speed and improved optimization can win the trust of the audience and improve conversions.

4. Reduced Bounce Rate
 An optimized website encourages users to stay on your site longer and is more prone to coming back regularly. When people visit your website frequently, it leads to more sales, increased brand awareness, and loyalty. On the other hand, a higher bounce rate means a loss of opportunity. It shows that your visitors took a digital journey and they left without an interaction. Optimizing your website can enable you to make use of that opportunity and get more conversions.

If you do not have lots of technical knowledge, time, or expertise, DIY technical SEO maintenance is a bad idea. It can lose all your ranking or make you vulnerable to threats by hackers. The following are some of the reasons why you need an expert web designer for essential optimization.

1. It Is Time Consuming Process
It takes a lot of time to see the results of your optimization efforts. Planning and optimizing your website is time-consuming. If you outsource it, you can have more time to focus on your business.

2. It Requires Technical Knowledge And Skills
Website optimization can be technical and require expertise. If you do not have an expert web developer on your team, I suggest that you hire one who is experienced in optimization.

3. You Might Compromise Your Website Security
If your website is not properly optimized, it can make you vulnerable to the attacks of hackers. WordPress is frequently targeted by hackers and viruses. Several incidents are reported every day which show how hackers exploit bugs in certain plugins and extract database credentials. Sometimes, they go unnoticed for days and completely damage a website. An expert web designer can ensure the security of your website and protect your website from such attacks.

4. You Can Lose All Your Data
If your website is not properly backed- up, you can lose all your data. An expert web designer can ensure that your website data is properly secured and backed up. Even if your site is compromised, your web designer can easily retrieve your data and bring your website back online in no time.

It is an important part of our website speed optimization service. Gzip is a data compression algorithm that allows the compression and decompression of files fast. In other words, Gzip can compress any file type, from plain text to images. Our WordPress experts perform Gzip compression for WordPress page speed optimization. This way, your page loading time increases.

Image optimization means achieving a balance between a fast-loading web page and engaging images. It refers to reducing the file size of your images. We will optimize images without compromising quality. This way, your page load times remain low and your web page ranks higher in search engines. 

Some of our clients are not using any image compression plugin at all. In such cases, we will install the agency version a top notch plugin called EWWW Image Optimizer Premium. This will make it easier for you to optimize all the images on your website. 

Database optimization and cleanup is an important aspects of WordPress maintenance. It ensures that your website maintains integrity, reduces errors, keeps low storage space, and delivers a fast and efficient experience. It involves deleting old post revisions and other bits of useless data in WordPress. We manually go through the entire database and remove junk like remaining plugin tables and transient life that old plugins leave behind.

Minifying CSS and JS involve removing unnecessary characters from within a file to reduce its size and make it load faster. File minification removes whitespace characters, comments, line breaks, and block delimiters. It results in performance optimization, lesser load times, and brand-width consumption on your site. We first analyze which Java Script delivery or CSS can be minimized while keeping intact all the functions of your site. After that, we compress the chosen files.