Small and emerging businesses usually set up their first website using a cheap domain and hosting. This approach makes sense, as it’s cost-effective, easy to set up, and user-friendly for establishing a digital presence. But as businesses grow, the expense of neglecting website maintenance becomes increasingly apparent. The same website setup that worked well for you when your website had minimal traffic will likely be inadequate to accommodate increased traffic as your business continues to develop. Today, it’s imperative that organizations maintain and update their websites to meet customer needs and sustain success.
Many new businesses want to migrate from their current web host for free (to reduce costs or improve speed). Although this approach appears appealing, it’s important to understand that migration is only one component of maintaining a successful website. Users typically think of the migration as the end of the website’s issues. Website migration is one step of many that must occur to maintain a website. Therefore, while moving a website for free may sound appealing, structured website maintenance is necessary to ensure continued website operations.
Revenue Risks with Website Downtime
Maintenance has shifted from being optional to absolutely necessary due to the high cost of downtime. The price of downtime can be staggering, especially when you consider that, for most small to mid-sized companies, Gartner states the average financial loss from website downtime ranges $5,600 to $9,000 per minute (Gartner IT).
When a business experiences even a one-hour downtime, it can face significant revenue loss, reduced customer trust, and a drop in search engine rankings. Many businesses that use cheap domain and hosting services assume downtime is unavoidable. It isn’t.
Consistent Performance Earns Customer Trust
According to Forbes Technology Council, nearly half of online users (47%) expect a website to load within two seconds. A slow or non-functional website causes users to bounce, not return, and ultimately damages the site’s reputation, which inevitably leads to a decline in sales.
Consistent checks and balances for your website ensure faster load times, better user experience through proper navigation, more frequently updated content, and perfect operational efficiency without errors.
Search Engines Prioritize Well-Maintained Websites
According to HubSpot, over 88% of internet shoppers won’t return to an online shop after experiencing a negative experience on a particular website.
What exactly is a bad experience?
- Relatively slow loading times for pages.
- Broken links that lead nowhere (404 errors).
- Outdated plugins that no longer function correctly.
- Unacceptable mobile optimization levels.
- Websites displaying warning signs stating that they may not be safe.
Google’s page experience algorithm prioritizes websites that are regularly maintained to ensure they operate correctly, securely, and quickly.
Continuous Surge in Cyber Threats
Cybercriminals focus on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) since independently owned businesses generally pose more security risks. According to Statista’s 2025 cybersecurity report, 33% of cyberattacks in 2025 are expected to target small and medium-sized organizations like yours.
Maintaining a website is an ongoing process that involves:
- Regularly updating the CMS (e.g., WordPress, Joomla, Drupal).
- Replace old or outdated plugins.
- Checking that all SSL certificates are up to date and valid.
- Monitoring for malware activity.
- Creating regular backups.
Doing these things creates a distinction between a secure website and one that is susceptible to hacking.
Many businesses depend solely on a low-cost domain name and hosting service to secure their websites and have no ongoing security plans in place. Hackers, on the other hand, constantly watch for poorly maintained websites and exploit them whenever they can.
Make Website Future Ready
Plugins are updated, APIs are altered, Google introduces new ranking signals, and hosting companies regularly upgrade their servers with security improvements. Your website cannot afford to remain stagnant during all these shifts.
Ongoing website maintenance allows for:
- Compatibility with new server technology.
- Improved database performance and faster client access.
- Accessibility for more optimized image sizes.
- Encryption protocols for secure online transactions.
Basic-level hosting will not automatically scale with your website as you progress and rise in your industry. Thus, website owners must continually maintain and update their websites to meet current expectations.
Concluding Insights
Your website is developing, along with your emerging company. More visitors create greater demand for your bootstrapped set-up. As a result, you now require additional bandwidth, faster servers, intelligent caching, an organized database, and scalable hosting that won’t break during peak times.
Initially, most businesses opt for cheap domain and hosting packages. This is perfectly adequate during the start-up phase. As organizations grow, they often upgrade their package to better levels of service; however, simply upgrading the hosting service will not necessarily solve underlying performance issues.
Real website scalability is reflected in good website architecture and regular maintenance. Therefore, without good website architecture, no matter what levels of service one chooses with a web host, you cannot expect the website to have the same speed and stability.
