Why You Should Use Managed WordPress as a WordPress Design Agency

Chances are you’ve already heard of managed WordPress hosting .



Managed WordPress hosting is often recommended to small businesses looking for peak performance at the lowest possible cost. But, for WordPress design agencies, Managed WordPress Hosting comes with a whole new world of benefits.



In this post, we’ll take a look at five reasons why you should use managed WordPress for your WordPress design agency. But first, let’s have a brief look at the challenges managed WordPress will help you solve.



The Challenges of Managing Client Websites 5 Reasons to Use Managed WordPress as a Design Agency   The Downsides of Managed WordPress   Key Takeaways  



The Challenges of Managing Client Websites



Retainer clients are the lifeblood of your WordPress design agency. While having a good inflow of new projects is a sign of a healthy business, there’s nothing like long-term partnerships. Your retainer clients give you invaluable predictability. And as if that weren’t enough, they offer you the trust and creative freedom you need to do your best work. But managing your clients’ websites, month-to-month, can be very inefficient.



Let’s say you have a retainer client whose website you optimize to meet changing business goals. Your role is to guarantee that their website remains a relevant strategic asset. But aside from SEO strategy or onsite optimization, your team has to deal with different types of maintenance tasks.



These tasks can take hours, and don’t put your talent to good use.



For example, you might be:



Backing your clients’ site manually Keeping track of plugin updates Struggling to overcome the limitations of shared hosting



With Managed WordPress, these problems have become a thing of the past.



5 Reasons Why You Should Use Managed WordPress as a WordPress Design Agency



We recommend managed WordPress to WordPress design agencies for five reasons:



You’ll no longer have to worry about updates and backups It guarantees incredible speed and reliability You’ll streamline your creative process with staging sites It lowers your website maintenance costs You’ll be able to shift your focus towards design and strategy



Let’s have a closer look.



Automate Maintenance Tasks







One of the key benefits of managed WordPress hosting is that it leaves key website maintenance tasks in the hands of a reliable third party – namely, your hosting provider.



On WordPress, most security vulnerabilities can be prevented by updating your site regularly. You should always use the latest WordPress version, as well as the latest versions of your plugins and themes. But making sure that everything’s up-to-date across numerous sites takes time – time that your team could be spending on strategic design tasks.



Sometimes, updates can cause site-breaking problems. For example, an updated plugin could break your site’s layout. In these cases, the best you can do is restore your site through a backup. Managed WordPress comes with automatic backups, ensuring you can always return to a recent version of your site.



High-Performing Websites



You can create the most stunning website your client’s industry has ever seen. With parallax animations, interactive 3D elements, unique micro-interactions, and more. But, if the website’s slow, it won’t help your client get the visibility they’re looking for. Site speed is one of Google’s most crucial ranking factors and one of the pillars of good UX. According t o Google , if it takes 3 seconds for your website to load, your visitors will be 32% more likely to bounce than with a 1-second loading speed. Delivering a fast website is a must.



Large and complex WordPress sites can be hard to optimize. But, if you’re working with a shared WordPress hosting plan, your optimization efforts will probably fall short, regardless of what you do.



Shared WordPress hosting assigns very few resources to your site. Small blogs with low traffic might provide a good UX on shared WordPress. But large company platforms with thousands of visitors will be slow and suffer significant downtime.



Managed WordPress hosting is optimized to ensure that your WordPress site always loads fast. When your client’s website experiences traffic peaks, your managed WordPress plan will assign it the resources it needs to welcome all visitors.



Additionally, some Managed WordPress plans (such as HostPapa’s) offer access to an enterprise-grade CDN. This guarantees that your site will be fast and accessible to users from all around the globe.



A Better Workflow with Staging Sites



Staging sites bring certainty to your WordPress web design workflow. Luckily, managed WordPress plans come with a staging website, out-of-the-box.



It’s worth reaffirming the important role that staging sites play. Staging websites are sandboxes that allow you to experiment with WordPress without going live. Not only are they risk-free platforms to try out new things, and they’re also an excellent tool for pre-launch optimization and testing.



Staging sites also help your clients visualize how new changes will look. With a clear idea of the final product, your clients will have it easier to give you informed and contextual feedback.







Lower Website Maintenance Costs



Hiring a team to guarantee that your clients’ websites stay healthy can be expensive. The costs of Managed WordPress are higher than the costs of shared costing. But they’re far lower than the costs of hiring and managing an extra team. With Managed WordPress, you can provide high-quality services at a lower cost.



Make the Most Out of Your Billable Hours



Your team’s energy keeping track of plugin updates and doing routine backups could be better invested elsewhere. That’s energy that’s not going to strategy and design. Thanks to Managed WordPress, you can spend less time with brute-force tasks and more time focusing on your competitive edge.



By shifting your team’s energy away from these easily automated tasks, you’ll be able to perform at a higher level. Perhaps, with less busy work, you’ll be capable of taking on larger projects. Or maybe you’ll have the time to offer more value to your retainer clients.



The Downsides of Managed WordPress Hosting



There are plenty of reasons you should use managed WordPress as a design agency. But managed WordPress may not be the right option for everyone.



Managed WordPress might not be the right choice when:



Your client’s looking to solve a problem that WordPress can’t solve Your client’s working with a small budget WordPress isn’t the only CMS in the project Getting hosting + email in as a single plan is a priority Your client’s priority is not performance



When WordPress Isn’t the Right Option



Let’s say your client is looking to relaunch their e-learning platform. But it isn’t just any e-learning platform; it has several courses and hundreds of thousands of users.



WordPress might not be the right option to support all the functionalities that such a website would need. And if WordPress isn’t the right option, Managed WordPress isn’t either.



When the Budget’s Tight



Managed WordPress is very cost-efficient. But it’s still more expensive than shared hosting. If your client is working with a tiny budget, it might be hard to convince them of the benefits of managed WordPress. This might be the case if the client is a solopreneur embarking on a side project.



When WordPress Isn’t the Only Option



You can unleash WordPress’ versatility through plugins and themes. But sometimes, your client will want to keep their company site, blog, and eCommerce platform separate. Perhaps these assets will be owned by different teams. Or maybe there are some performance-related concerns. If the best option is to create various websites with different Content Management Systems, you won’t be able to get it all done on a single managed WordPress plan.



When You Can Only Go for One Hosting Plan



In some cases, your client may want their hosting plan to come with personalized email addresses. Managed WordPress hosting doesn’t include email-related services so that it wouldn’t be their ideal choice.



When Performance Isn’t a Priority



In some cases, your client’s priority may not be performance. For instance, let’s say you’re creating a small website for a wedding. Your client may not be willing to pay a little extra so their site can be reliable and fast. The worst thing that can happen is that the client’s aunt will have to refresh the site several times.



However, if you’re working with a company and performance isn’t a priority, that’s a mistake. Without great performance, their web design project will not reap the commercial results they’re expecting.



These cases are quite uncommon, especially for companies providing WordPress design specifically. However, they’re worth keeping in mind.



Key Takeaways



In this post, we explored five reasons why you should use Managed WordPress as a WordPress design agency. These five reasons can be synthesized into one. With Managed WordPress, you can provide better services at a fraction of the cost while keeping your team happy.



Working with Small Businesses?



Do you provide cutting-edge digital solutions to small businesses? We do too.



At HostPapa, we’re the leading hosting provider for small and growing companies. If you’re looking for a managed WordPress hosting solution that adapts to their needs, you’re in the right place.



Discover our plans today.




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