Why you should hire a Webflow Designer for site maintenance work (and what to consider when you do)

As a Webflow Designer I don't only build new, custom sites, but also offer website maintenance services. In this post I highlight why you would even need help with site maintenance for a Webflow site, what kind of maintenance services could make sense for your site, as well as how to best engage with a Designer offering site maintenance.

Why would you need help with site maintenance at all? Everyone tells you Webflow sites are easy to maintain – especially compared to Wordpress ones. And that's true in a way. There are no plugins to update, and no security updates to take care of. Backups are also something you don't have to do manually as Webflow backs up your entire site automatically and you can go back to a previous version at any time. So what kind of maintenance work is there to do? I can only speak from my own experience, but most of the clients who need help with their existing Webflow site usually need assistance in one or more of the following areas:

• Setting up new pages
  While you can easily add new CMS items (e.g. blog posts, news articles, products, team members) via the Webflow Editor, you can't add new pages without accessing the Webflow Designer. Oftentimes you might need a completely new page added to your site which features a new product you are introducing or you might have a course you are selling which needs to be promoted via its own dedicated course page. All this requires a professional to create the page and actually design it so it fits your business needs.
• Adding new features and functionality
  You might want to add a popup which open automatically once the user gets to your site. There might be an image gallery you'd like to add to one of your pages, featuring photos from one of your previous events or you are looking at collecting email addresses via a mailing list (which means you need to integrate an email marketing service such as Mailchimp or ConvertKit). All this is done via the Webflow backend and needs a Designer familiar with integrating these items correctly.
• Site optimisation
  It is oftentimes beneficial to streamline and adjust items on your site, in particular if your site has been built a while ago. Some of your images might be too large (reducing page load speed) or alt tags might be missing. Are there things that can be improved on your site both in terms of functionality as well as design?

As you can see there are lots of tasks that can be taken care of by a seasoned Webflow Professional. "But why wouldn't I just do these things myself?" I hear you say. Theoretically you can of course do any of these things yourself, however consider this:

• Are you familiar with the Webflow backend (e.g. the Webflow Designer)? Oftentimes as a site owner you only access Webflow via the Webflow Editor, changing text, images or adding CMS items like blog articles. In the backend of Webflow you can actually work on the structure and layout of the page and this is where your site got originally set up by your Designer. This means the learning curve is quite a bit higher and you would have to spend quite a bit of time getting your head around how everything works and how you can make improvements quick and efficiently. Do you have time to spend learning the ins and outs of Webflow or would your time be better spent doing other tasks in your business?
• Depending on what kind of maintenance tasks you need done and the level of familiarity you have with the Webflow backend, you actually save time by letting a professional do the work for you instead of trying to do this yourself in the limited time you have available. Also, if you are not a Designer yourself, you might not be able to achieve the same outcome an experienced professional can.

So how to best work with a Webflow Designer for getting regular maintenance work done? First it's best to establish if the Designer you have gotten in contact with actually offers help with maintenance work. Some Designers focus on new site builds only. Also check how the Designer likes to charge for his services. There are Designers who are happy to bill hourly, others however offer a fixed rate for a certain set of changes or site updates. For regular work, maintenance agreements can also be beneficial. Communication is important to consider as well. How will you communicate with each other? Email, Slack or Microsoft Teams? Will your Designer publish the required changes on your staging domain first and only push these live once you have given approval? How soon can you expect new features to be implemented? In a future article I will outline my way of working with clients when doing Webflow maintenance work, so stay tuned for that!

Hope this article has helped you in figuring out if a Designer could be great for helping you with your existing Webflow site. If you have any questions in regards to Webflow maintenance work or if you need help with your site, don't hesitate to get in touch!