TYPO3 CMS Website Maintenance

If you own a business, it’s only logical to maintain your equipment in order to stay competitive. Today, IT equipment and websites can be the most valuable assets. Your website is both the face and the heart of your business. Keeping it fresh, in top working condition and safe should be a top priority.

Websites are important to businesses. Give yours the care it deserves.

A lack of planning and taking a reactive approach can cost your business far more than you may realize. Maintaining sustainability is cheaper in the long run than paying to recover from a breakdown. To avoid unnecessary website headaches, stay on top of your website maintenance procedures.

The key to driving performance is your maintenance organization, clear roles and responsibilities, and a schedule. A key part of marketing your business is having a maintenance schedule for the software behind your site as well as the site content itself. If you’re not able to make head or tail of this, a qualified TYPO3 CMS partner can help you do this.

Responsibility for a company's website can reside with different teams or individuals in different departments. Where does this critical function reside in your company? In larger companies, it's often the IT team or a contracted agency that’s responsible. In smaller companies, it's likely to be the business owner.

If you’re in doubt, it’s probably a sign that it’s high time to take a closer look and clarify who’s responsible for what. And if you’re in doubt, your TYPO3 CMS website may well be out of date, less user friendly, and vulnerable to attack. If you don’t have someone to turn to, you may find this article we published a few months ago helpful in finding just the right TYPO3  partner for your business.

A website maintenance plan is the most reliable method to keep your website up to date, while keeping your costs to a minimum.

Without a proper maintenance schedule there’s an increased risk your website is going to break or become vulnerable to being hacked. None of these are fun to deal with and they can be easily avoided through the steps below.

1. Regularly backup your website
   Being prepared with an up to date backup means when something happens, your site can be up and running with minimal loss of data. Have a backup strategy in place.

2. Keep up to date with TYPO3 updates
   TYPO3 CMS releases come out in a predictable and reliable schedule so you can plan ahead to keep up to date with new releases. Check out the TYPO3 CMS Roadmap. You’ll also need to be ready for security updates and advisories. Subscribe to the "TYPO3 Announce" mailing list at http://lists.typo3.org to be the first to know about TYPO3 security bulletins and TYPO3 updates.

3. Check the security of your website.
   Software as powerful and customizable as TYPO3 CMS, demands specific expertise. If you’re unsure of your holdings–be it as a website owner or a website builder– consider getting an expert, objective opinion by having an experienced developer review key configuration issues. Find out more about TYPO3 Project Reviews. They give those involved in TYPO3 web projects the chance to get a second opinion about the state of their website.

4. Ensure your TYPO3 CMS extensions are up to date.
   If your site runs on TYPO3 CMS, then additional functionalities for your TYPO3 website - like a blog, feedback forms, password areas, or an online shop - are available and can be installed and configured in your running system. They’re called TYPO3 extensions (other software makers may refer to modules or plugins).
   Assuming you have access to your TYPO3 CMS admin section (sidebar > admin > extensions), check your "Extension Manager" (EM) on a regular basis and update whatever needs updating. This lowers the risk of potential security "holes" in files stored on your server. And again, if you’re not able to make head or tail of this, a qualified TYPO3 CMS partner can help you out.

5. Delete code that’s not in use.
   As a general rule, it is highly recommended you remove all code from the system that is not in use. This includes TYPO3 extensions, any TypoScript, PHP scripts as well as all other functional components.

Whether you're a sole proprietor, or part of a larger team, if you've read this far you probably feel a level of responsibility for your TYPO3 CMS website. We encourage you to have a friendly conversation with your webmaster, IT team, TYPO3 agency, or TYPO3 freelancer to make sure website maintenance is part of your company's plan. And if you don’t have someone to turn to, then consider doing business with one of our official TYPO3 partners.