Drupal Support – Everything You Have To Know About It

Drupal Support – What Does It Include?

In brief, such service is all about the support and maintenance of Drupal-based websites to provide them stability, security and high overall performance. Drupal support provider starts his work with detailed website analysis. It is crucial to point out your business targets, plans and website history in the beginning. It will help to set up the priorities of the works and choosing appropriate support tools.

In the case of Drupal-based website, the support services may cover:

Bug fixing

In a long-term, even non-critical bugs may cause grave danger to your website security and proper functioning. As a result, it might have a significant impact on the company’s reputation. Drupal experts will immediately identify the bug type and its location and then eliminate it.

Monitoring

If you want to prevent any fatal errors occurrence, Drupal support provider should ensure constant website monitoring. Such a solution may help in rapid bugs identification so that they won’t cause any severe damages.

Updates

In some cases, Drupal core or modules updates may be problematic. The faulty update can have a fatal influence on the website functioning. Thus, it is vital to outsource updates to the professional Drupal agency.

WCAG compliance

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the standards that define the ways how to adapt the website to the needs of people with disabilities. The guidelines are regularly updated. Their implementation requires well – suited graphic design to add such elements as contrast, zooming and minimizing options.

Integrations

Drupal support services usually cover new functionalities deployment to the already existing websites. One can do this with the ready-made or customized modules.

When Drupal Support Is a Necessity?

At first glance, it may look that your website doesn’t need any assistance. However, serious bugs usually appear unexpectedly. How can you prevent this scenario from being real?

Pay attention to the following symptoms:

• info about new update availability displays in the admin panel,
• the website works on non-supported Drupal version, e.g. Drupal 6,
• low page speed,
• faulty URL addresses,
• an increasing number of errors or warnings in Google Search Console,
• rising bounce rate or higher amount of abandoned carts,
• data gathering become more complicated than previously,
• drops in organic search.

Let’s assume that non of those situations happen on your Drupal-based website. Still – site further functioning depends on various factors. You have to take into consideration your and your employees skills – whether it is enough to ensure Drupal security in the future.

You should rely on Drupal support services if you:

• use customized modules,
• migrate to the newer Drupal version,
• use many servers,
• never made any update at your own,
• you or your employees don’t have the skills required to maintain Drupal security,
• website backend is complicated.

Why Should You Invest in Drupal Support?

When can one say that Drupal support services work perfectly? If you forget about its existence. This scenario is possible only when the Drupal support providers are doing everything in line with the guidelines. Then, the website is regularly updated, works properly, and no critical errors occur.

Unfortunately, many underestimate the significance of Drupal support up to the moment when fatal error encounters. If you care about your website and the profits that it generates – better safe than sorry and invest in Drupal support and maintenance before it is too late.

These are just a few pros of Drupal support investment which should convince you that it is the option worth to be considered.

1. SEO friendliness – compliance with search engine optimization guidelines may cause that your website will be on the high positions in organic search results.
2. High page speed – this factor has positive influence on both – UX and SEO.
3. Security – sensitive data leakages may cause harmful results for your company and especially for its  profits. 
4. Updated modules – regular modules updates are one of the most effective ways to reduce security gaps. Moreover, usage of the up-to-date modules ensure access to the full scope of functionalities.
5. Monitoring – detailed website analytics will not only ensure fast bugs identification, but also to gain a deeper insight into website performance. It will be particularly useful in case of long-term development plans.
6. Better HR management – if you rely on Drupal support outsourcing, you have more internal human resources at your disposal, which can be used in more effective way. 

What Are The Costs of Drupal Support?

If you decide on Drupal support services provider, the technical support of your website will reach the next level. How does it look in Smartbees? Our offer covers comprehensive Drupal support divided into four different packages that can be personalized to each customer needs. The final estimate depends on various factors, such as:

• hours dedicated to the development works – the bigger the package, the higher the costs are,
• reaction time for critical and non-critical errors – shorter reaction time means higher costs,
• website size – more advanced and expanded websites demand more specialists involved,
• language versions – multilingual websites need more efforts to provide an appropriate level of security. Besides, more time is required when introducing new functionalities.

Drupal support – summary

Even if the significance of Drupal support is not visible at first glance, it is the investment worth its price, especially in the long-term perspective. The effects of such services are also not so spectacular as the results of development works. Support team deals with fatal errors, bugs, updates etc. which enhance the website performance from the backstage.