A published website is not a finished website. It keeps running on programs that get updated, services that change and certificates that expire. Maintenance is the work of keeping all that standing, and of making sure the website says what your business does today.

What it is exactly

It usually groups four kinds of tasks:

  • Watching. Checking that the website loads, that the forms arrive and that what is connected stays connected.
  • Updating. Bringing up to date the system, the plugins or the parts the website depends on.
  • Backing up. Keeping copies so you can go back if something goes wrong.
  • Changing. Copy, photos, opening hours, prices: what changes in your business and has to change on the website.

What happens if nobody does it

For a while, nothing. That is the problem: the faults of an unmaintained website give no warning. A form stops sending and you find out weeks later, when a client tells you they wrote to you. A pending update breaks a page. The certificate expires and the browser shows a “not secure” warning.

None of these things is serious if it is caught early. What is expensive is discovering them late.

How much maintenance your website needs

It depends mostly on how it is built and what it has connected:

  • A simple website with no content manager needs little: watching that it works and making the content changes.
  • A website with a content manager and plugins needs regular updates, because each part has its own release calendar.
  • A website with bookings, payments or integrations also depends on third-party services that change without telling you. There, watching matters more.

Ways of hiring it

You will usually find two models:

  • Monthly fee. It includes the monitoring, the updates and a number of hours for changes. It gives you predictability.
  • By the hour, when needed. You pay only for what you ask for, but nobody is watching between one job and the next.

Neither is better in general. If your website gets enquiries or bookings every week, having someone watch it usually pays off. If it is a business card that hardly changes, checking it from time to time may be enough.

What to ask before hiring

  1. What exactly is watched and how you are told if something fails.
  2. How many hours of changes it includes and what happens if they are exceeded.
  3. What is left out and quoted separately.
  4. During which hours incidents are dealt with.
  5. In whose name the domain, the hosting and the accounts are.
  6. What you receive each month: a summary of what was checked and changed.

The answers should be in writing. This is how we set it out in our maintenance service.