Website maintenance:
the day the contact form stops sending, nobody notices.
A website is not a piece of furniture: you do not buy it and forget it. Certificates expire, dependencies age, and on a Tuesday afternoon an update breaks the contact form. The serious part is not that it breaks. The serious part is that enquiries do not tail off gradually, they vanish at once and in silence, and you find out six weeks later.
This is optional. Your website still carries no compulsory monthly fee
Let us be clear, because it is the promise written across every page of this site: the website we build for you is paid once and carries no compulsory monthly fee behind it. If you do not take the maintenance contract, your site stays online and keeps working exactly the same. This is insurance, not a toll. We have clients who have gone years without it and are perfectly fine.
Why this shows up late and badly
When a website goes down completely, somebody calls within two hours. The real problem is the silent failure: the form that says "sent" but never delivers the email, the expired certificate that makes the browser show a red warning, the page that takes eight seconds to load on mobile data. None of that announces itself. You simply stop receiving.
Then there is the backup. Almost everyone believes they have one, because the hosting provider mentions it somewhere. Very few people have ever checked that the backup can actually be restored. A backup that has never been tested is not a backup, it is an assumption.
What we do, in four steps
Backups that get tested
A regular copy kept off the server, and a test restore to prove it comes back. If it has never been restored you do not know whether it works, and the day you need it is not the moment to find out.
Updates with a read first
We update the platform and its dependencies, but we look at what changes first and check the site is still whole afterwards. Updating blind is the most common reason something breaks on a Tuesday.
Automatic monitoring
A regular check confirms three things: that the site answers, that the form really sends, and that the certificate is still valid. If something fails the alert fires and we fix it, without you having to spot it.
Small edits included
Each month the small changes go in without a separate quote: opening hours, prices, a photo, a paragraph, the holiday notice. It is what stops a site ageing through a hundred postponed edits.
Included
- Regular backup, kept off the server and tested
- Updates to the platform and its dependencies
- Monitoring of the site, the form and the certificate
- Small edits every month
- A monthly report of what was touched
Not included
- Rebuilding the site or changing the design, which is a separate project
- Whole new pages, or features that do not exist today
- Taking on a site we did not build without inspecting it first: if it is rotten inside, saying so is more honest than charging to prop it up
How it starts
The first week is spent clearing the ground: first backup, first test restore, monitoring switched on. After that it is background work you almost never notice, which is exactly the point.
What it costs
It is a monthly fee, and the amount depends on the size of the site and on whether we built it or it came from elsewhere. We tell you in the first conversation. We do not publish a fixed price list, because the work is not the same in two different businesses: we give you the exact amount in writing before we start, and from then on it does not move.
How we prepare a quoteFrequently asked questions
What people ask before signing the contract.
What happens if I do not take it?+
Nothing immediate: your site stays published and keeps working. What you take on is the risk of finding out late about a silent failure, and of not having a tested backup on the day you need one. It is a reasonable choice if you are willing to check your own contact form now and then.
Can I cancel whenever I want?+
Yes, it is monthly and stops whenever you say, like all our monthly services. There is no minimum term, no penalty and no awkward retention call. The backups made up to that day are yours and we hand them over.
Another company built my site. Would you still maintain it?+
We look at it first. If it is sound inside, yes. If it is built on something that no longer holds up, we will tell you instead of charging you every month to prop up something that is going to fall anyway. We would rather lose the contract than sell you false peace of mind.
How fast is a fix if something breaks?+
It depends on the failure, and we are not going to promise you a one hour response we could not keep in August. What we do guarantee is that we find out before you do, because the monitoring raises the alarm on its own. That is the real difference from having no contract.
Is there a limit on the small edits?+
They are the everyday small changes: text, prices, opening hours, photos, a notice. If what you want is a whole new page or a feature that does not exist, that is quoted separately and we tell you before touching anything, never on next month invoice.
Shall we check whether your backup actually works?
It is the most uncomfortable question and the quickest to answer. We look at whether one exists, and if it does, whether it can be restored. No commitment and nothing to sign.