Hosting and maintenance

Who it is for

Every website needs looking after. Software goes out of date, hosting fails, forms stop sending, domains expire and security certificates lapse. For a small business with no in-house web person, these problems usually surface when a customer mentions that the website is down, or when enquiries quietly stop.

Our care plans suit Suffolk businesses that want someone to own the website's day-to-day health: owner-run trades and professional practices, small manufacturers, shops and hospitality businesses. We look after sites we have built and, after an initial audit, sites built by others.

What is included

• Web hosting on fast, reliable infrastructure, with HTTPS and a content delivery network.
• Updates: WordPress core, themes and plugins, tested on staging first where the change is significant.
• Backups: automatic daily backups stored off the server, with a test restore each quarter.
• Uptime monitoring: we are alerted if the site goes down and act on it.
• Security: firewall, login protection, malware scanning, and cleanup if anything gets through.
• Form checks: a monthly test that contact forms are sending and arriving.
• Domain and DNS: renewals tracked so nothing lapses; email records kept correct.
• Small changes: an allowance of time each month for text, image and page edits.
• A plain monthly report: what was updated, any issues found and fixed, uptime, and anything that needs a decision.

Static site or WordPress

	Static site	WordPress
Software updates	Very few	Weekly or monthly
Security risk	Low: no database or login to attack	Higher: needs active protection
Speed	Very fast by default	Fast with good hosting and caching
Editing by your team	Through us or a simple editor	Full editor access
Care plan cost	Lower	Higher

How a month runs

1. Updates and checks run on a set schedule, early in the week so problems can be fixed while everyone is around.
2. Your change requests come in by email. Most small edits are done within a couple of working days.
3. Monitoring runs throughout. If the site goes down we start investigating and tell you what happened.
4. Monthly report lands at the start of the next month, in plain English.
5. Quarterly review covers speed, search performance and anything worth improving.

What drives the cost

• Platform. Static sites need far less maintenance than WordPress.
• Size and complexity. Online shops and sites with many plugins need more testing at each update.
• Change allowance. How much editing time you want each month.
• Response time. Faster guaranteed response costs more.

We quote a fixed monthly fee once we have seen the site. There is no long tie-in; plans run month to month after an initial period.

Common mistakes

• Domain in a former employee's name. Make sure the business owns its domain and has the login.
• Hosting bundled with an agency you no longer use. Find out where the site is and who controls it.
• Auto-updates with no checks. An update can break a layout or a form without anyone noticing.
• Backups on the same server. If the server fails, the backups go with it.
• Nobody testing the contact form. Forms fail silently more often than people expect.

Taking over a site built elsewhere

Many of our care plan clients come to us with a site built by someone else. Sometimes the original developer has retired or moved on, sometimes an agency has closed, and sometimes the owner simply wants someone more responsive. Taking over a site safely follows a set routine:

1. Find everything. Domain registrar, DNS, hosting, the website admin, email, analytics and Search Console. We make a list of every login and who controls it.
2. Move control to the business. Accounts should be in the business's name, with you holding the main login and us added as users.
3. Back up. A full off-server backup before we touch anything.
4. Audit. Software versions, plugins, security, speed, broken links, forms and accessibility basics.
5. Fix the urgent items, such as expired certificates, unsupported software or failing forms.
6. Agree the plan: monthly fee, change allowance and anything worth improving.

This takes a week or two for most small business sites. At the end you know exactly what you have, who controls it and what condition it is in, which is useful even if you later decide to rebuild.

How we measure it

Uptime percentage, number of updates applied, issues found and fixed, form test results, page speed and Core Web Vitals. The monthly report shows each one, so you can see the work rather than taking it on trust.

If you are not sure who controls your domain, hosting or website logins, start there. We can help you find out and move them into the business's name.