What website maintenance actually includes, and what it should cost

A website is not finished when it launches. It runs on software that changes every month, on a server that needs watching, and in a browser landscape that moves under it. Maintenance is the work of keeping all that current so the site stays fast, secure and correct. Most owners skip it because the fee is vague and the site “seems fine”. It seems fine right up until it does not.

What a month of maintenance contains

Updates, tested. WordPress core, every plugin, the theme, on a staging copy first, then live. This is where most of the security work happens, because most break-ins use holes that an update had already fixed.

Backups, verified. A daily backup stored off the server, kept for at least thirty days, and restored at least once a quarter to prove it works. An untested backup is a hope.

Security checks. A daily scan for changed files, new admin users and new scheduled tasks. A watch on the domain’s Safe Browsing and blacklist status. The firewall rules reviewed. The SSL certificate’s expiry watched.

Uptime monitoring. Something checking the site every minute from outside, and telling a person when it is down, so you find out before your customers do.

Performance checks. Page speed measured monthly, with the drift fixed: a new plugin slowing everything, images uploaded at full size, a cache that stopped working.

SEO basics watched. Search Console read once a month for indexing errors, security issues, pages that dropped out, and broken links. Not a full SEO service. Enough to catch the site quietly breaking in Google.

Small fixes and changes. An hour or two a month of “can you update the phone number”, “the form stopped sending”, “add this person to the team page”. The things that otherwise never get done.

A short report. What was updated, what was found, what was fixed, what needs a decision. Plain language, one page.

What it is not

It is not a redesign, a new feature or an SEO campaign. Those are projects with their own scope. It is not “we will fix it when it breaks”, which is what most sites have now and which costs more, because the break comes at the worst time and the fix starts from a cold start.

What it should cost

Prices vary with how much the site matters and who does the work. A rough map:

• A simple business site, a few pages, no shop: the lower end. Updates, backups, monitoring, a little time for changes.
• A site the business depends on for leads: the middle. Everything above with more frequent checks and faster response.
• A shop or a site with logins: the upper end. Checkout tested after every update, more monitoring, faster response, because downtime costs money by the hour.

Whatever the number, ask what happens when something goes wrong. The plan should say how quickly someone responds and whether emergency fixes are included. Our plans are on the Care page with the specifics, but the shape above is what any honest plan should contain.

The test of a good plan

You should be able to forget about the website. Not because nothing is happening, but because someone is doing the monthly hour, watching the daily checks, and telling you only what needs your attention. If you are currently the person who notices when the site is down, that is the gap maintenance fills.

The scanner shows a site’s software versions and security headers, which is a fair proxy for whether it is being looked after. Run yours and see what a stranger sees.