Website care, maintenance and hosting

What a care plan covers

Software and plugin updates tested on a staging copy first, daily backups stored off-site, uptime monitoring with alerts, security checks, and a monthly allowance of time for small content changes or fixes. You get a short monthly note of what was done.

Hosting

We host sites on reliable infrastructure suited to the build: static sites on a global edge network, WordPress on managed hosting with good support. We can also look after sites hosted on your own accounts if your IT policy requires it.

When something goes wrong

If a site goes down or something breaks, care plan clients are first in the queue. We will tell you what happened in plain terms and what we have done to stop it happening again.

Who a care plan is for

A care plan suits any organisation that relies on its website but does not have a developer on the team. In Cambridge that covers a wide range: small professional firms and local shops, guesthouses and restaurants whose booking pages must work every day, spin-outs whose founders have no time to patch software, and charities and college offices where several people edit the site but nobody owns the technical side.

It also suits organisations whose site was built by a web designer or design agency that has since moved on, leaving nobody responsible for updates. We take on sites we did not build, after an initial check.

What is included, step by step

1. Onboarding checkFor a site we did not build, we review the platform, plugins, hosting, backups and access first. We fix anything urgent and tell you plainly if the site has deeper problems that a care plan alone will not solve.
2. Access and documentationWe make sure you own the domain and hosting accounts, that admin access is held by named people with strong passwords and two-factor authentication, and that how the site works is written down.
3. UpdatesCore software, themes and plugins are updated regularly. We apply updates to a staging copy first, check key pages and forms, then update the live site.
4. BackupsDaily automatic backups stored away from the hosting server, with periodic test restores so we know they actually work.
5. MonitoringUptime monitoring with alerts, SSL certificate checks, security scanning and a check that contact forms are still delivering.
6. Small changesA monthly allowance of development time for content updates, new pages built from existing templates, small fixes and advice.
7. Monthly noteA short plain-English summary of what we updated, anything we noticed and any recommendations.

Hosting choices

How it works over time

Onboarding a site we built is immediate. Onboarding a site we did not build usually takes one to two weeks, depending on what the initial check finds. After that, updates run on a regular schedule, monitoring runs continuously and small change requests are typically handled within a few working days. Urgent problems, such as the site going down, jump the queue.

What drives the cost

• Platform. Static sites need far less maintenance than plugin-heavy WordPress sites.
• Number of plugins and integrations. Each one needs updating and testing.
• Traffic and criticality. An e-commerce or booking site where downtime costs money needs closer monitoring than a brochure site.
• Monthly change allowance. Some clients need an hour a month; others want regular new pages and campaigns.
• Hosting costs, which are separate and depend on the provider and plan.

Common mistakes

• Updating everything on the live site at once and discovering a broken form a week later.
• Backups stored on the same server as the site, so they disappear along with it.
• The domain registered to a former employee or a previous agency, which becomes a real problem at renewal time.
• Nobody checking the contact form, so enquiries silently go missing for weeks.
• Leaving unused plugins installed, each one a potential security hole.
• Waiting for a crisis before thinking about maintenance at all.

Beyond maintenance: keeping the site useful

Keeping software current is only half the job. A site can be perfectly patched and still be out of date: a team page listing people who left a year ago, a service that is no longer offered, opening hours from before a refurbishment, a news page that stopped in the spring. For a small business in Cambridgeshire or a lab supplier on a science park, that kind of drift quietly undermines trust.

Within the monthly allowance we can take care of routine content changes as well as technical work, so updates do not wait until someone has a free afternoon. Some clients send us a short list each month; others prefer to edit themselves and use the allowance for advice and checks.

An annual review

Once a year we suggest a broader review. We look at what visitors actually do on the site, which pages bring in enquiries, how performance and accessibility have held up, and whether the platform and hosting still suit the business. For many clients this review is where the next round of improvements comes from: a new service page, a simpler enquiry form, a clearer route for a growing audience. It keeps the site improving gradually rather than drifting until a full redesign is the only option.

For businesses with seasonal peaks, such as hospitality around graduation and the summer visitor season, or retailers before Christmas, we also schedule larger updates and changes for quieter weeks, and freeze non-essential changes during the busiest periods so the site stays stable when it matters most. Planned work is agreed with you in advance.

If you decide to leave

You are never locked in. If you move to another provider or bring the work in-house, we hand over access, documentation and backups promptly, and brief whoever takes over.

How we measure success

A care plan works when nothing dramatic happens. We track uptime, the time taken to apply security updates, successful backup restores, form delivery and response times on your requests, and include them in the monthly note. Once or twice a year we also review the site more broadly: content that has gone out of date, performance, accessibility and whether the platform still suits you.