Website Maintenance Services
Website Mainteance and Support
Our team doesn't just build fantastic websites; we also offer website maintenance and support services because we know questions and concerns come up!
Web Maintenance Services
Hire an Expert Website Maintenance Company
We are a web maintenance company with a team of website experts that works from a single location and never outsources website support services.
This makes our website maintenance company the perfect choice to provide all your web services, including website platform upgrades, site speed improvements, website security fixes, website issue resolutions, and anything else related to improving your business website.
You'll enjoy working with our team for your website maintenance services because of the emphasis we put on availability and communication. If you need something simple done the same day or have a complex question that is best explained over the phone, you'll have no problem getting in touch with a member of our website team to make it happen!
Our Website Maintenance Services
We view website maintenance to be a reactive support service. If you have a question or concern about your website, just reach out for help. Our web developers can solve nearly any website problem you encounter.
There are a few examples of website issues that might require service from a web maintenance agency:
- Platform Upgrades: Upgrading your website platform to the latest version.
- Plugin Updates: Installing plugin updates to improve security and functionality.
- Creating Pages: Adding new web pages as you release new products or services.
- Writing Content: Writing new blog content to help you stay fresh.
- Menu Updates: Rearranging the navigation menu of your website.
- Improving Page Speed: Fixing website speed issues to help you pass Google Core Web Vitals.
- Creating Backups: Taking backups of your website’s files and databases.
- Design Changes: Modifying the look and feel of your website’s design.
- Fixing Site Errors: Fixing site audit issues or Google Search Console coverage problems.
- Technical SEO: Improving SEO by adding structured data, open graph tags, sitemaps, canonical tags, etc.
- Resolving Issues: Repairing broken websites or broken website functionality.
The previously mentioned tasks are just a glimpse of what we view as possible website maintenance services. In fact, website maintenance is really anything a web developer or digital marketer does to your website to improve it.
A Few of Our Web Maintenance & Support Specialists
Cost of a Website Maintenance Retainer
The starting price for our website maintenance services is $119.50/hour, but we offer discounts for pre-purchased blocks of time that bring the rate as low as $99.95/hour.
If you purchase a website maintenance retainer, there are no contracts, hidden fees, expirations, or minimum deductions.
Please keep in mind we rarely see tasks take less than 10 minutes, since the process of reviewing an email or taking a phone call, working on the request, providing feedback, and logging the task usually takes at least 10 minutes of time.
To keep you informed of the time usage on your pre-purchased web maintenance retainer, you'll receive a monthly update letting you know how much time remains on your account.
Invoiced Monthly
$ 119.50/hr
- Existing Clients Only
- Any Time Spent Billed Monthly
- Time Use Summary Reports
- No Outsourcing
- Service Availability of M-F, 8AM-5PM CST, No Holidays
Pre-Purchased Block of Time
As Low As $99.95/hr
- Dedicated Account Manager
- No Contracts, Auto-Renewals, or Expirations
- Time Use Summary Reports
- No Outsourcing
- Service Availability of M-F, 8AM-5PM CST, No Holidays
Our Website Management Services
Tired of being warned about available updates? Worried about website downtime? Let our web development team take care of both worries through proactive website management!
Here is a list of what is included in our website management plans:
1.) Proactive Website Updates
We have an in-house team of website experts ready to perform platform updates, theme updates, and plugin/extension updates on a quarterly or monthly schedule for WordPress or WooCommerce websites!
- Backup: We start by taking backups of your website files and database.
- Update: Next, we manually install any available updates on your website.
- Test: After the updates have been installed, we test your website for issues.
- Finalize: If the upgrades were successful, you'll be better protected against security threats and malware! If the updates aren't successful, we'll discuss next steps.
2.) Remote Website Backups
We store remote backups of your website and database to minimize the risk of data loss.
3.) Website Uptime Monitoring
We monitor your website for service outages within our uptime monitoring system.
If your website goes down, an alert will be sent to our web developers to allow us to investigate the issue.
Cost of a Website Management Plan
Our website management plans are offered in monthly and quarterly options. This allows you to choose how often our team processes remote backups and installs available website updates.
Quarterly Management
$ 150/qtr
- Quarterly Updates to WordPress, Themes, and Plugins
- Functionality Testing after Updates are Installed
- Remote Storage of Backup Files
- Uptime Monitoring with Alerts to our Web Developers
Monthly Management
$ 125/mo
- Monthly Updates to WordPress, Themes, and Plugins
- Functionality Testing after Updates are Installed
- Remote Storage of Backup Files
- Uptime Monitoring with Alerts to our Web Developers
The Website Platforms We Maintain
We have a diverse team of web designers and web developers who have been immersed in multiple website platforms over the years. That said, it is better to become a master of a few website and ecommerce platforms rather than try to specialize in them all.
For that reason, our website maintenance agency tends to service only the most popular website platforms:
In the past, we provided website maintenance services for Joomla, BigCommerce, and Magento platforms. Unfortunately, we decided to move away from those platforms to allow our website maintenance experts to focus more on training and support within the other more common website systems.
Who Needs Website Maintenance Services
At some point in time, every website on the internet will eventually require some form of website maintenance. The reason is simply that the internet is always changing.
Not to worry though, our web maintenance is affordable!
Here are some common reasons why a website might require website maintenance services:
- When a hosting company upgrades their servers, they might remove older versions of PHP that your website was originally intended to use. When this happens, you need to refactor your web application or upgrade to a newer PHP framework that supports the latest version.
- When an ecommerce platform or a content management system releases new versions, they eventually deprecate the old functionality so their teams can focus on maintaining the newer technologies. This recently happened to Magento 1.x ecommerce store owners who were forced to migrate to Magento 2.x. Those businesses suddenly found themselves looking for an ecommerce developer to help fix their website.
- When a website owner has become a victim of malware or some other form of malicious activity, the website will need to be reviewed for security exploits and cleaned of malware. This can be a time-consuming activity.
- When the content on your website, which explains your organization, products, or services becomes outdated and needs to be refreshed to help ensure future visitors receive accurate information about your operation.
As you can see, there are many reasons a website may require maintenance above and beyond the obvious reasons of just wanting to update something on the website or fix a broken website feature.
It is important to understand the future needs of your website when planning budgets and schedules.
Detailed Examples of Website Maintenance Requests
We are often asked for detailed examples of website maintenance requests that might come up after a website launch.
Some of them are related to fixing a broken website, while others are needed to keep your website updated and relevant!
Here are several examples of website maintenance services we've been asked to perform in the past and would be more than happy to provide to you!
Simple Website Changes
A simple change to your website might include updating a paragraph on a page, swapping out an image, or adding a new page. These are just normal, routine web maintenance tasks to keep content fresh for search engines and visitors.
Page Speed Improvements
If your website isn't running as fast as it once was, we can review your website for hosting issues, caching issues, unoptimized images, console errors, broken links, poor database queries, and other problems. This will help improve page load times, which are beneficial to UX and SEO.
Platform Upgrades / Security Patches
If your website is running on a content management system, like WordPress, it is important to keep the platform updated. This helps improve security and bring in new functionality. The updates are often quick to perform and rarely break a website, which is a win-win!
Plugin / Extension Updates
If your website has functionality developed and maintained by a third-party, it is important to update those plugins and extensions to include the latest changes by the developers. This is similar to the idea of updating the CMS platform since it helps patch security issues and add new features.
Google Search Console Fixes
Did you get a report from Google Search Console informing you of a coverage issue? We can review the coverage issues, fix the problems, and update you on the results. This will help your search engine rankings by making Google happy!
Setup Structured Data
Have you ever noticed information like reviews or product prices in the listing of a Google organic search result? This is brought to you by structured data, which is a standardized way of describing the content on the web page, whether it be of a local business, ecommerce product, or some other data type.
Add Open Graph Tags
Adding Open Graph Tags to your website will help search engines better understand your page content and improve the appearance of your website in social media platforms when people share links to your website.
Setup Google Tag Manager
Are you interested in adding Google Tag Manager to your website to help you manage custom scripts more easily? No problem! We can add Google Tag Manager to your website and even give you a crash course in using GTM.
Implement Conversion Tracking
If you are interested in understanding the benefit of an online advertising campaign, it is important to set up conversion tracking. This will help you understand where your conversions are coming from, such as a Google search or social media campaign.
Optimize Images
Are large images slowing down your website? No problem! We can run all your images through our image compression tools to speed up your website! Another option is to set up recurring image compression for newly added images!
Switch to GA4
If your website is still running Universal Analytics, we can help you make the switch to GA4! This is often a simple change, but you will need to get accustomed to the new interface and conversion tracking methods.
Setup Live Chat
Do you want to try live chat on your website? We can recommend live chat systems, install the tracking code, and configure the chat widget to match your branding!
Review Error Logs
Have you noticed large error_log files on your hosting account? Maybe errors are being outputted on your website? Our web developers can fix broken websites and recommend other site improvements.
Add reCaptcha to Forms
If spambots are attacking your contact forms, we can set up a checkbox or invisible reCaptcha to help minimize unwanted submissions on your lead generation forms.
Setup a Caching Plugin
Are you interested in installing a caching plugin on your website, but not sure how to properly configure the settings for the best website performance? Let us make recommendations and configure your caching systems!
Setup SMTP Email
To help improve email deliverability, we can configure your contact form and website platform to send emails through an SMTP account instead of PHP mail.
Restrict IP Addresses
Are you being bombarded with fake orders, contact submissions or live chats from a specific IP address or network? We can help configure IP restrictions to prevent malicious traffic from interacting with your website.
Create Website Backups
Do you want to create a backup of your website? We can help you create one-time or scheduled backups that are stored locally or at an offsite location.
Create Development / Staging Sites
It is often recommended that you use a development or staging website before proceeding with a major upgrade or extension installation. If you'd like help creating and managing that dev environments, just let us know!
Setup A/B or Multivariate Testing
Do you prefer to make data-driven web design changes? If so, we can help you use A/B testing procedures to collect user-data that supports potential website changes.
Create 301 Redirects
Are you launching a new website or removing pages from your website? You should create 301 redirects. We've seen businesses lose significant organic traffic due to widespread broken pages. We can help you create 301 redirects within .htaccess files, nginx templates, or CMS platforms.
Provide Website Training
Do you need help learning how to make changes to your website? If your site was developed in a platform we work within, such as WordPress or Shopify, we'll be happy to help!
Sample Website Maintenance Plan
Website maintenance is the process of ensuring that your site is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
There are many tasks involved in this process, such as checking for broken links, reviewing your website's performance, monitoring uptime, and verifying plugins are activated and working.
We are often asked for a website maintenance plan by larger companies looking to establish routines and procedures within their IT department.
We are happy to help you develop a web maintenance plan to ensure all aspects of your website, hosting, and domain name are routinely checked to ensure optimum performance and uptime.
Annual website maintenance tasks to review:
- Ask your web hosting company if they have newer servers you can migrate to.
- Check if your website platform has a new major release that will require an extensive website migration.
- Attempt to restore a website backup to ensure the data being stored is sufficient for full recovery.
- Look at competitor websites to see if you are missing out on new functionality for your own customers.
- Perform a full security review of your website to ensure nothing has been compromised or left vulnerable.
- Verify structured data, open graph, and social links are all working properly.
- Verify the necessity of any 3rd party tracking, live chat, or heat map scripts that are installed.
- Remove any unnecessary development or staging websites.
Semi-annual website maintenance tasks to review:
- Ensure you have access to your domain name and that it isn't expiring soon. This will be helpful when you have to process a domain name renewal.
- Ensure you have access to your hosting account and that it isn't expiring soon.
- Ensure you have access to your DNS in case you need to change anything.
- Check if your SSL certificate will be expiring in the near future.
- Verify your website backup schedule is working properly.
- Check if you have an automated image optimization service running.
- Check if the website is throwing any console errors.
Monthly website maintenance tasks to review:
- Check for broken links on your website, which negatively impact user experience and SEO.
- Check for website performance issues from recent updates or changes on the website.
- Check Google Search Console for any coverage issues.
- Provide some kind of update to your content to keep your website fresh.
- Check if there are available platform or extension updates.
Website Maintenance FAQs
What is website maintenance?
Website maintenance is the act of making a positive change to your website, such as upgrading your CMS platform, adding a new web page, changing out images, scanning for malware, or tweaking the design.
Is website maintenance expensive?
Not really, it generally costs around $100/hour to have a website maintenance company perform work on your website. If you need a specialty service, such as custom programming or mobile app development, the hourly rate is often higher.
Can I maintain my website?
If your website was built in a content management system, such as WordPress, then it should be possible for you to handle basic website updates on your own. If you run into trouble, just reach out to a web maintenance company for help.
Should I put my website in maintenance mode?
If you are making simple changes to your website, it isn't often necessary to place your website into a maintenance mode. This will have the negative effect of turning away search engines and website visitors. Instead, we recommend making changes on the live site, or testing them on a development / staging website first if they are more impactful.
What do you consider billable time?
When talking with prospective website maintenance clients, we are often asked what is considered billable time. You will find the answers vary greatly within the website support industry.
In some situations, you may find a website maintenance company to charge a much higher hourly rate, but not bill out for client communication or task organization. Likewise, there are website support companies like us, who charge a more affordable hourly rate, but also bill out for most communication and organization.
To help provide clarification, let's go over some examples of what we consider billable time when it comes to maintaining and supporting your website.
Website maintenance services we do consider billable time:
- Reading through lengthy emails to understand what is being requested.
- Preparing responses to lengthy or complex email messages.
- Helping you figure out your domain name or web hosting provider credentials.
- Scheduling your website maintenance to be completed by the best team member.
- Talking with you on the phone about new ideas or potential website changes.
- Reviewing completed work for quality control purposes.
- Providing you with training on how to handle administrative tasks.
- Researching unique solutions to difficult questions you present our team.
- Providing detailed time usage reports, beyond the automated monthly update email.
- Helping you figure out email client issues within Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.
- Almost any other task that you request for your website or company.
Website maintenance services we do not consider billable time:
- We do not charge you to talk about personal matters, such as the weather, a recent vacation, or a sporting event.
- We do not charge you to respond to simple email messages that don't require research or lengthy feedback.
- We do not charge you to hand accounting-related tasks, such as invoice generation, payment confirmations, etc.
Questions to Ask Website Maintenance Companies
Before signing up for a website maintenance package, it is important to ask the web maintenance company some questions about how their services work.
This will help you get a better idea of the relationship you will have with their website maintenance team before you make a payment and hand over website access.
Let's go over some simple questions to ask:
- How do you handle website security? Do you run security scans of websites?
- What is the turnaround time for website maintenance requests?
- Do you outsource your website maintenance services?
- What do your best website maintenance services cost?
- Do you have minimum deductions or minimum billable expenses for website updates?
- What are your normal hours of operation? What if my website breaks on a weekend?
- Will you keep me informed about new updates within my platform?
We find it beneficial to run these questions by any website services company before purchasing their website maintenance packages.
This practice will provide you with a much better understanding of the future relationship, the security of your website, and the expected turnaround time for important maintenance requests.
Hear what our customers are saying
Carissa Giebel
They are great to work with. Always quick to respond to my questions and assist when needed! They have been working with me at Legacy Law Group, LLC for many years.
Southwest Radio Church
What can I say about this company? These people that work there? Unbelievable!! It doesn't matter when or why you call, they will help you. The other part of that statement is: I never have to call them! They made a web site for us that works 24/7. But if I do call they actually take care of it right then. ... great bunch of guys...Southwest Radio Church really appreciates you!!
Kendrick Jacobs
Corey G at WebCitz was so professional and patient while helping us solve our issues. We appreciate his help so much. This company definitely needs more people like him. Amazing customer service! Thank you Corey G! (:
Jeff Ring
This company is just a thrill to work with. Everyone is so friendly and eager to help even with the smallest items. They are always very accommodating when you stop by to look at the magnificent fish tank and will greet you with with a warm cappuccino.
Alo Health
WebCitz designed our Alo Health website and did such a great job of walking us step-by-step through the process, knowing the tech world was not a strength of ours. We love that we are able to change content whenever we want, but if we run into problems, they are a quick email away. They have been responsive, reliable and efficient. Thanks, WebCitz!
George Ormond
Corey was extremely helpful and spent a considerable amount of time going over my difficulties with a newly created website put together by someone else. I was under a very stressful deadline and he was extremely considerate and helpful. He managed to fix the problems that I was experiencing with my website. I had reached out to a number of website developers for help but only heard back from Webcity and Corey got back to me within minutes!
FREE Website Maintenance Consultation
Schedule a no cost, no obligation phone call to discuss website maintenance with our team. It's quick and easy!
When searching for professional website support experts in the United States, it is critical to review their work history to ensure they have experience in your CMS or ecommerce platform. Beyond that, look for online reviews that confirm communication and availability has been great for other customers.
Learn more about how our USA-based website maintenance company has helped businesses in your area.
When looking for the best website maintenance experts serving Canada, it is important to review their work history to ensure they have experience in your CMS or ecommerce platform. Beyond that, look for online reviews that suggest communication and availability has been good for other clients.
Check out how we've helped businesses in your area with their website maintenance.
