The short answer
A website isn’t a flyer you print once. It runs on a server, uses software that needs regular updates, and depends on a domain and a security certificate that have to be renewed. If nobody looks after it, it often keeps working for a while – until one day the form stops sending enquiries or the browser shows a warning.
Maintenance and hosting make sure that doesn’t happen. You can handle both yourself or hand them over. What matters is that someone is responsible.
What maintenance involves
- Updates. Systems such as WordPress, their plugins and themes receive updates constantly, often to close security gaps. Skip them and your website becomes vulnerable. Install them unchecked and something may stop working.
- Security. Strong logins, as few plugins as possible, spam protection on forms and an eye on whether everything runs as intended.
- Backups. Regular backups stored separately from the website. A backup is only worth something if it can actually be restored.
- Function checks. Do form enquiries arrive? Does the booking work? Are the links correct? Small errors often only come to light when a customer asks.
The leaner a website is built, the less maintenance it needs. Static websites without a database offer hardly any surface for attack. Sites with lots of plugins, on the other hand, need regular attention.
Domain, SSL and email
Your domain is your address on the web. It is renewed every year and should be registered in your name, not your agency’s. If in doubt, ask who is listed as the owner.
The SSL certificate provides the padlock in the address bar and the encrypted connection. If it is missing or expired, browsers warn your visitors and many leave immediately. With good hosting, the certificate renews automatically.
Your email address usually depends on the domain too. Anyone moving their domain or hosting needs to think about email, or messages may suddenly stop arriving.
Keeping content up to date
Maintenance isn’t only technology. Old opening hours, last year’s prices or a team that no longer looks like that cost trust. And Google favours pages that look cared for and answer questions well.
So decide who changes what: will you update text and images yourself, or should we do it? That determines how the website is built technically. And plan fixed dates, perhaps twice a year, to go through every page once.
Which hosting suits you?
Hosting is where your website lives. The differences are bigger than the price suggests.
- Location. For businesses in Germany and Europe, data centres in the EU are usually the obvious choice, also with data protection in mind.
- Loading speed. Good hosting delivers your site quickly, on phones too and with many visitors at once. Slow sites lose visitors and Google rankings.
- Security and backups. What is included, and what do you have to set up yourself?
- Support. Who helps when the site won’t load?
How the website is built also plays a role. A shop or a site with a database needs different hosting from a lean website delivered via a global server network.
Signs that action is needed
- The website loads noticeably slowly, especially on phones.
- The browser shows a security warning.
- Updates have been waiting in the admin area for months.
- Nobody knows exactly where the website is hosted and who has the logins.
- Form enquiries rarely arrive any more, even though visitor numbers stay the same.
If several of these apply, it’s worth taking a closer look.
We take care of hosting and maintenance
With us, you can hand over both. We take care of hosting: your website runs with us on Cloudflare. With normal use this costs nothing extra; only very high traffic incurs costs, which we discuss with you beforehand. You pay the domain once a year to the registrar. Care & maintenance starts at €49 a month: we look after updates, backups, domain and certificate, check that forms and bookings work and make small changes to copy, prices and images. You have one point of contact who knows your website. The exact amount is set out in your quote after the initial consultation, depending on the scope and technology of your site.
This applies to websites we have built and, after a review, to existing sites as well. Hosting and maintenance can also be combined with any of our packages.
The next step
Not quite sure how your website is doing? Send us the address and book a free initial consultation. We’ll tell you what works well, what’s missing and what it costs to change it. If your website should also bring in more local customers, take a look at local SEO too.