Website Maintenance Packages
Websites that are regularly updated receive 97% more links and 55% more website visitors compared to those that don't. Boost your website’s performance and secure it from different malware attacks with our monthly website maintenance packages.
Why website maintenance is needed
performance
64% of all companies in the world have at least once experienced a cyber attack! And these include not only large businesses but small and medium ones as well. If you think that you’re not a target for hackers and cybercriminals, think again. Website maintenance services are essential for addressing vulnerabilities before they are exploited by hackers.
performance
Website core, software and plugin updates are essential for the proper functioning of the website. If the website is not updated according to the latest software releases, it will become an easy target for attackers, may work slowly, might have errors or might stop working altogether!
Slow loading time, design or functionality issues, outdated content and overall poor or infrequent website maintenance harm the user experience, directly or indirectly affecting the website’s SEO performance and search engine rankings.
A website that is frequently updated, loads fast, and has no functionality issues is more likely to get more traffic as it gives a reason for users to come back. Website maintenance can highly influence the user experience and help attract more customers to your website.
If a website has functionality issues or outdated content, users won’t trust it and will lose trust in the brand as well. So, keeping your website up-to-date is necessary to build trust among your customers and increase brand credibility.
When you regularly update your website, you give more possibilities for the users to engage with your content and increase the time they spent on your website. Even one small issue or a one-second delay in website speed can ruin the user experience and make visitors leave your website without even interacting with it.
Why choose our website maintenance packages?
Access to all
of our services
Unused hours rollover whilst subscribed
No obligation subscription
Detailed monthly reporting
Security and Transparency
Efficiency and lightning speed
Our pricing plans
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Starter
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Advanced
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Essentials
- Website uptime monitoring
- CMS core and plugin updates
- Website backups
- Website malware scans
* Essentials can be swapped with 1 extra hour of design and web development services.
What our brand identity design
process looks like
Scoping
We start with an initial consultation to understand your requirements and deadlines. Based on this, we will suggest the most suitable package and realistic duration for the project.
Moodboards
Once you are happy to move forward, we will share with you our branding questionnaire and will begin working on initial design concepts and mood boards to determine the creative direction.
Design concepts
Once the creative direction is agreed upon, we will proceed to work on all other deliverables of the project, such as the logo, fonts, colors, brand stationery, and design templates.
Delivery
We will work through any revisions and add all finalized deliverables and brand assets, with instructions, to your brand guidelines, together with a drive folder containing all source files.
What our clients say about us
Their attention to detail was brilliant with great design innovations where there was room for them.
Hugh Fraser
Doorway
Their comments and feedback are excellent, and they’ve gone beyond the scope of work. They’ve brought in their point of view and delivered excellent results, which will be the starting point for our company.
Aldo Guiducci
Scynce
Their project management is outstanding, always making sure that everything’s clear and participating actively in decision-making processes and delivering great work, extremely fast. Their level of creativity is outstanding and inspiring too!
Gregory T
Meukow Cognac
Their creativity and speed were impressive. Passionate Design Agency's ability to transform our ideas into a top-notch product stood out.
Aaron Ganick
PreddioTech
They were always quick to respond and proactively offered solutions. Their ability to provide solutions to complex problems sets them apart from other vendors.
Freda L.
Scoop Solar
The quality of their work stands out. Passionate always ensure the work is of the highest quality and delivered in a timely manner.
Qadir Hussain
Primed Pharmacy
Very reliable and dependable with great value. They are super knowledgeable and have helped us re design and migrate an entire marketplace.
Amber Weaver
Type Department
They were very patient with our feedback, which gave a very pleasant process and overall experience.
Cecilie Espensen
Nicice
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Frequently asked questions
Can the packages be used as a general design subscription?
Yes, the website maintenance packages can also be used as an hourly subscription for general design, web development, and video production services. The “Essential” services can be swapped for an additional hour of “design and web dev services”, and all of the hours can be used on tasks unrelated to the website.
What kinds of websites are these maintenance packages intended for?
Although our web developers can tackle a great variety of tasks, the “Essential” services are most suitable for WordPress websites or other CMS websites, such as those built with Shopify, Webflow, WIX, and Squarespace. The “Essential” services cannot be used for custom-coded websites.
What if I have unused hours when I cancel?
If you have unused hours when you cancel your subscription, we will make a note of them, and you will be able to use them when you subscribe again to any of the website maintenance packages in the future.
How many hours will I need?
It will really vary depending on the tasks you would like us to undertake. At times, simple tasks can be very time-consuming, and very complex-looking tasks can be very quick to do, so it would be best to speak with one of our account managers to get an estimate of how long the specific tasks you have in mind will take so you can choose the package accordingly.
Who will I work with?
You will primarily be in touch with a project manager, who will organize the tasks and assign them to the necessary team members.
What is website maintenance?
Website maintenance is the process of updating and supporting a website so that it functions properly and without errors. Besides the risk of getting hacked or having broken links, maintenance is needed to ensure that website content and design are also up to date.
What is a website maintenance plan?
A website maintenance plan is the tasks and actions needed to ensure the proper functionality of a website. Usually, these plans are made on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis as different aspects of a website need to be checked at different frequencies.
How often should a website be maintained?
Each website metric has its own optimal frequency for checks and updates. Though, for a regular website that doesn’t have a lot of data, monthly maintenance is typically the best option. For websites that receive a lot of traffic, online sales and new information, more frequent updates may be more suitable.
How much does a website maintenance service cost?
Website maintenance service cost depends on what features you want to be maintained and updated. Generally, agencies require monthly payments for a website maintenance service. At our agency, monthly website maintenance service cost starts at $129/month.
Why are website maintenance packages needed
One primary reason for this is to keep up with updates, and almost every technology has updates, some more frequently than others. In addition to this, generally, the more custom and multifunctional the website is, the more maintenance work it needs. For example, a website like eBay will need a lot more maintenance work than a website like TechCrunch (which, believe it or not, is also powered by WordPress), which in turn will need more maintenance work than a website like colourpop.com (which is powered by Shopify).
So why do more complex and multi-functional websites need more maintenance? First, let’s sort the updates which can affect a website into categories:
- Web technology updates
- Website core updates
- Extension, library or plugin updates
Web technology updates
Updates that happen to the web infrastructure, such as changes in accepted protocols, browser updates, etc.
Think of these updates as something similar to your phone or computer software updates, for example, Windows or IOS updates. These updates fix detected bugs and enable new and improved functionalities to be executed. If you do not update your phone or computer software, your device may be vulnerable or unable to execute some tasks.
Similarly, in the case of websites, if your site is not caught up with the latest accepted protocols and standards, you will probably experience speed, accessibility and general functionality problems. One example of such an update recently was browsers beginning to require an SSL certificate to be installed and showing the website as a threat if it didn’t have one. So even if you have a beautiful website with tons of great content, if there is no SSL certificate installed, your site will appear like malware to potential visitors, completely undermining the efforts you have put into the site.
Another such example is PHP updates. A few years back, the highest stable PHP version was 5.6, so regardless of the web host that you chose, this would be what you’d get.
Recently, PHP 8.0 was rolled out, which can execute almost twice as many requests per second as 5.6. In the case of most hosts, you need to update to the newest version of PHP manually and then check your website is compatible. So it’s no surprise that to date, just over 6% of WordPress websites are still on PHP 5.6 and below, missing out on amazing performance gains!
As part of our monthly website maintenance packages, we ensure your WordPress site is kept up to date with the latest PHP version.
Web technology updates are generally not very frequent, occurring every 4 – 8 months, but generally have major implications.
WordPress PHP versions, as of April 2023
Website core updates
Updates that need to be made to the engine or core backend code of the site for it to:
- Remain compatible with web technology updates,
- Add new features to the core
- Fix issues in the existing core
- Address new security threats
These updates are always ongoing, but how you administer them will depend on how your website works.
For example, if you have a custom-made website, then your development team will need to address these on an ongoing basis. If your site is working on a CMS like WordPress or Shopify, then the organisation that provides the CMS will implement the edits. It varies from one CMS to another as well.
For example, in the case of Shopify, because they also host your website and have complete control of the server environment, their development team takes care of core updates behind the scenes without even requesting the site owner’s permission.
On the other hand, WordPress cannot do this for self-hosted instances (i.e., not wordpress.com). One installation with its given hosting and plugin configurations may accommodate the update, whereas another instance may experience fatal errors. This is why WordPress notifies website admins of the new version being available and leaves it up to the website admin to install the update.
Some hosting providers allow you to set WordPress updates on automatic for both minor and major versions. However, we strongly advise not to use this as we have seen far too many websites go down because of these updates. The cause may be an incompatibility with one plugin, a theme, or some code in your functions.php. This is why as part of our website maintenance packages we always ensure to create a backup just before running the update manually, as then we can restore the most up-to-date version of the site if anything happens. We would recommend you also use this approach as automatic backups may be a day or even weeks old, so restoring them will also lose all the website data in the interval!
Web technology updates are generally frequent, occurring every 0.5 – 3 months (depending on the CMS), but typically have medium to significant implications.
Extension, library, theme or plugin updates
Extensions, libraries, themes and plugins are code packages available for free or for a fee, allowing you to extend your website functionality without having to develop the features.
One good example of this is payment gateways. Whether custom-made or based on a CMS, most websites do not develop a custom payment system but integrate a ready solution like Stripe or Paypal. This ensures that the website admin doesn’t need to keep up to date with all financial regulations, such as being PCI compliant and can focus on running the site instead. Paypal and Stripe then bear the responsibility for the infrastructure updates (for a fee per transaction) but request the web admin to make updates every now and then to ensure that code remains functional.
One such example recently was the move to 3D secure cards, as part of which Paypal and Stripe gave instructions that should be implemented (which is generally a few lines of code) for the sites to remain compatible with Stripe and Paypal cores. Failure to enforce this update would mean that the website would no longer accept payments from 3D secure cards, which comprise the vast majority of cards.
These plugins, extensions, themes and libraries are updated for similar reasons to the website core, in particular to:
- To remain compatible with web technology updates,
- To add new features
- To fix issues in the existing code
- To address new security threats
- To remain compatible with the target core or software
These sit on top of the website core, usually developed by different developers to the website core. This makes them more likely to have incompatibilities as not all developers are as experienced and familiar with the core and may not account for all interdependencies. Likewise, the theme, plugin, extension or library may lack the testing and quality control or may simply be compatible with the core but incompatible with another extension that’s also used.
Still, although plugins, extensions, themes and libraries generally pose some additional risks, in most instances, the pros of time and money savings outweigh the additional maintenance needed! It is vital to ensure all libraries, extensions, plugins and themes are from trusted and experienced providers as poor choices can also affect the rest of the website.
Assuming you have chosen the right suppliers, it is still essential to always keep plugins, themes, libraries and extensions up to date as new updates range from functionality and compatibility improvements to critical security patches. In fact, in the case of a WordPress website, if your site is experiencing problems, your first action should be to backup your site and update all plugins and themes as this can fix it!
Like core updates, we don’t recommend enabling automatic plugin updates, as this runs the risk of breaking the site without you knowing what caused it. Again we recommend always backing up the site and updating the plugins and themes one at a time (standard practice with any of our clients on our website maintenance packages).
Extension, library, theme or plugin updates are generally frequent, occurring every 0.5 – 3 months (depending on the CMS), but generally have medium to major implications.
If you keep on top of these updates on an ongoing basis, your website downtime and errors will be kept to a minimum (assuming you have good hosting).
Is there any other maintenance that you need? It depends on how you use your site. If the site shows general information and acts more like a digital business card, assuming it was built well at the start, you probably won’t need much more maintenance beyond the above.
However, if you use your website as a marketing tool, run traffic ads, or work on SEO, you will certainly need to undertake some design and content updates. For example, if you have a blog, then the general consensus is to post every two weeks, if not more!
Although we offer custom website maintenance as well, the amount of work generally varies dramatically with the technologies, languages, development practices and features of the custom website.
So if you have a custom-developed website and are looking for maintenance packages, please contact us, and we will find a package that suits your requirements the best once we review the site source code!
For WordPress websites (one of our specialities), on the other hand, it is pretty straightforward to estimate the amount of maintenance work, so we have put together the following WordPress website maintenance packages for our clients:
What Should be Included in Monthly Website Maintenance Plans
Have you just launched your website or plan to launch it soon? That’s amazing, you’ve done a big part of the job. But not all of it. A website has become a significant asset for every business nowadays. But besides creating and launching it, you need a proper monthly website maintenance plan.
Many businesses forget about supporting their websites after their launch. You have probably visited websites that are too slow, have broken links, or are outdated. That’s because they aren’t maintained properly. And you wouldn’t want to waste your time on these websites and their products, right?
If you don’t want your customers to be in a similar situation and feel frustrated while browsing your website, you need a monthly website maintenance plan. But what is it and what should be included in a website maintenance plan? In this article, we’re going to answer all these essential questions about website maintenance.
What is a Monthly Website Maintenance Plan?
A monthly website maintenance plan is a list of tasks that websites need to undergo to keep them up to date, secure and well-performing. And not only that, there are many other reasons why website maintenance is important for every business. Website maintenance includes all the areas of the website that need constant support and updates.
Depending on your website, whether it’s custom-made or based on a CMS, it would require a different kind of website support. Of course, a custom-coded website requires more support than those based on CMS, as you have to supervise constantly that all parts of your code work properly. While with a CMS, some part of the update and/or support is done by the CMS provider.
But overall all websites work in the same way, whether it’s custom-made or based on a CMS. So, we’ll look through all the essentials that both custom-coded and CMS-based websites need.
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What to Include in a Monthly Website Maintenance Plan?
Website core updates
Now it’s time to list all the tasks of your monthly website maintenance plan. Let’s go.
Security Updates
The first thing you need to take care of is the security of your website. It’s all about protecting your website from malicious systems trying to access private information or take it down.
There are plenty of threats on the Internet, and if you don’t take care of the security, your website might get hacked and it can be very hard and time-consuming to try to make it work again. Plus, think about your users. People are very conscious about the information they give to websites, and if they doubt your security, they won’t trust your website and your brand.
This is especially important for e-commerce websites, as they have the obligation to store information about their customers and need to be extra careful. So, make sure to include security checks in your website maintenance plan as it can help you detect any vulnerabilities of your website and fix them before you get hacked.
Web Technology Updates
Web technology updates are not so frequent, but they are very important. These updates are related to changes in protocols or browser updates. Examples of these updates are SSL certificates for browsers (which are required from all websites now) or PHP updates.
Web technology updates are crucial for the healthy performance of the website. If your website doesn’t have an SSL certificate or the latest PHP update, it will not function properly. Web technology updates are rarer, you don’t need to check them every month. But you definitely need to add this update to your maintenance plan.
Website Core Updates
Website core updates are more frequent. These ones you need to check on a monthly basis. These updates refer to the engine or backend code updates, for example when you need to fix an issue in the code or add a new feature to your website.
If your website is based on a CMS, like Shopify, you won’t need to worry much about core updates, as Shopify takes care of the website core updates. In the case of WordPress, website owners need to install updates on their own. Though, WordPress notifies them in case of any updates or changes so that developers can make all the necessary changes.
What refers to custom-made websites, website owners need to track everything themselves and make changes according to their website needs.
Extension, Plugin or Library Updates
Each website has its purpose and functionalities. Therefore, web developers add some additional extensions and plugins so that their websites have the necessary functionalities.
For example, payment systems are usually added, as even custom-made websites do not generally develop a payment system. It requires a lot of time and effort so it’s easier to just install plugins or integrate third-party services.
These types of updates are equally important for CMS-based and custom-coded websites. These extra plugins and libraries also need regular checks on a monthly basis to ensure they always function correctly and are compatible with your website.
Speed Updates
Website speed is an important factor that affects the time spent on your website by users or whether they stay on your website at all. If your website takes too long to load, you will most probably notice a performance drop. So make sure you regularly check your website speed and improve processes that are affecting the speed.
Besides, this is an important aspect of SEO as well. A fast and well-performing website has more chances to have high rankings than websites that take too long to load.
Emergencies
And of course, you need to be ready for emergency situations. Unlike other items on your website maintenance plan, emergency situations require quick action. Your website may get hacked, or there might be some issues with your code, plugins, etc.
You need to be ready for these situations and have a plan on how to act. But note, that with regular checks and updates, your website will less likely get into trouble. In any case, make sure you and your team are ready to quickly fix any emergency issues so that users will be able to use your website without any problems.
Backups
Any website can get hacked or face some errors in the code. To solve that, you need to make regular backups so that you don’t lose any important data from your website. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, you can set monthly/weekly automatic backups to make sure your website is ready for anything.
If you set automatic backups, from time to time you need to check if they are done correctly, just in case. Being extra careful won’t harm your website.
Also, note that if your website is an e-commerce store, you’ll probably need more frequent backups as your website contains data about your customers. Moreover, it changes more frequently so you need to be extra careful with that.
Performance Monitoring
You should also have weekly or even daily monitoring set up for key factors such as broken links, uptime, website speed and server performance. And it’s not something you need to do manually, there are various services that can be set up that will notify you by email in case anything goes wrong.
Google Search Console provides a whole host of tools for monitoring website speed, broken links and other usability factors throughout the website. Once set up, you will be notified by email and can quickly fix your website and validate the fixes.
Google Analytics on the other hand will also inform you about your website’s general performance, such as website visits, bounce rate, session duration and many other more advanced metrics, which will help you determine which of your marketing efforts are fruitful, as well as giving you an idea of potential areas for improvement.
So, if you haven’t set up Google Analytics and Search Console, this is the perfect time to do it.
SEO
SEO is another important item on our list. Each website is created with some purpose, or goal, to meet the needs of the customers or clients. And if these customers can’t find your website, why are you wasting your time on your website at all? That’s why SEO is crucial.
SEO requires hard work on a regular basis. Targeting the right keywords, creating unique and interesting content for users, having enough backlinks or getting enough traffic – all of these will impact your website performance and for some businesses, their overall success.
Luckily, there are plenty of online tools that can help you improve your website ranking and performance. Semrush and Ahrefs are just a few of these tools that also allow setting up SEO-specific monitoring, and analysing how your website performs across the various ranking factors.
If you don’t have the resources and employees to take care of your SEO, it’s better to outsource it. But in most cases, SEO can be an invaluable source of high-quality traffic.
Design
This might be a surprising point for some business owners, as it’s not typically included in website maintenance plans. But that’s a mistake. Of course, design may not be as important as plugin updates or website speed optimizations, but if you want your website to perform at its best, you need to check your design as well.
Especially nowadays, when everything online changes so fast and websites can quickly become outdated.
Design updates don’t mean changing your logo every month, it’s about checking the responsiveness and accessibility of your website and making sure that users can easily navigate through your website. You may also want to draw on the data from Google Analytics or heat mapping software to implement navigation changes and to A/B test new layouts, marketing messages and graphics.
Other design assets like logos or colours refer to the branding and they don’t require frequent changes.
You don’t need to check the design every month. You can set quarterly or annual design updates in your website maintenance plan.
Content
Some companies outsource their content creation and publication to marketing agencies, and if you’re one of them, you don’t need to worry about this. But if you’re fully in charge of all your website performance, then content updates should also be a priority for you.
Despite the fact that content updates are important for SEO, it’s also important that your website looks up-to-date to visitors and always has some fresh content to offer. You need to regularly publish new content, or at least update the old ones.
Especially when your website has a big blog section and you have a lot of readers, you need to update your content more frequently.
Summing Up
These are all the essential things to include in your website maintenance plan. It might seem hard and time-consuming at the first sight, but when you have a plan and start doing it regularly, it will become much easier.
But still, you should note that one of the most important things about website maintenance is its consistency. If you don’t have the time and resources to take proper care of it, you should outsource it to third parties, so that you will be sure that your website always performs its best.
And if you have a CMS-based website here are some of the maintenance packages that can we offer that cover everything listed above!
