What ongoing maintenance for your website includes
Ongoing maintenance means someone backs up, updates and monitors your website and handles small changes, so that it stays reachable and secure.
What you will know afterwards
- You know which four tasks a maintenance service usually includes.
- You can check a maintenance offer for the points that count in an emergency.
- You know how moving an existing website works.
A website is not a piece of furniture that you set up once and leave standing. It runs on software, and software is updated continuously because security gaps become known. Maintenance is the work that keeps your website reachable, current and backed up, without you having to deal with it.
This post describes which tasks belong to it, what to look for in an offer and how moving an existing website works.
Backups are the work nobody sees
A backup is a complete copy of your website, meaning the files and the database, at a specific point in time. bown creates daily backups. More important than the frequency is how quickly a backup can be restored and whether that has ever been tested.
Two numbers describe every backup. The first: how much work is lost in an emergency? With daily backups, at most one day. The second: how long does the restore take? Ask for both numbers before you compare offers.
Updates close known gaps
Every website consists of several layers of software: operating system, web server and, where used, a content management system with its extensions. Updates appear regularly for each of these layers, and many of them close security gaps that are publicly known.
That is why an unmaintained website is a risk after two years, even if it looks unchanged. Updating also includes keeping the SSL certificate valid, which encrypts the connection between visitor and server. If it expires, browsers show a warning, and some visitors leave.
Monitoring reports the outage before your customers call
Monitoring means that a system opens the website regularly and raises an alarm if it does not respond or responds too slowly. The difference from no monitoring is not technical but a matter of timing. You learn about an outage from a notification, not from a phone call on Monday morning.
bown monitors the websites it looks after and handles the changes that come up during operation. What counts as a change and what is a separate project belongs in the written offer.
What a maintenance offer should state
| Point | What to ask about | Why it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Backup | frequency, retention period, restore time | decides how much is lost in an emergency |
| Updates | which layers, at what interval | one skipped layer is enough for a break-in |
| Monitoring | what is checked, who is notified | determines how long an outage lasts |
| Changes | what scope is included, response time | prevents disputes over small jobs |
| Access | who owns domain, server and accounts | decides how expensive a change of provider becomes |
At bown, hosting and maintenance start from EUR 39 per month excl. VAT, including domain, email and storage. The exact scope is agreed in writing, because these are exactly the points that differ from business to business.
Moving an existing website
A website that someone else built can also be looked after. The process has three steps. First we review the website: what technology it uses, what condition it is in and what needs fixing before the move. Then we plan the move of domain, content and email together with you. Finally we switch over, usually at a time with little traffic.
Have two things ready for this: access to the domain management and a list of all email accounts. If domain access is missing, the move starts with a search for the person who set it up years ago. How domain, server and email fit together is explained in Where your website actually lives when it is online.
Frequently asked questions
Can I bring you a website that someone else built?
Yes. We review the website and plan the move of domain, content and email with you.
What do hosting and maintenance cost?
From EUR 39 per month excl. VAT, including domain, email and storage. The exact scope and price are agreed in writing.
Do I need maintenance if my content never changes?
Yes. Updates and backups concern the technology, not the text. A website without care becomes vulnerable over time, even if nobody edits it.
Can I change content myself and hand over the technology?
Yes. After a short training session you maintain text and images yourself, while the maintenance stays with us.