WordPress Website Care Plans
Because a new website isn’t just for Christmas
What happens after launch day
Like a seedling planted in a brand new pot on the patio, at the time it’s launched, your website is gorgeous, healthy and full of promise.
But like the seedling, if you forget about your website and leave it to its own devices, it would hardly be surprising if you came back to find it floundering or completely withered and gone.
You will have invested a lot more time and money into your website than you will a seedling and a pot, so it makes sense to commit to a regular care plan, to ensure that your initial investment is protected.
The online landscape is changing so fast that even web professionals are struggling to keep up. Unless it’s what you think about every day, it’s easy to fall behind industry changes that weren’t even a thing at the time that your website was built.
Never stuck without me
Your site is built on standard tools and held in your name, so you’re free to leave whenever you like. If you stay, I want it to be because the service is good, not because leaving is too hard. A care plan means someone who knows your site keeps it updated and backed up, and picks up the phone when something needs fixing.
Why your website needs a care plan
Website maintenance is a separate thing to the updates you may want to make to the content from time to time (words and pictures) and refers to:
- regular updates to the WordPress core files to deal with security and compatibility issues
- regular updates to the core plugins that we’ve installed to look after your site security, SEO, speed, contact forms etc. (plugins for additional functionality are excluded from this eg. bookings, events etc and would have been discussed with you at the time that your website was built)
- regular updates to the theme files that determine how your site looks and works
- regular backups of all your files that collectively make up your website, to a place separate from the one that your website lives in
- regular SEO reports to see what traffic your site is getting and how you’re going on your keywords
When these things are done on a small business website about once a month, everything works smoothly and you don’t get any nasty surprises. When they’re neglected, it often ends up costing several hours worth of a web developers time to get the site back up and running again.
Your website was built in the most cost-effective way possible, so by default, all programs will have no ongoing costs. The exception to this is the theme (Divi by Elegant Themes or Elementor), which you will have the most up-to-date version of at the time that your site goes live, but you’re not able to get updates to this unless I’m doing further work on your site, you have a maintenance plan in place or you purchase your own subscription and access updates that way.
A WordPress care plan takes care of all the above and includes:
- Monthly updates of all your website software, weekly off-site backups, monthly SEO reports – worth $2,400 a year if billed separately
- Premium versions the essential plugins that take care of security, SEO, speed on your site which include more than basic functionality – worth $250 a year if you take out your own personal subscriptions
- Continued access to updates to your theme files after the 30 day support period – worth $120 a year if you take out your own personal subscription
- Up to half an hour of technical support a month – worth $660 a year if billed separately
$3,430 a year’s value from just $60 plus GST per month
What you get for your money
The Lone Ranger
The minimum level of care that a website needs to stay operational - perfect for sole traders- Core software updates
- Plugin updates
- Theme updates
- Basic security measures
- Malware investigation/cleanup in the event of a hack
- Gravity Forms premium subscription (basic)
- Divi or Elementor theme subscription
- Monthly maintenance report
- Weekly secure off-site backup
- Up to half an hour of technical support per month for back-end checks and tweaks (doesn’t carry over if not used)
- Monthly Google Analytics Report
The Tycoon
A plan with more features - perfect for small/med business- Everything in The Lone Ranger PLUS
- Patchstack malware vulnerability subscription and 24/7 scanning
- Up to an hour of technical support per month (doesn’t carry over if not used)
- Daily security scan
- Daily secure off-site backup
- Up-time monitoring and notification
- Monitoring and reporting on ranking for up to 20 SEO keywords
The Sheriff
Highest priority service and the most frequent care, for local government websites- Everything in The Tycoon PLUS
- Highest priority service.
- Weekly updates of all website software
- Higher levels of included technical support per month
- All software and plugin licences included
- Handover training whenever your staff change
- Additional Google Analytics reporting as required
All technical support or updates for websites NOT on one of our Website Care Plans will be charged at our standard rate with a one-hour minimum.