What a website care plan should include

Short answer: a good website care plan covers hosting with HTTPS, regular backups you can actually restore, software and security updates, uptime monitoring, checks that your forms still deliver, and a clear amount of editing each month. It should also spell out how fast you'll get a response and what happens to your site if you cancel. If a plan can't tell you exactly what it covers, keep looking.

A website isn't finished at launch. Hours change, new services get added, photos get old, and software needs updates to stay secure. A care plan is a monthly arrangement where someone else handles that work. Here's what a good one includes, item by item, and the questions worth asking before you sign up for one, whether it's mine or someone else's.

The checklist

1. Hosting and HTTPS

Your site needs to live on a fast, reliable server, and it needs a valid security certificate so browsers show the padlock instead of a "Not secure" warning. A care plan should include both, set up and renewed for you. Ask where the site is hosted and whether the hosting account can be moved to your name later.

2. Backups you can restore

Backups are only useful if they work. A good plan backs up the site and any data, like form submissions, on a regular schedule, stores copies somewhere other than the live server, and occasionally tests a restore. Ask how often backups run, how long they're kept, and how quickly the site could be restored after a problem.

3. Software and security updates

Every website runs on software that gets updated. On WordPress that means core, theme, and plugin updates, which can arrive weekly. On a modern custom site it means occasional updates to the tools the site is built with. Either way, updates should be applied regularly, tested so they don't break anything, and rolled back if they do.

If your site runs on WordPress, this item matters more than any other. Most WordPress security problems come from outdated plugins, which is a big part of why I wrote about WordPress versus a custom built site.

4. Uptime monitoring

Someone should know when your site goes down before your customers do. Monitoring tools check the site every few minutes and send an alert when it stops responding. Ask whether the plan includes monitoring and what happens when an alert fires.

5. Form and email checks

This one gets skipped a lot, and it's one of the most important. Contact forms can stop delivering after a hosting change, an email change, or a software update, and nobody notices until a customer mentions they never heard back. A good plan tests your forms regularly. On the sites I build, every submission is also saved to a database, so a message isn't lost even if email fails.

6. A defined amount of edits

Most owners sign up for a care plan so they can send an email like "please update our holiday hours" and have it done. Good plans say how much editing is included each month, either as a time allowance or a list of the kinds of changes covered, and what happens when you need more. Vague promises like "unlimited small changes" tend to cause disagreements later.

7. Performance checks

Sites get slower over time as images, scripts, and features pile up. A plan worth paying for checks speed periodically, using a tool like PageSpeed Insights, and fixes regressions before they cost you visitors.

8. Domain and DNS care

A lapsed domain can take your whole site and your email offline. Your care plan provider should watch renewal dates and keep DNS settings correct, but the domain itself should stay registered in your name, with your contact details on it.

9. Reporting

You shouldn't have to wonder whether anything is happening. A short regular summary of updates applied, uptime, backups, and edits made is enough. It doesn't need to be fancy, just honest.

10. A clear response time

When something breaks, how quickly will someone reply? The plan should say. For my clients, I reply within one business day, and you're dealing with me directly rather than a ticket queue.

WordPress sites versus custom sites

The platform your site runs on changes what a care plan needs to do. A WordPress site needs the most attention: core, theme, and plugin updates arrive often, each one should be tested, and the admin login needs protecting from automated password guessing. Backups matter even more, because an update can occasionally break the layout or a feature.

A modern custom site, like the ones I build, needs less routine maintenance. There are no plugins to update, and the public site is a set of pre-built pages with no admin login exposed. Care for these sites leans toward the useful parts: edits, performance checks, form checks, and keeping hosting and the domain in order.

If someone quotes the same care plan for both, ask what the difference is. The work is genuinely different, and the plan should reflect it.

Ownership and leaving

This is the part people forget to ask about until it's too late. Before you sign up for any care plan, get clear answers to these:

• Is the domain registered in my name?
• Do I own the site's content and design?
• If I cancel, will you help move the site and hosting to my own account?
• Is there a minimum contract length, and how much notice do I need to give?

A care plan should be something you keep because it's useful, not because leaving is hard.

Red flags

• No written list of what's included
• The domain is registered in the provider's name
• Long contracts with steep cancellation fees
• No backups, or backups stored only on the same server as the site
• No idea how long it takes to get a reply
• Monthly fees for "SEO" with no explanation of the actual work being done

What does a care plan cost?

Prices vary with the size of the site, the platform it runs on, and how much editing you need. A large WordPress site with a store and frequent changes costs more to look after than a small, fast custom site that changes a few times a year. My care plans start at $100 a month, and the exact price depends on how much editing you expect. You can see how that fits with the rest of my prices on the pricing page.

Do you need one?

Not everyone does. If you're comfortable with hosting, updates, and edits, or someone on your team is, you can manage without one. A care plan makes sense when you'd rather spend your time running the business and want one person to call when something looks wrong. If that sounds like you, read more about my website care plans, or ask for a quote and tell me about your site.