Website maintenance and AMC — including sites we did not build
Hosting, SSL, domain renewal, backups and content changes, billed once a year — and an honest answer about whether your existing site is worth keeping.
The commonest call we get is not from somebody who wants a new website. It is from somebody whose website already exists and has quietly stopped being anybody's job. The domain is about to expire and nobody knows whose card is on the renewal. The certificate lapsed, so Chrome now shows a warning to every parent who visits. The developer who built it has changed his number.
That is fixable, and it is usually fixable faster than people expect. We will take over the keeping-it-alive part of any site, whatever it was built on, and we will tell you honestly whether the site itself is worth keeping — including when the honest answer is that it is fine and you should spend nothing.
- Covers
- Hosting, SSL, domain, backups, content changes
- Platforms
- Any, for hosting; WordPress for content too
- Not included
- Deep development on another developer's build
- Billing
- Annually, quoted after we look at the site
What an AMC actually covers
The unglamorous things that only get noticed when they fail. Hosting that stays paid, a certificate that renews itself, the domain registered in your name rather than ours, daily backups you could actually restore from, and someone watching whether the site is up. Plus the small content changes every institute needs — a notice, a result, a photo, a new staff member — sent on WhatsApp and put up the same working day.
- Hosting, renewed on time
- SSL certificate, auto-renewed
- Domain kept in your name
- Daily backups
- Uptime monitoring
- Small content changes as you need them
Taking over a site somebody else built
We will adopt the hosting, the SSL and the domain for a site on any platform — WordPress, a page builder, hand-written HTML, whatever it is. On WordPress we will also keep the content current: pages, posts, notices, photos, and the plugin and core updates that stop a site being broken into.
- Any platform, for hosting, SSL and domain
- WordPress content and updates as well
- An audit first, then a written scope
- No charge for telling you it does not need us
What we will not take on, said plainly
We do not do deep development work on somebody else's WordPress: rebuilding a theme, untangling a plugin conflict, or maintaining custom PHP a previous developer left behind. Not because it is beneath us — because it is open-ended, it is where a maintenance contract quietly becomes a second job, and you would end up paying for hours rather than for a working website. If a site needs that much work, we will say so and quote a rebuild against a written scope, which is usually cheaper and always more predictable.
What we need from you to start
Three things, and if you have lost any of them we can usually recover it: access to the domain registrar, access to the hosting, and the site's files or admin login. If a previous developer registered the domain in his own name, that is the first thing we sort out — a domain you do not control is not really your website.
- Registrar access
- Hosting access
- Site files or an admin login
- We help recover any of the above if it is lost
How it is billed and how fast we answer
Billed once a year, quoted after we have looked at what you have — a five-page static site and a WordPress install with forty plugins are not the same job, and pretending they are means one of you is being overcharged. Content changes go in during working hours. If something we host is actually down, call the number; that is what it is for, and it does not wait for a ticket.
- One annual invoice, no per-hour surprises
- Content changes on working days
- Downtime: call, do not email
Questions we get asked first.
My developer has stopped answering. What can you actually do?
Quite a lot, usually without his help. If the domain is in your name we can move the hosting and have the site back under your control in days. If it is in his name, that is a recovery process we have done before and will walk you through. Either way, start by calling — the sooner it is looked at, the more options there are, especially if a renewal date is close.
Which platforms will you take over?
For hosting, SSL and domain: any of them, whatever the site is built on. For content updates: WordPress. What we do not take on is deep development work inside somebody else's WordPress — theme rebuilds, plugin conflicts, custom PHP — because that is open-ended and you would be paying for hours instead of a working site. We will say so up front rather than discover it later.
Can you take just the hosting and leave the rest alone?
Yes, and it is a common arrangement. If the site is sound and you only need it to stay up, renewed and backed up, that is the smallest version of this and there is no reason to buy more.
Will you tell me honestly if it should be rebuilt?
Yes, in both directions. If your site is fine we will say so and take the hosting instead of selling you a rebuild. If it genuinely is not worth maintaining we will explain why, in terms you can check, and quote a rebuild against a written scope. There is no charge for that first look.
How quickly do content changes go up?
The same working day for anything small — a notice, a result, a photo, a change of staff. Anything larger we will tell you the day it will be done rather than leave it open. Office hours are Mon to Sat, 10am to 7pm.
Tell us what you need.
A twenty-minute call is usually enough to scope it and give you a number. Mon to Sat, 10am to 7pm.