Services · Ongoing Support · WordPress
WordPress Maintenance
I keep your WordPress site running, so you don’t have to think about it.
In short
- A WordPress site is like your phone. Its software needs regular updates to keep working well and stay secure.
- Most of maintenance is catching small things before they are expensive things.
- When the person who built your site also maintains it, nobody has to spend time learning how it works, so changes are faster and cost less.
- Maintenance means software updates, daily backups, security, and fixing things if they break.
Some of the sites I look after.
What Actually Breaks
A website feels finished once it goes live, so most owners are surprised to hear it needs looking after.
A WordPress site works a lot like your phone. Your phone gets updates for its operating system and for every app on it. Skip them long enough, and apps start to misbehave and security holes stay open. A WordPress site has the same setup: WordPress itself is the operating system, and the plugins are the apps. They keep changing after launch, and keeping up with them is what WordPress maintenance services are for.
I look over the site after every round of updates for this reason.
Plugins update, and sometimes they break something. A typical site runs fifteen to thirty plugins, and each one updates on its own schedule. Most updates are fine. Once in a while one changes how it works, conflicts with another plugin, or breaks a page that depended on the old version. Somebody has to notice when that happens.
Plugins also get abandoned. A plugin that has gone two years without an update is a security risk, and nothing tells you about it. Somebody has to watch for the ones that have gone quiet and replace them.
WordPress itself updates, and so does PHP underneath it. Major WordPress releases sometimes change things that themes and plugins rely on. Your host will eventually move your site to a newer version of PHP, and an old plugin that has not kept up will stop working when it does.
Themes update too. If a site’s customizations were made carelessly, a theme update can wipe them out. I build sites so that theme updates leave them in place.
Security is a constant job. Automated programs scan WordPress sites across the internet all day, looking for known holes in outdated software. They find sites by the software they run, so a small site gets scanned as often as a big one. Most hacked sites were running something out of date.
Small things break over time. A form stops sending because an email setting changed. A link breaks because a page was renamed. Images and old revisions pile up in the database. A booking system changes how it connects to the site.
And the business changes faster than the site. When staff, services, prices or hours change, the site has to change with them. Those are small jobs, and they get put off when there is nobody obvious to ask.
Most of these problems give no warning, which is why someone needs to be looking after the site.
What My WordPress Care Plan Covers
Hosting
Your site runs on the managed WordPress hosting I use for my clients, so one person looks after both the hosting and the site.
Updates
I keep WordPress, the theme and the plugins current. I check updates before they go on, and I look at the site afterward to make sure nothing changed.
Backups
The site is backed up every day. The backups are kept off the server and go back far enough to be useful, so if something goes badly wrong, the site can be restored from a recent copy.
Security
Most security is keeping the software current. On top of that, the site is set up to resist common attacks, and I watch for signs of a problem.
Fixing It If It Breaks
If something on the site stops working, I fix it.
Being Reachable
Send a request in plain language. The person who reads it is the person who makes the change.
Telling You When Something Needs a Decision
Most of this happens without you. When something needs your decision, I tell you before it becomes a problem.
Everything beyond that is separate. New content and new pages, design work, new features, SEO, graphics and print are covered by a retainer or billed hourly as they come up. You can ask me for any of it the same way you send any other request.
Why the Person Who Built It Should Be the Person Who Keeps It
Much of the cost of WordPress website management is someone figuring out how the site was put together.
Every site is full of decisions that are hard to see from the outside, like which plugin handles what and what breaks if a setting changes. Someone new has to work all of that out, and they bill you for the time.
When the person who built the site maintains it, most of that cost goes away. A change that would take someone new an hour to figure out and another hour to make can take me fifteen minutes.
You have less to explain. After a while I know your business and what matters to you, so a request can be as simple as “can we get this on the site?”
The builder has a stake in the build. The person who maintains a site they built has every reason to have built it well. If something goes wrong, there is one person responsible for fixing it.
Taking Over a Site Somebody Else Built
Taking over WordPress support for a site somebody else built is a large part of what I do.
Two of my longest client relationships started this way. Arsenault Dermatology came to me in 2020 with a site that needed its code cleaned up, and I have been their go-to for all things web ever since. Optimal Health Institute of Ohio’s first website had gone live before it was finished. I finished it, and then we built the site the practice still uses.
“It’s my true pleasure to share a few kind words for Josh Miller. He stepped in and helped resurrect a dying website that was rife with programming errors and contradictions trapped in the header and footer. Our load speeds were abysmal and I was honestly not sure whether the site could be saved. But saved it was!
Josh did a bang-up job working with us, correcting errors that could be corrected and providing terrific insight into what needed to be done. We ultimately moved the entire site to a new shell, getting away from the header and footer issues. Everything was seamless.”
Michael Arsenault, MD, MBA · CEO, Arsenault Dermatology
Why Work With a Professional
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across this in my career. The person who built the site stops responding or moves on, and the owner is left holding the bag. It happens over and over again, and it’s one of the biggest reasons it pays to work with a professional.
- Some of the first websites I ever built belong to clients I still look after.
- Requests come straight to me, and I’m the one who makes the change.
- I’ve handled more than 2,600 client requests since 2020.
The first step is an inventory. I look at what the site is built with and what shape it is in, including anything out of date, broken or risky. If the site is in good shape, I will tell you that.
Then I stabilize it. I start with updates and backups, then fix whatever is broken.
Sometimes a new site is the better deal. A site built badly enough can cost more to keep alive than to replace. If yours is one of them, I will tell you.
I also work with the other people who help with your website and marketing. If an agency, a developer or someone on your staff handles part of the site, that works fine as long as everybody knows who handles what.
“I can honestly say, without exaggeration, that Josh not only developed our web site but his work literally saved our organization. We had worked with several web designers over the years and they either failed to see who we were as an organization or did not provide the support we needed to manage the site once launched. We were bleeding members due to their frustration with the web site and poor communication regarding their membership.
Josh came on board to help repair the existing site so we did not continue losing members then designed our new site to better match what we needed. He was a pleasure to work with. Honest, responsible and responsive to needs. I cannot speak more highly of our experience with Josh.”
John Ciribassi, DVM, DACVB · American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior
What WordPress Maintenance Looks Like Year After Year
Optimal Health Institute of Ohio has been a client since its first year, 2014. Dr. Nancy Fazekas Grubb has built a thriving functional medicine practice there, with patients coming to her from across northeast Ohio. The website I built for the practice in 2016 is still the one patients see.
It has needed very little. Over the years I have added new forms, updated services and prices, and refreshed the main pages as the practice changed. It runs on the hosting I set it up on, and I keep it secure and up to date.
The Optimal Health Institute of Ohio homepage. Built in 2016, and still the practice’s website.
The site still does its job. Dr. Grubb says more than half of her new patient visits come from the web. The site shows up on Google for more than 1,000 different searches, and it is on Google’s first page for about three times as many searches as in its first full year.
The practice paid for one good website build in 2016 and has relied on it ever since.
Some of the first websites I ever built belong to clients I still look after.
Optimal Health Institute of Ohio’s website, built in 2016 and looked after ever since.
Where Maintenance Stops and Improvement Starts
Maintenance keeps a site healthy. Growing it takes more work.
For clients who want the site to keep improving, I offer a monthly retainer. It is a set amount of work each month, put wherever it will do the most good. That might be search, content, new pages, or changes based on how people use the site.
The ongoing support page explains how the care plan and the retainer fit together.
Related
Ongoing support and optimization
Hosting, maintenance, and the retainer.
Web design and development
How a site is structured and built to last.
SEO and content strategy
Search, local SEO, schema, and AI visibility.
Website redesign
Rebuilding a site without losing what it has earned.
Platforms and tools
The stack I build on, and why.
See my work
Case studies, and what happened after launch.
Related
Ongoing support and optimization
Hosting, maintenance, and the retainer.
Web design and development
How a site is structured and built to last.
SEO and content strategy
Search, local SEO, schema, and AI visibility.
Website redesign
Rebuilding a site without losing what it has earned.
Platforms and tools
The stack I build on, and why.
See my work
Case studies, and what happened after launch.
“Working with Josh on MedRock Pharmacy’s logo and website, and continuing to work with him as our business grew, has been a great experience.
The process was seamless. We could easily track progress, and edits and updates were handled promptly. That responsiveness has been just as valuable over the years as it was during the original project.
For any business owner considering Josh, I would recommend him wholeheartedly. He combines a creative mind with an organized, efficient process and dependable ongoing support. Years later, I’m still proud of what we built together.”
Ash Ahmed, R.Ph., MBA · Founder and Owner, MedRock Pharmacy
How the work happens
Maintenance runs on a schedule, and most of it you never see.
The software is kept current, and the site is checked after updates. Backups run every day. If something stops working, I fix it.
You hear from me when something needs your decision. Most months, nothing does.
When you need something, send a request. If it is maintenance, the care plan covers it. Anything else is covered by a retainer or billed hourly as it comes up.
Common questions
What people ask.
What does WordPress maintenance include?
The care plan covers hosting, keeping WordPress, the theme and the plugins current, daily backups, security, and fixing things if they break. It also gives you a person to reach when you need one. New content, new pages, design work and anything else you want built are separate, and that work is covered by a retainer or billed hourly as it comes up.
Are content updates included in maintenance?
No. Maintenance keeps the site running: hosting, updates, backups, security, and fixing what breaks. Changing or adding content is covered by a retainer or billed hourly as it comes up. Most content requests are small. You send the request, I make the change, and I bill it.
What is WordPress maintenance and why does it matter?
Think of your phone. It gets regular updates to its operating system and to every app on it, and if you skip them long enough, apps start to misbehave and security holes stay open. A WordPress site works the same way. WordPress is the operating system, the plugins are the apps, and the people who make them release updates all the time. Maintenance keeps all of it current and catches small problems early, before they turn into broken pages or a hacked site.
How much do WordPress maintenance plans cost?
I do not put pricing on the site. What it costs depends on the size of the site, what condition it is in, and how much you want beyond keeping it running. For most sites it is a modest monthly amount with no long contract. Tell me about your site and I will give you a real number.
How do I find a reliable person to maintain my WordPress site?
Ask who will do the work, how you reach them, and what happens if something breaks on a Friday. It also helps to ask how long their clients have stayed with them. Clients who stay for years are the best sign that someone does good work.
Can you maintain a site you did not build?
Yes. A good deal of my work is exactly that. I start with an inventory of how the site is put together and what shape it is in, stabilize it, and then maintain it. If a site would cost more to keep than to replace, I will tell you.
Do I need this if my site is small and simple?
Yes. Even a phone you barely use still needs its updates, and a small website is the same. Any WordPress site needs current software and backups, because the automated attacks that find outdated sites hit small sites as often as big ones. Beyond that, a simple site needs less.
What happens if my site goes down or gets hacked?
Tell me and I will fix it. With a current backup, the site can be restored to the way it was before the problem.
Will you also handle hosting?
Most of my clients are hosted with me. I run an account with a managed WordPress host, and client sites live on it. Your site has its own space on my account, and one person looks after both the hosting and the site, so there is one person to call if something is wrong.
Can I still make my own changes?
Yes. The sites I build are set up so you can handle basic updates yourself, and I will show you how if you want. Most clients would rather send me a request. Medrock Pharmacy went the other way: its own team runs the site I built, and I am on call for the heavy lifting.
Ready to hand it off?
If your website is one of the things you keep meaning to deal with, hand it to me.
Tell me about your site and what you need from it, and we’ll both get a sense of whether we’re the right match.