Website maintenance guide /
What the monthly work actually is, and how to tell whether it is happening.
We check your site, your backups and your certificate and send you back what is actually being looked after and what is not.
By Reece Rainer
spareday, Newcastle NSW
Last updated
31 August 2026
Read time
6 minutes
Website maintenance is what happens to a site every month after it launches: the updates, the backups, which is a saved copy you can put back, the checks that it is still working, and the small changes a business asks for.
It is also the line on an invoice most owners cannot picture. What follows is what the work actually is, how much of it your site needs, and how to tell whether it is being done.
Updates to whatever the site runs on, backups kept somewhere separate, checking that pages and forms still work, and the small changes a business needs during the month.
The work splits into two halves and the invoice usually names neither. One half keeps the site safe and running. The other half is the changes you ask for.
How much of the first half applies depends entirely on what the site is built on, which is the question worth settling before comparing any two quotes.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre explains why updates are the basic defence, and it is the clearest short answer there is.
A site running installed software needs updates every month. A site built as plain files has nothing installed to update, so the same fee is buying a different amount of work.
Two businesses can pay the same monthly figure and be buying completely different things, and neither invoice explains why.
We build sites as plain files now, which means the maintenance conversation for those is mostly about the changes rather than the updates. It is worth saying plainly rather than pricing the same work either way.
Ask what was done last month and expect a specific answer. Then check the date of the last backup and whether anybody has ever restored one.
Maintenance is the easiest arrangement in this trade to charge for and not do, because nothing visible changes either way until something breaks.
None of that requires you to understand any of the technology. The questions are about evidence rather than about how any of it works.
Test the contact form, watch the site load on a phone, and check the backup date. Ten minutes a month, and it catches most of what goes quietly wrong.
A business does not need a maintenance arrangement to notice the common faults. Three checks cover most of them.
If those three are fine, the site is probably fine. What they do not cover is the security half, which is the part worth having somebody responsible for.
Find out what your site runs on, find out who is currently responsible, run the three checks yourself, then decide what you actually need covered.
Installed software or plain files. This one answer decides how much monthly work exists at all.
For updates, for backups, and for the day it goes down. If the answer is nobody, that is the finding rather than a crisis.
Form, phone, padlock. Ten minutes, and it tells you whether anything is wrong right now.
And when the last one ran. In the hosting panel, and worth looking at once even if somebody else is paid to.
The safety half, the changes half, or both. They are different amounts of work and it is reasonable to want only one.
What was done, in a few lines. It is the whole of how a business knows a maintenance fee is buying anything.
Sorting it out is a short job. The work itself is monthly and it does not stop, which is the point of it rather than a drawback.
The measure of it working is that nothing happens, which is an awkward thing to invoice for. The monthly note is what makes it visible.
Ask what is included and what is extra, where the backups go, how many changes are covered, and whether you get a note each month. The changes question is where quotes differ most.
We do this work in Newcastle, so we are not neutral. These are the questions we would want asked of us.
A small site built as plain files that rarely changes may not need a maintenance arrangement at all, and that is a fine answer. It is worth asking before paying for one.
If you do one thing after reading this, look up the date of your website's last backup and whether anybody has ever restored it. Those two answers tell you more about your maintenance arrangement than the invoice does.
Updates to whatever the site runs on, backups kept somewhere separate, checks that the pages and forms still work, and a number of small changes.
Because sites are built differently. A site running installed software needs monthly updates. A site built as plain files has nothing installed to update.
Ask what was done last month and expect a specific list, then check the date of the last backup and whether a restore has ever been tested.
Three checks, monthly, in ten minutes: send yourself an enquiry through your own form, load the site on a phone using mobile data, and look for the padlock.
A small site built as plain files that rarely changes may not. It is worth asking before paying for one.
One monthly fee that covers everything, month to month, with no lock-in contract. The number depends on what your business needs, so we give it to you on the call.
He didn’t just build me a great website, he created an easy-to-manage system that allows me to make updates myself whenever I need to. He has spared me so much time doing all of this myself!
Reece has been generous, reliable and knowledgeable in creating an online presence for our sporting club. He is good to work with and has good technical abilities.
Excellent in all facets of web design with particular expertise in SEO and email marketing. Online visibility has skyrocketed since working Reece which translates as flawless customer relations, new leads and new customers.