Website maintenance in Newcastle, NSW: kept updated and safe.

Updates to whatever the site runs on, backups kept somewhere separate, checks that the 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 of them. One half keeps the site safe and running. The other half is the changes the business asks for.

What it covers

• The updates to what it runs on.

  The software, its theme and its add-ons. This only applies where the site runs on something installed rather than plain files.

• The backups it takes.

  Kept somewhere other than the site's own machine, and restorable without having to join a support queue first.

• The checks that it still works.

  That the site is up, the pages load, the certificate is valid and the contact form still arrives somewhere.

• The small changes you ask for.

  New prices, a new service, updated photographs, a staff change. This is the part a business actually notices.

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 very different amount of work.

Two businesses can pay the same monthly figure and be buying completely different things, and neither invoice ever explains why. Installed software means a core, a theme and add-ons to update; plain files mean nothing to log into at all, so the safety half of the work largely disappears.

Anything handling payments or personal details needs closer attention than a page of text, and a business changing its prices every month is buying changes rather than upkeep. What upkeep costs in Newcastle, tier by tier against published figures, is set out separately.

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 from it.

Maintenance is the easiest arrangement in this trade to charge for and not do, because nothing visible changes either way until something breaks.

What to look at

• What was done last month.

  A list of it. Updates applied, backups checked, anything fixed. Where the answer is general, that is the answer.

• The date of the last backup.

  Visible in the hosting panel. It should be recent, and kept somewhere other than the same machine.

• Whether a restore has ever been tested.

  Running is not the same as working. That one question separates careful arrangements from hopeful ones.

• How long a small change takes.

  The changes are part of what is being paid for. Where they take a fortnight, half the fee is not being delivered.

None of that requires anybody to understand the technology. The questions are all 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.

The monthly ten minutes

• Send yourself an enquiry.

  Through your own form, from a phone, with a real address. A form silently failing is the most common fault of all.

• Load the site on a phone.

  On mobile data rather than on the office wifi. That is how your customers are actually seeing it.

• Look for the padlock.

  In the address bar. A certificate that has lapsed puts a warning in front of every single visitor.

Where all three of those 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.

Establish what the site runs on first, then who is currently responsible for it. Run the three checks, look at the backups, and then decide what actually needs covering.

Most of that is one conversation, and it is worth having before comparing any quotes.

1. Establish what the site runs on

Installed software, or plain files. That single answer decides how much monthly work actually exists on this site at all.

2. Establish who is responsible now

For the updates, for the backups, and for the day it goes down. Where the answer is nobody, that is the finding rather than a crisis.

3. The three checks get run

Form, phone, padlock. It takes ten minutes, and it says whether anything is wrong right now rather than in theory.

4. Look at the backups

Where they go, and when the last one ran. It is in the hosting panel, and worth looking at once even where somebody is paid to.

5. Decide what actually needs covering

The safety half, the changes half, or both of them. They are different amounts of work, and wanting only one is reasonable.

6. Agree the monthly note

What was done, in a few lines. That note is how a business knows a maintenance fee is buying anything at all.

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 order it happens in

• First, establish what the site runs on.

  Along with who is currently responsible for it. That is usually a single conversation.

• Then the checks run, and anything broken is fixed.

  Forms, certificates, backups. This is where the surprises turn up, and there is usually one.

• Then the routine starts running.

  Updates, backups, checks, and a note each month saying exactly what was done.

The measure of it working is that nothing happens, which is an awkward thing to put on an invoice. 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 a note arrives each month. The changes question is where quotes differ most.

These are worth asking of any provider, including this one, so the answers given here are underneath each question.

• What is included, and what is extra?

  Updates, backups, checks, and how many changes. Two quotes at the same figure often cover quite different work.

• Where do the backups go, and how far back?

  Somewhere other than the site's own machine, and restorable without having to raise a ticket for it.

• How many changes are covered?

  And how quickly they happen. This is the part a business actually notices from one month to the next.

• Do I get a note each month?

  A few lines saying what was done. It goes out here whether anything broke or not, because a quiet month is still work.

A small site built as plain files that rarely changes may not need an arrangement at all, and that is a perfectly good answer. It is worth asking before paying for one.

Where a site has been broken into rather than simply neglected, hacked website repair covers the first hour and the clean-up.