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Website Maintenance & Updates

A website is not a set-it-and-forget-it asset. Regular maintenance keeps it secure, functional, and performing well for your business.

Why Websites Need Ongoing Maintenance

Websites run on software, and software needs updates. The technologies that power your site -- whether that is WordPress, a JavaScript framework, or server software -- receive security patches, bug fixes, and feature updates on a regular basis.

When these updates are ignored, problems accumulate. Security vulnerabilities go unpatched, making your site an easy target for hackers. Performance degrades as browser standards evolve and your code falls behind. Features break as third-party services update their APIs and your integrations lose compatibility.

Regular maintenance prevents these problems from compounding. It is significantly cheaper and less disruptive to maintain a website consistently than to fix a neglected one after problems have piled up.

What a Maintenance Plan Covers

A thorough website maintenance plan typically includes:

  • Software updates: Keeping your CMS, plugins, themes, and frameworks up to date
  • Security monitoring: Scanning for malware, vulnerabilities, and suspicious activity
  • Backups: Regular automated backups stored offsite so your data is protected
  • Uptime monitoring: Checking that your site is online and accessible around the clock
  • Performance checks: Monitoring page speed and fixing issues that slow things down
  • Broken link fixes: Finding and repairing links that lead to error pages
  • Content updates: Making minor text changes, adding new information, or updating images
  • SSL certificate management: Ensuring your security certificate stays valid and renewed
  • Browser compatibility: Testing that your site works properly in current browser versions

What Happens When Maintenance Is Neglected

  • Security vulnerabilities accumulate, making your site an increasingly easy target for hackers
  • Pages start loading slower as unoptimized code and outdated assets pile up
  • Features stop working as plugins expire, APIs change, and dependencies break
  • Search rankings decline as Google detects performance issues and security problems
  • Customer trust erodes when visitors encounter broken pages, outdated content, or security warnings
  • The cost of fixing everything at once becomes much higher than ongoing maintenance would have been

How Often Should Maintenance Happen?

The frequency depends on the type of website:

  • WordPress sites: Weekly plugin and theme updates, monthly performance reviews, daily backups
  • Static websites: Monthly content reviews, quarterly performance checks, automated backups
  • E-commerce sites: Daily monitoring, weekly software updates, daily backups, immediate security patches
  • Custom applications: Varies by complexity, but security updates should be applied as soon as they are available

DIY vs. Professional Maintenance

Some maintenance tasks are straightforward enough for a business owner to handle -- updating content, adding new photos, or publishing blog posts. But technical maintenance like software updates, security monitoring, and performance optimization requires expertise to do correctly.

A bad update can break your site. An improperly configured security setting can lock you out. Professional maintenance ensures that technical tasks are handled correctly and that someone is watching for problems before they affect your visitors.

Related Guides

WordPress Maintenance

WordPress-specific maintenance needs

 Hacked Website Repair

What happens when maintenance is skipped

Internet Crafters does website updates

This is a la carte work, billed hourly rather than bundled into a package. You get an estimate and a confirmed scope before anything starts, so the number you approve is the number you pay.

Custom Development

$90/hr

1-hour minimum. We estimate the hours and confirm scope before starting.

Design & Consulting

$125/hr

1-hour minimum. We estimate the hours and confirm scope before starting.

What that covers here

  • The Updates Package at $30 a month: one edit request, up to one hour of work, cancel anytime
  • The bundled plan at $49 a month, which adds domain registration and renewal plus email setup (provider paid separately), and raises that to two edit requests, up to two hours of work combined
  • Text changes, image swaps, new photos, updated hours, a price that moved
  • Larger changes billed hourly when they exceed the package, quoted before they start
  • Unused requests can be banked, or borrowed ahead when you need up to twelve in one month. More than two in a month needs two weeks' notice

Most Tucson businesses need less than they expect. A seasonal menu, a new team photo, updated hours for the holidays. That is what the monthly package is sized for, and paying hourly for it would cost more.

How to get on the hourly rate

Ask. Hourly work is open to anyone, with no setup fee and nothing you have to buy first. We confirm the scope and the hours with you before any of them get spent.

Bigger pieces of work get scoped and quoted as a project rather than billed by the hour. Tell us what you need.

Get an estimate for this See every rate we charge

Which plan fits

The difference between the two plans is mostly whether you want the domain and email handled as well. If you already manage those comfortably, the smaller package is the honest recommendation.

See every rate we charge Common questions