Webvelopment
Websites

Website Maintenance

Give website maintenance a defined scope covering routine updates, issue triage, account ownership, recovery responsibilities and separately agreed improvements.

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The problem we help solve

A person working on a laptop in a relaxed shared workspace.
Illustrative photography · Brooke Cagle / Unsplash

A website can be working today while its next update, broken form or expired subscription has no clear owner. We help you turn those loose ends into a maintenance arrangement your team can use: what we look after, how to report a problem and which requests need a separate estimate.

The starting point is your existing website and the work it supports. A site used mainly to publish news needs different checks from one that sends enquiries through a third-party service. We agree the scope around those real tasks.

What we can deliver

  • A website and access inventory showing the accounts and services involved.
  • Clear update and backup responsibilities, including anything retained by your hosting provider or another supplier.
  • Scheduled content and technical changes within the agreed scope.
  • Issue triage to understand a reported problem and the next step.
  • Maintenance reporting that explains completed work and outstanding issues.

You may need all of these, or help with a narrower set of tasks. Tell us what your team already handles so we can focus the proposed arrangement on the gaps.

How we approach the work

We first review the site’s current state, available access and known issues. From there, we agree what the retainer includes and how changes will be checked, released and, if necessary, recovered.

When a request arrives, we look at its effect on the business as well as the work involved. For example, a wrong phone number and a form that fails to send enquiries both need attention, but require different investigation and checks. Urgency and available capacity guide the next step within the agreed support terms.

Who this is for

Organisations with an existing website and agencies managing multiple client properties. This is particularly useful when your team knows what needs changing but is unsure whether to ask the developer, hosting provider or subscription supplier.

Boundaries to agree early

We need to agree support hours, response expectations, hosting ownership and how emergency work is handled. Make those details available to the people who will report problems, so they know where to go and what to expect. A maintenance plan is not a blanket uptime guarantee.

Questions before we start

A few useful answers before you decide.

Can you maintain a site built by someone else?
We can propose a scope after an initial review of access, platform health and recoverability. If there are gaps in the previous supplier’s documentation or access, we need to understand those before agreeing to maintain the site.
What do you need from us?
Start with the site address, who currently manages it and a few examples of the requests you need help with. Let us know about known faults and any existing hosting or support arrangements. We can then assess the access, response coverage and recovery responsibilities required.

Define the system being maintained

A website may rely on a publishing platform, hosting, an enquiry service and several third-party subscriptions. We need to identify which parts the arrangement covers and which remain with another supplier. Otherwise, a request to fix the website can leave everyone waiting for someone else to act.

We begin with an authorised inventory of the platform, hosting, accounts, custom code and known issues. The initial review needs to establish a recoverable baseline and a route for reporting problems. Where access or recovery information is missing, that gap needs attention before we can agree the ongoing responsibilities.

It also helps to separate routine updates, content requests, defects and incidents. For example, replacing a brochure is a content request; a download link that no longer works is a defect to investigate. Staff should know how to submit either, who can approve a live change and who takes over when an issue belongs to another supplier.

Create a maintenance boundary that staff can use

  • List the website, hosting relationship, integrations and third-party accounts included in the arrangement.
  • Give examples of a content request, a reproducible defect and a proposed improvement, using your own site.
  • Agree how an update will be checked and who can authorise recovery or a live change.

A useful problem report includes the affected page, what the person tried to do, what happened and when they noticed it. For a content change, include the replacement wording or file and where it belongs. These details give us something concrete to assess.

Further maintenance arrangement questions

A few useful answers before you decide.

Can you maintain a site built by another supplier?
An initial assessment covers access, implementation, dependencies and existing responsibilities. Confirm who owns the accounts and whether the previous supplier has placed any restrictions on the work. The review may uncover repairs that need a separate scope before routine maintenance can begin. We’ll distinguish what has been inspected from anything still unknown.
Does maintenance include adding new features?
Only where the agreed scope includes that work. Changing contact details is a content update; adding a new enquiry process introduces behaviour that needs its own requirements and estimate. Send the request through the agreed route so we can assess whether it fits the arrangement or needs separate development time.
How should routine updates be checked?
Choose checks around the parts being changed and the customer and editor tasks they support. For example, an update affecting a form calls for checking the form and its enquiry route; a publishing change may need an editor to preview and publish a page. Agree the review environment and recovery approach beforehand. A successful installation message alone does not show that these tasks still work.
Who owns backups and recovery?
The arrangement must name the responsible party, what is retained and how recovery is verified. A hosting account that lists backups is only part of the answer: we also need to know who can access them and authorise restoration. Agree what needs checking after recovery, including whether content changed between the restored version and the time of the problem.
Are urgent requests handled under the same process?
Not automatically. Agree the reporting route, supported hours, escalation criteria and treatment of work outside the normal arrangement. The word support does not establish continuous incident response or a guaranteed resolution time; any such commitment requires a specific capacity plan and agreement. Your staff need those terms before an urgent problem occurs.
What should a maintenance review report explain?
It should show completed work, relevant checks, open issues and decisions needing your attention. For example, an unresolved enquiry problem should identify the affected form, the evidence available and whether your team or another supplier needs to act next. Keep enough detail for an authorised recipient to reproduce the issue, without exposing secrets or unnecessary personal information. Reporting should help you decide what to do next.

Prepare your next conversation

Send the site address and a short account of who manages the website, hosting and connected services. Include a few recent requests, any unresolved problems and the tasks your team wants to keep handling. That gives us a practical starting point for discussing coverage and recovery responsibilities.

Assess when replacement is more appropriate · Review the site’s publishing implementation

Discuss this website maintenance brief.

Website infrastructure modernisation · 08 care retainers.

Plan the scope and estimate

Website Care & Support Retainer Builder · Team Training & Handover Estimator. These tools separate known labour from work and supplier costs that need a custom quote.

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Our expertise

Website Services

Choose website design, UX, WordPress development or maintenance around your customer journey, publishing needs and the information you already have.

How we work

Clear decisions. Reviewable progress.

How Webvelopment scopes, designs, builds and hands over digital work with clear ownership at every stage.

Let’s move things forward

Start a conversation

Tell us what you are working towards. We’ll help you find a practical next step.

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