A site is finished on the day it launches. It stops being finished the next morning.
Prices change, a phone number changes, a browser ships an update, someone finds a form that no longer sends. The monthly plan is what keeps a working site working. It is optional with every website.
What the monthly plan covers
Same four things every month, whether or not you ask for them.
It stays up and it stays fast
- Uptime check every five minutes; if the site goes down I know before you do
- Certificate and domain renewals watched, so the site never greets a customer with a security warning
- Page speed measured monthly on a phone connection, not just on a desktop
- Full backup weekly, kept for three months, restore tested twice a year
The content keeps up with the business
- Up to one hour of edits a month: prices, hours, staff, a new service, a seasonal notice
- Small changes go live the same day they are asked for, on weekdays
- New photographs sized and compressed properly instead of dropped in at 8 megabytes
- Unused hours do not roll over, and I will tell you when you are not using them
The form keeps arriving
- A test enquiry sent through the live form every week, checked at the other end
- Spam filtering tuned when junk starts getting through
- Delivery problems chased with the mail provider, not handed back to you
- If an enquiry ever goes missing, finding it is my job, not yours
You can see what happened
- One page a month: visitors, where they came from, enquiries received, edits made
- Plain language, no dashboard you have to learn
- One recommendation, with what it would cost, and no pressure to take it
- Everything - files, domain, hosting account - stays in your name
$120 per month
Billed monthly, cancel at the end of any month, no tie-in. Anything beyond the included hour is quoted first at $50 an hour, and never starts without a written yes.
Stopping the plan does not switch anything off: the site, the domain and the hosting are yours and stay yours.
What it does not cover
So the first month is not a surprise.
A second website, or a shop bolted onto this one
That is a new project with its own quote. The plan covers the site it was bought for.
Writing your content from scratch
Edits to existing pages are included. A new page written from an empty screen is quoted separately, usually an hour or two.
Advertising, social media and SEO campaigns
The site is built so search engines can read it properly, and that is included. Running paid ads or a content programme is a different job and I will say so rather than quietly bill for it.
Hosting and domain fees
Those are paid by you, to your own provider, in your own account, typically around $10 a month between them. I do not resell hosting because I do not want to be between you and your own site.