Why we only maintain the websites we build comes down to one thing: we can guarantee performance, security, and accountability because we know exactly how the site was put together.

The maintenance problem most business owners inherit

A lot of small businesses end up with a website built by a freelancer, a mate’s cousin, or an agency they can’t reach anymore. It works until it doesn’t. Then you’re paying someone new to reverse-engineer decisions they didn’t make, often without proper documentation, admin access, or clean code to work with.

From the outside, “maintenance” sounds like updates and backups. In reality, it’s risk management. When something breaks, the fastest fix is understanding the original architecture, plugins, integrations, server setup, and the trade-offs made during the build.

Maintenance is not a generic service

Every site has its own stack and its own failure points. A WordPress site with Elementor and 35 plugins behaves differently to a custom build with a headless CMS. A Shopify store with three apps is a different beast to one that’s running subscriptions, bundles, and custom checkout logic.

If a provider promises they can “maintain anything”, what they often mean is they can attempt fixes until the hours run out. That uncertainty is expensive for you and stressful when your enquiries, bookings, or sales are on the line.

What we can guarantee when we built it

1) We know the decisions behind the build

Maintenance is easier when the original build was intentional. We know why a plugin was chosen, what was avoided, and what the safe upgrade path looks like. That reduces the time spent diagnosing issues and lowers the chance of a “fix” causing a bigger problem.

2) The hosting and deployment setup is predictable

Many inherited websites are hosted on bargain servers with no staging site, no version control, and no reliable backups. Updates happen directly on the live site because there’s nowhere else to test. That’s how small changes turn into downtime.

When we build, host, and manage the site, we control the environment. We can test updates properly, roll back quickly, and monitor performance so problems are caught early.

3) We can actually be accountable

If we built it and we maintain it, there’s no finger-pointing. When something goes wrong, there’s a clear owner. That’s not just a service preference. It’s how you protect a revenue channel.

The hidden risks of maintaining someone else’s site

Maintenance is what keeps a site improving

Even when a website is stable, it can still stall. If tracking was never set up properly, landing pages are thin, or no one is reviewing performance after launch, you end up maintaining a site that is technically “fine” but not getting better. That’s the difference between keeping the lights on and building momentum, which we unpack in Why Most Websites Plateau After Launch (and How to Fix It).

Security liabilities you can’t see

Old themes, nulled plugins, custom code snippets copied from forums, abandoned page builders, unknown admin accounts, and outdated PHP versions are common. These issues don’t always show up until a hack, a malware warning in Google, or your site starts redirecting visitors to spam pages.

Taking on maintenance of a site like that means inheriting risk created by decisions we didn’t make. If it gets compromised, the business owner still wears the cost, even if the cause was baked in years ago.

Unreliable update paths

Some sites are built in a way that makes updates dangerous. For example:

• A theme heavily customised without a child theme, so updating overwrites key changes
• Critical functionality tied to a plugin that’s no longer supported
• Page builder layouts that break when WordPress or the builder updates
• Third-party integrations set up without documentation or access to the original accounts

In these cases, “maintenance” turns into gradual rebuild work. That’s fine when it’s planned and budgeted. It’s a problem when you’re expecting a simple monthly plan.

Performance issues baked into the structure

A slow site is rarely fixed by one tweak. It’s often structural, too many scripts loading, unoptimised images, poor caching, bloated plugins, messy databases, or a template doing unnecessary work on every page load. If the build wasn’t performance-minded, maintenance becomes patchwork.

What “maintenance” should include (and what to ask for)

If your website is important to your business, maintenance should be measurable. Here’s what we consider the baseline:

• Updates with testing: core, theme, plugins, and compatibility checks before pushing live
• Backups you can restore: automated, offsite, with periodic restore testing
• Security monitoring: firewalling, malware scanning, login protection, and audit logs
• Uptime and error monitoring: alerts for downtime, broken forms, and site errors
• Performance upkeep: image optimisation, caching tuning, database housekeeping
• Support with boundaries: what’s included, what’s billable, and response times

When you’re comparing providers, ask specific questions, not general ones:

• Is there a staging site for testing updates?
• How often are backups taken and where are they stored?
• What’s the process if an update breaks the site?
• Do you monitor form submissions and transactional emails?
• Who owns the DNS, hosting, and critical third-party accounts?

If you already have a website you didn’t build with us

We still help, but we treat it like a discovery project first. That means auditing what’s there, identifying risks, and being honest about whether it’s maintainable or whether you’re better off rebuilding.

For many small businesses, the most cost-effective option is a planned rebuild that removes the fragile parts, improves speed and SEO foundations, and then puts the site on a maintenance plan that’s predictable.

The practical upside for your business

A website that’s built and maintained by the same team is less likely to go down, easier to improve over time, and simpler to budget for. It also means your marketing work sticks. SEO, ads, and content campaigns all depend on a stable site that loads fast, tracks properly, and doesn’t break when updates roll through.

Our approach is aligned with our tagline: Your Website. Built, Hosted & Managed — So You Don't Have To. It’s not about locking you in. It’s about making sure the website you rely on is something we can stand behind.

Action steps you can take this week

1. Find out who owns what: confirm access to domain registrar, hosting, CMS admin, DNS, and key integrations like Google Analytics and Search Console.
2. Check your update history: if core/plugins haven’t been updated in months, you’re carrying avoidable risk.
3. Test your forms: submit every form on the site and confirm the email arrives. Broken leads are common and usually unnoticed.
4. Run a speed test: use PageSpeed Insights and keep the report. It helps you measure improvements later.
5. Ask for a maintenance scope in writing: if it’s vague, expect surprise costs when something breaks.