Ongoing Maintenance
We recommend setting aside time every month for general maintenance and keeping your site updated.
We have a simple and transparent pricing setup. We charge per day and reserve days for your site in advance.
How quickly can the work be done?
If you have booked in days for the month then we guarentee we will address items within 7 days. We always take into consideration critical items and can have these completed sooner in emergencies.
We recommend that you book in advance to ensure work can be completed quickly. We get booked up months ahead so it is important to secure your days work.
Can I bulk buy?
Yes, If you book a block of 6 maintenance days your 7th day is half price.
Updates and the importance of maintenance
WordPress is in constant development. So too are the plugins and frameworks used on your site. They are the foundations for your website. We build sites using best practices that will help you keep your site up to date. For example we keep functionality modular and use child themes. You can read a bit more about what and how we develop here.
This really helps you stay up to date and being up to date is really important. There are regular security updates and there are functionality updates. Out of date plugins can also cause conflicts as you are much more likely to have incompatible plugins.
Custom Work
Where possible we use third party plugins and extensions that have on-going support. These often have a recurring annual cost to get the latest updates.
WooCommerce and WooThemes are used throughout our sites. They have WooHelper which helps you stay up to date. Make sure you check this. This can be used to keep your license keys up to date which will allow you to upgrade your extensions. You are responsible for your own extensions and plugins.
There are many options which allow you to modify site/store behaviour. If options are not available then we will need to custom code the functionality.
Please also read this article about why you can’t afford the plugin you want.
Phase 2, 3 and …
Alongside updating the site you should look at ways to optimise your site. You may well have a functionality wishlist. As you get feedback from your visitors so too will you want to tweak the site. Keep a note of these items and set out a development schedule to have them completed.
Investigation and Specification
The first stage for any additional functionality is investigation. We will look at what is required and how best to achieve it. This is offered as a consultancy service.
Once we have determined the route to go down we will list this out as a specification.
It is important that each item is outlined to us as a specific item. We have made an example spreadsheet of how we should receive these items.
The Single Touch Point Between Us and You
It is really important that there is a single touch point between us and your company. If possible, one individual from your company should collate all the feedback from everyone and add it to the spreadsheet. Then we can work from the same list. If we receive a dozen emails with lots of wish list functionality we won’t know where to start and in a lot of cases items can be duplicated and/or lost.
In short, we suggest creating your list of requirements, setting the priority and selecting a single point of contact. Then we can set up a realistic development schedule and make sure we get the work done for you.