WordPress Maintenance & Support
The WordPress Maintenance & Support (WPMS) program is a monthly service to provide updates, backups, and a review of your business website to ensure that all aspects of your site are performing optimally reducing the risk of a malicious attack or other site breakdowns. These updates can also improve search engine ranking performance.
The following services are included in the Maintenance and Support Package:
- WordPress Themes & Plugins Auto-Updates
- Site Downtime Monitoring
- Website Backups
- WordPress Core File Updates
- PHP Software Version Updates
- Security Settings Review
- Troubleshooting & Support
- Monthly Report
- Quarterly Check-In Call
- Optional Service Hours Block*
Site development included in either tier may include updates to content, images, design revisions, event posting, blog posting, or a number of other edits. WPMS does not include graphic design, marketing materials, or content development.
* Service Hour Blocks can be added to any Maintenance & Support Agreement or purchased as a stand-alone offering. Hour blocks are sold in increments of 2 hours per block.
To provide WPMS, user credentials to the website as well as the hosting environment are required.
The Importance of WordPress Website Updates
As with most technologies, you want your information and that of your site’s visitors to remain secure. To do this, it is vitally important to update the core programming of WordPress, themes, and plugins as well as, at times, your PHP version. Updating these systems will patch any open vulnerabilities that a malicious hacker may try to exploit.
Updates to WordPress core can happen a few times a year. When they do, some of your plugins and features may not work as they did previously. We can help to ensure that if a system breaks during an update, your site can be restored quickly until a fix is found to keep systems running smoothly.
Plugin and theme updates can happen multiple times a month. Having someone to check in on your systems to ensure all items are current is the best peace of mind for making certain everything is running at its best leaving you to focus on other important aspects of your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Maintenance & Support Packages are contracted for One (1) year. At the end of that year, the agreement will be reviewed and may be renewed and extended for successive One (1) year term.
The Maintenance & Support Package payments can be made Monthly, Semi-Annually (2 payments), or in a single Annual payment. Support retainer hours and the initial one-time setup fee are billed with the initial payment. Any purchased service block hours will also be billed in the initial payment.
Yes. If you terminate your agreement early, without cause, you will be charged an early termination fee. If you elected to pay the semi-annual or annual fee in advance for services, you will receive a refund based on the terms of the agreement.
Login credentials for both your website and your hosting provider (or cPanel) are required to perform your backups, updates, and security scans. Additionally, when an update causes an error, access to the database may be needed to correct the issue. (The database is accessed through your hosting provider credentials.)
WordPress updates are released frequently. We verify that auto updates have run AT LEAST once per month. If news of a vulnerability comes across our desk, we will check your site to determine if you have the affected plugin or theme and update it accordingly.
We pull a backup of your site AT LEAST once per month and store a copy of the backup file on your site’s hosting as well as download a copy to save to your JCD client file so you can always be sure that you have access to a backup for your site.
Four (4) hours of site support are included in the Maintenance & Support Package. This retainer amount is billed at the beginning of your contract term. If you should require additional support beyond the initial Four (4) hours provided, you will be billed hourly at a discounted support rate for the support hours used to resolve the issue. Support hours expire at the end of the WPMS agreement term.
If your site goes down due to a change you made to your site, or if your site has been hacked, we will use our best efforts to get your site back online as quickly as possible. This support would be included in your Four (4) hours of support that is part of your contract. Should the support extend the Four (4) hours of support included, you will be billed hourly at the discounted support rate as stated in your agreement. If the site is down due to a service outage from your hosting provider, there is little we can do on our end to bring your site back up. Once the hosting provider is back online, you site should come back up on its own. We will keep you updated should a site outage of this type occur.
- New or Existing Website Development Services (The Services do not include the creation of any new websites or development, design, or content edits to any existing websites unless service block hours have been added to the Agreement.)
- Client’s Email Systems (e.g. Outlook, O365, Google Workspace, Gmail, Email Migration, Email Setup and Configuration, and Email Support)
- Social Media (e.g. Social media setup, management, and advertising, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)
- Ongoing SEO Management (including but not limited to link building, keyword research, competitor tracking, content revisions for SEO, and correction of online information for consistency purposes.)
- Creative Services (including but not limited to graphic design, content creation, or other creative services unless otherwise specified in your Agreement.)
- Marketing Services (including but not limited to email marketing creation, Google and Bing business listings, lead generation funnels, and marketing strategy.)
We will provide you with a monthly report including, but not limited to,
confirmation of completed maintenance tasks, details of any support hours used, performance
report details, and any recommendations from our team. If you have purchased a block of service hours, the tasks completed for any service hours used will also be included in the monthly report.
Some websites have regular edits that are made and site owners prefer to have these edits handled for them. Each Maintenance & Support Agreement has the option to add service hours blocks that are set up in Two (2) hour increments. Payment for these hour blocks are made prior to the start of the service hour use. You can select the number of Two (2) hour blocks you would like to add to your agreement. Service hour blocks expire One (1) year from purchase. If service hour blocks are purchased after the start of the WPMS package agreement, that service hour block will expire AFTER the end of the package agreement term.
- Existing Website Revisions. You may request revisions to the existing website as stated in the agreement including design changes, responsiveness edits, content edits, image replacements, new page additions, addition of a blog, blog posts, or other requests as approved by our team.
- New Plugin Installation & Configuration. Our team may recommend or you may request the addition of a new plugin for use on your existing website as stated in the agreement. Services include the installation of the plugin and configuration of settings. If the requested plugin is a premium plugin, our team will provide guidance on purchasing the new plugin.
- New Feature/Integration Requests. You may request the addition of a new feature to the existing website as stated in the agreement, such as, but not limited to, additional forms, appointment links, embedded features, or payment links or options. You will be asked to provide our team with any needed information to add the requested features.
- eCommerce Product Additions. You may request the addition of products to your existing website store as stated in the agreement. You will be asked to provide our team with required information to add the new products.
- Image Search, Optimization & Replacement. Our team will search for images requested by you, optimize images for web use and add the images to the your existing website as stated in the agreement. Images will be searched on Royalty-Free image site resources. Should you wish to use a licensed image on the existing website as stated in the agreement, you agree to reimburse our team for the purchase of any licensable images approved for purchase.
- Existing Website Optimization. Our team will optimize your existing website as stated in the agreement for improved performance and site viewing.
- Limited Creative Services. Our team will provide creative services for the existing website as stated in the agreement including creation of icons, images, and other design elements as approved by our team.
- Limited Documentation. Our team will provide you documentation for editing the existing website as stated in the agreement when requested by you and approved by our team.
- New Website Development. Block hours may not be used to create a new website. Services are limited to existing website as stated in the agreement only.
- Full Site Documentation. Expanded full site documentation for your existing website features and integrations is not included in block hour services.
- Training. Training for editing your existing website is not included in the block hour services.
- Creative Services Logo and Content Creation. Logo and content creation will be billed separately for any logo or content requests and is not included in the block hour services.
- SEO Services. On-page and on-going SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services are not included in the block hour services and will be billed separately.
If your edit requests are going to exceed your monthly hour limit, you can choose to do one of two things: ask us to stop at the monthly hour limit and complete the edits the following month, or we can charge the standard hourly rate for the time worked over the allotted monthly hours. If you select the second option, you will be billed for those hours at the end of the month for which they were incurred.
If you did not have edit requests for a month, you can roll over your unused time to the following month. No more than 3 months of hours may be rolled over at a time. (If you do not use the hours for 4 months, only 3 months worth of time will roll over.)
If your site is ready for a facelift a separate proposal will be provided to you. The redesign is not included in your WPMS agreement. You may have the opportunity to select some edits for the project can can apply to your WPMS hours, however this is not guaranteed.
New pages or features to be added to your site are not included in the WPMS agreement. You will be charged the standard hourly rate for this work, or if you have enough changes to warrant a project proposal, one can be created for you.
While adding images or new content to your site IS included in your WPMS plan, the creation of those images or content is not. This would be a separate fee outside of your WPMS agreement and a quote can be provided for you.
Each month you will receive a report that includes the tasks that were completed during that month, the upcoming or ongoing tasks to be performed the following month, a performance report for your site (including a link to review the report for yourself), a Google Analytics overview (if GA is connected to your site and we have access to view that information), and recommendations for improvements or additions to your site that may be beneficial to your business. Any overages or unused time will be listed on your report as well.
The Maintenance Only plan does not include any additional time for updates and therefore only receives notifications that the updates have been completed. Notifications may be sent more than once a month if updates are completed more than the minimum once per month.
Don't add more to your already busy workload.
Let us help you get more done.
We'll make sure your site is up to date, secure, and running at its best!