Hosting and service boundary
Identify the production site, environment and included hosting responsibilities. Domains, mailboxes, specialist applications and external services should not disappear into an undefined hosting label.
Website Care & Hosting
Website care and hosting with clear responsibility after launch.
Keep maintenance, backups, hosting and key customer-journey checks organised in a service that makes ongoing website ownership easier.
Give your website a clear maintenance and recovery plan.
Site, hosting and responsibility inventory. Maintenance schedule for the covered components. Backup and recovery arrangements.
Deliverables
Useful work, clearly defined.
The care schedule identifies hosting resources, updates, backups, checks and support coverage. Extra development and specialist response work are stated separately.
- Site, hosting and responsibility inventory.
- Maintenance schedule for the covered components.
- Backup and recovery arrangements.
- Routine checks for selected forms and journeys.
- Care record and support escalation guidance.
Maintenance and controlled updates
Agree which components are maintained and how changes are checked. Where possible, use a staged or recoverable process rather than treating an available update as proof it is safe to apply immediately.
Backups and recovery checks
Specify what is backed up, where it is held and how restoration is tested. A backup file alone does not establish that the required website and data can be recovered.
Routine checks and support
Name the forms, journeys and site conditions that the care schedule checks. Support hours, response targets and work outside the plan must be explicit rather than assumed to be unlimited.
How the service helps
Check the action behind the visible page
A website remains a business system after the launch date. Software changes, content grows and external services evolve. Website care brings the routine work into a defined schedule so the business knows who maintains the site and how problems are handled. We establish the hosting and application boundary, agree the important checks and document backup and recovery responsibilities. The arrangement can then be assessed by the work completed and the condition of the journeys customers rely on.
A website can load correctly while a form no longer reaches the intended inbox or CRM. Identify the small set of business-critical journeys that deserve regular attention. Include the receiving process where access permits and retain a clear record of any issue requiring another supplier.
A website remains a business system after the launch date.
A fictional scenario showing how the work could be approached.
Website Care & Hosting: an example in practice
Observation
A fictional website has backups scheduled but nobody has checked the restoration process.
Proposed correction
Document the necessary files and data, then scope a controlled restore check away from production.
Verification
Verify the restored site and its important journeys rather than accept a successful backup notification as the entire result.
Process
From the first review to the next priority.
Review the existing setup
Identify the site, accounts, suppliers and current maintenance arrangements.
Agree the care schedule
Define covered updates, backups, checks and support boundaries.
Maintain and verify
Carry out the scheduled work and check affected website functions.
Report and plan ahead
Document completed maintenance, unresolved issues and changes requiring separate work.
Suitability
Who this work is for.
Who it suits
A useful starting point
A business that needs explicit ownership of routine website maintenance and recovery arrangements.
Prepare the brief
What to bring
The site and hosting inventory, current backups, maintenance responsibilities and required support coverage.
Project scope
Make the responsibilities clear
The care schedule identifies hosting resources, updates, backups, checks and support coverage. Extra development and specialist response work are stated separately.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
Can you care for a website built by somebody else?
An initial review can establish the platform, condition and access requirements. The proposal should identify what can be supported and any repair work needed first.
How are updates handled?
The process should include a recovery route and checks for important functions. The appropriate method depends on the site and the risk of the particular change.
What should a website care agreement make clear?
The covered site and components, task frequency, backups, support route and any content allowance. Domains, mailboxes and specialist systems should have explicit ownership.
Your next step
Give your website a clear maintenance and recovery plan.
Identify the site, accounts, suppliers and current maintenance arrangements. We will help define the relevant work, responsibilities and next decision.