The short answer
After launch, your website needs regular care: software updates, backups, uptime monitoring, SSL and domain renewals, working forms, and small content changes. Some of it runs automatically, some is your web person's job, and a few checks are yours. Agree in writing who does each one, because a website nobody looks after breaks quietly.
Your first year, month by month
Launch day feels like the finish line. It is the start. A website is closer to a car than a brochure: it runs every day, and it needs a service. Here is what the first year looks like. Filter by who does the job, and tap any job for the detail.
14 different jobs in year one. Tap a job for how often, who does it, and what happens if nobody does.
Every month
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3
Month 4
Month 5
Nothing scheduled.
Month 6
Month 7
Nothing scheduled.
Month 8
Month 9
Month 10
Month 11
Nothing scheduled.
Month 12
Whenever something changes
Most of the work is boring and regular. That is the point. Done every month, each job takes minutes. Left for a year, it turns into a broken site, a lost domain or a hacked page.
What happens when nobody does it
These jobs rarely fail loudly. The site still looks fine on your laptop. The problem shows up as fewer calls, a warning a customer mentions, or an email that bounces.
- Updates
- The software behind most websites gets security fixes all the time. Skip them and the holes stay open. Bots look for exactly those sites, automatically.
- Backups
- Usually automatic. The trap is never testing one. A backup nobody has restored is a hope, not a backup.
- SSL certificate
- The padlock in the browser. Let’s Encrypt, a widely used free one, lasts 90 days. Good hosting renews it by itself. If renewal fails, visitors get a full-page "Not secure" warning.
- Domain renewal
- Your .co.za renews every year. Miss it and your website and your email go down on the same day.
- Contact form
- A form can break quietly: a password changes, an email lands in spam. Nothing looks wrong on the site. The enquiries just stop.
- Search Console shows whether Google can see your pages. Your Business Profile shows your hours on Maps. Both go stale if nobody looks.
- Small changes
- New prices, new hours, a new photo. Left for "later", the site slowly tells customers the wrong thing.
A 10-minute monthly check you can do yourself
Even if someone else looks after your site, do this once a month. Pick a date, like the day after payday, and put it in your calendar. You know your business better than any web person does.
- Open your site on your phone, on mobile data. Does it load quickly? Does anything look broken?
- Check the padlock next to the address. No "Not secure" warning.
- Send yourself a test enquiry through the contact form. Check that it arrives.
- Tap the WhatsApp and phone buttons. Do they open the right number?
- Read your prices, hours and services. Still true?
- Search your business name on Google. Are your hours, phone number and website link right?
- Note anything wrong and send it to your web person in one message.
Once a year, sit down with your web person for longer. Which pages bring enquiries? What is out of date? What should the site do that it doesn't yet?
Questions to ask your web person about after launch
Ask these before launch, ideally before you pay. Get the answers in writing.
- Who is the domain registered to, and when does it renew?
- Who applies updates, and how often?
- Where are the backups kept, and when did someone last test a restore?
- Who gets the alert if the site goes down, and what happens then?
- How do I ask for a small change, and what does it cost?
- Do I have access to Search Console and my Google Business Profile?
Here is how we answer most of them. Every site we build runs on a monthly plan, and this is what each one covers. What happens before and at launch is on our how we work page.
- Managed Hosting · R249/month
- Hosting, Business email, up to 5 mailboxes, SSL certificate, Cloudflare protection, Daily backups, Uptime monitoring, Domain and DNS management, Email support.
- Managed Care · R749/month
- Everything in Managed Hosting, plus: Business email, up to 10 mailboxes, Monthly updates, Security and performance checks, Priority support, and 1 hour of changes per month.
My take
Small business websites rarely break because they were built badly. They break because nobody was looking after them: the owner thought the designer had it, and the designer thought the owner had it. I would rather you pay someone a fair monthly amount, or do the checks yourself, than find out a year later that every enquiry since March went nowhere.
Kris, founder of TechOnEdge
Quick questions
Do I need a maintenance plan for a small website?
Someone has to do the jobs: updates, backups, renewals and checks. You can do some yourself, but most owners would rather pay a set monthly amount than learn how. What matters is knowing exactly what the plan covers.
How often should a website be updated?
Software and security updates about once a month, and straight away for urgent security fixes. Content such as prices, hours and photos should change whenever your business changes.
What happens if my domain expires?
Your website and any email on that domain stop working until it is renewed, and if it stays unpaid you can lose the name. Know who it is registered to and keep the renewal paid.