Websites
Website redesign, rebuild, or leave it alone?
A website redesign is not always the answer. Five checks that tell you whether your site needs a new look, a new build, or honestly nothing at all.
6 min read
Services
Year-round website management and maintenance
An optional extra on top of the running costs: your site kept current, updated and backed up, with a local number to ring.
Optional, on top of the running costs, which are free for the first year.
What it gets you
- The site keeps earning its keep instead of quietly ageing into something you apologise for
- Nothing breaks silently, and nothing sits for a fortnight waiting for attention
- One predictable monthly cost instead of an occasional bill you did not see coming
- Your time goes on the business rather than on chasing whoever can change a price for you
What this could do for you
A few examples of what it could look like for a business like yours. Ideas, not promises.
Changes made while you work
Send new prices, photos or opening hours by email or WhatsApp, and they could be live the same day, without you logging into anything.
Problems spotted before customers do
The site is checked around the clock, so a broken form or a site that is down is noticed and fixed before it costs you enquiries.
A local number to ring
One person in Edinburgh who knows your site, rather than a support queue and whoever happens to be free.
Why it matters
A website is not a thing you finish. Prices change, staff change, the software underneath it needs updating, and the Christmas hours want putting up in November rather than in January. Management means the site keeps working for the business without ever becoming another job on your list: somebody looks after it, and answers the phone when you ring.
When not to buy this
- You or somebody on your staff is happy updating the site and keeping its software up to date.
- The site is due to be replaced within a few months, so the money is better spent on the new one.
Who it is for
A few of the businesses this is built for, what it is costing them today, and what changes.
| Your business | Today | With this in place |
|---|---|---|
| A café still showing last Christmas opening hours | People turn up to a closed door, or ring to ask what the website should have told them. | You send a message, the hours change the same day, and the phone stops ringing about it. |
| A garage whose MOT prices went up | The site quotes old prices, so every booking starts with an awkward correction on the phone. | The page says what you actually charge, and the first call is about the work instead. |
| A salon whose site went down unnoticed | Bookings went elsewhere for two days and the first hint was a message from a regular. | Round-the-clock checks flag it, and it is back before most customers would have spotted it. |
| A plumber whose web person moved on | Nobody can log in where the site lives, the web address is expiring, and nothing can change. | Web address, hosting (where your site lives) and padlock certificate looked after, with a number that gets answered. |
What you get, and what it means for your business
| What you get | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Hosting, web address and padlock handled | One contact and one monthly cost, with no renewal notice you have to decipher or act on yourself. |
| Software updates, kept current | Faults get fixed before they reach your customers, rather than after a contact form has quietly stopped sending. |
| Backups taken off the server, checked | When something goes wrong the site comes back, instead of being rebuilt from whatever anyone can remember. |
| Content changes included | Prices, hours, staff and photos stay right, because changing them costs you a message rather than a quote. |
| A local number, answered here | You speak to the person who built the site, so a change is a conversation rather than a ticket. |
What is included
- Hosting (where your site lives), your web address renewal and the padlock certificate all handled, so nothing lapses without you noticing
- Software and security updates done before something breaks, rather than after a customer finds it
- Backups taken off the server and checked, so a bad day costs an hour rather than a rebuild
- Content changes done for you: prices, hours, staff, photos and the seasonal bits
- Round-the-clock checks, so a site that goes down is noticed by me before it is noticed by your customers
- A local number to ring, answered by the person who built the thing
Questions
What is included in the monthly cost?
Every site has running costs (hosting, the web address and the security certificate), free for the first year and then one modest monthly fee whether or not you take this service. Management adds software updates, backups, round-the-clock checks and small content changes on top. Anything substantial is quoted separately before it starts, such as new pages, a redesign or a new system.
Am I tied into a contract?
No. It is month to month, and the site and your web address are yours either way. If you want to take it elsewhere, everything goes with you.
Do I actually need this?
Not everybody does. If your site is a single page you never change and you are happy dealing with hosting and renewals yourself, you will get little out of it. It earns its cost when the site has things on it that go out of date, or when nobody in the business wants that job.
Can you look after a site somebody else built?
Often, yes. It depends what it was built with and what state it is in, which is a twenty-minute look rather than a guess, and that look is free.
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