Moving a website to new hosting fixes the hosting. It does not fix a plugin that breaks the checkout, a form that stopped delivering last month or a connection to your accounting software that nobody has tested since it was set up. Before you agree to a care arrangement with anyone, work out what the website needs, which faults already exist and who will handle the work around the hosting itself.
A rebuild is one possible outcome of that review. Other sites need a specific repair, an update or a transfer that keeps the current design.
Look beyond the hosting environment
Hosting runs the website, but the theme, plugins and external connections decide how it behaves. A review worth paying for looks at the software, the access available and the functions customers rely on, together.
For a service business, those functions might be the enquiry form, the booking system and whether submissions arrive in someone’s inbox. For a store, they include product options, checkout, order emails and the link to accounting.
We review all of this before taking on a site’s hosting and care. The findings record the known issues, who is responsible for each one and which checks still need access or further work.
Separate ongoing care from existing repairs
Care is a list of tasks that someone does on a schedule: monitoring, backups, updates, checks on the functions that matter and a record of what was done.
An existing checkout fault needs a repair plan, and a new delivery method needs development work. Neither belongs hidden inside a general maintenance description, because the first time it matters is the first time you discover it was never included.
The proposal should say plainly whether the site can be taken on as it stands, needs preparation first or needs a larger project. Existing faults and major changes get their own scope and quote.
Ask how recovery will work
A backup schedule tells you when copies are made. Recovery needs more than that: a copy that restores, a written procedure and a person authorised to run it at eleven o’clock on a Saturday night.
The care agreement should set out backup frequency, retention, storage location and restore testing, and it should name who can authorise a recovery and what information they need to investigate a problem. Ask to see the last restore test.
Check important actions after changes
An update can quietly break a form, a purchase step or a connection that customers and staff rely on. The care plan needs to say which checks happen after each kind of change.
A store check, for example, might follow a test order through checkout, into the order record and out as the customer’s confirmation email. That tells you far more than confirming the homepage still loads.
We set the exact checks and the environment they run in with each client, because they differ from site to site.
Set support expectations separately
Support channels, working hours, response targets and emergency arrangements belong in the care agreement. A reply time for new enquiries says nothing about how fast anyone will act when the site goes down.
External software, account permissions and licences also need an owner. Record those dependencies at the start.
Discuss the site you need managed
Share your website, your hosting arrangement and the customer functions that matter most. We will get back to you.
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