My website care plan ensures that your website and related subscriptions stay up-to-date, leading to better site availability, security, functionality, editability, and legal compliance. I am happy to discuss your specific website care needs upon request.
My website care plan includes hosting, security, backups, and software updates. Additionally, the website care plan includes auto-updating policies, uptime monitoring, visual inspection, and search console management. The cost of the care plan covers my time and fees, such as hosting and license fees. Lastly, my plan includes an hour of technical support per month.
What's Included
Website Hosting and Deployment
Your website will be hosted on a performant, optimized, and reliable server. The site will be deployed to a CDN (content delivery network) so that it is especially fast and reliable. You are also welcome to utilize and pay for another hosting service or CDN of your choice.
Website Security
My security measures your site more resistant to the actions of hackers. I employ industry-leading security software that actively guards your website against hack attempts at multiple levels.
Website Backups
Your website’s files and database will be backed up automatically each day. Backups are stored in my cloud data vault where I typically retain the previous 90 backups of your site.
Software Updates
Each week, at my discretion, I will apply available updates for your site's content management system, themes, and plugins. I also watch industry security news and proactively perform these updates more frequently during times of enhanced threat levels.
Auto-Updating Policies
Any website collecting personal information, such as an email address through a contact form, may be required to have a Privacy Policy or Cookie Policy. I will extend you a license for Termageddon, a policy generator that receives updates automatically as laws change. Include an attorney-written Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Terms and Conditions, Disclaimer and End User License Agreement on your website at no additional cost.
Uptime Monitoring
Using a website monitoring service, I will be notified when your website becomes unavailable and will restore your website to working condition.
Visual Inspection
Each week, at my discretion, I will visually inspect the most important pages of your website. I will notify you if I find any issues.
Search Console Monitoring
Once monthly I will check for issues within search console platforms.
Technical Support
I will provide up to 1 hour of technical support per month. This time can be used for getting help with using your CMS, updating content, or resolving issues. This technical support cannot be used towards adding new features to the site; this will be billed at my current hourly rate.
Discounted Rate
Website care plan customers receive a 10% discount on my hourly rate for work that is not covered by the care plan. This discount is increased to 20% for non-profit organizations.
Restoring Backups
Should your site become compromised by a hack or if your site becomes inoperable because of user error, I will restore a backup for you.
If the restorations are the result of a hack, there is no limit to the number of restorations I will perform for you under this service.
If the restorations are due to user error, I will perform a maximum of 2 restorations in any 30 days.
Additional user error-related restorations will be performed at my current hourly rate with a one-hour minimum.
Renew Licenses and Pay Fees
Many websites use themes, plugins, and/or APIs that require the payment of a recurring license and/or usage fee to maintain use or access to ongoing software updates. I have secured appropriate licensing for many of these.
If I have appropriate licenses for the themes, plugins, and/or APIs used by your website, the cost for recurring license and/or usage fees are included in your website care plan; licensing and usage fees will be maintained for you as long as you are an active subscriber to my website care plan.
If your website uses premium themes, plugins, and/or APIs and I do not have appropriate licensing, the responsibility is yours for maintaining the appropriate licensing to ensure continued use and the availability of updates.
I will advise you of the themes, plugins, and APIs for which you will need to maintain licensing and assist you as needed in the process of obtaining them.
FAQs
What does the website care plan cover?
The website care plan is what I consider an essential service for running a website. In addition to the above-listed features, the care plan provides you with a trusted partner who is on hand to help with issues that inevitably occur.
Can my website be hacked? What happens if my website gets hacked?
While it is impossible to guarantee that your site will never be hacked, all of these techniques make your website a more difficult target for hackers. In addition, hackers tend to exploit easier targets first – sites without security measures in place. However, if your site is hacked, I will restore it to pre-hack condition at no additional cost either by restoring a site backup or performing a malware cleanup at my discretion.
Why do I need an ongoing plan when I can run updates myself or set them to automatically update?
The code that makes up the website is created by multiple authors, as the website is powered by various frameworks, libraries, plugins, and packages. Updates to newer versions are needed to comply with the latest web standards, address security issues, and resolve bugs. It is possible that these updates could break the website, and it is also possible that the site may break if not updated. For this reason, having a trained web specialist on hand to monitor the website is necessary to run updates, restore backups, and make adjustments to continue optimal performance.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes, you can cancel anytime. You are under no obligation to continue the ongoing service. I just ask that you provide 30 days' notice.
How do I contact you when I have a problem or request?
You can submit all requests to catherine@catherinepollock.com and I will reply within normal business hours.
Is domain registration included?
Domain registration is not included in my website care plan, but I can offer assistance with registering, renewing, or transferring a domain upon request. I typically recommend that my clients manage their own domain registration to protect their ownership of their website.
Is hosting included?
Yes! Your website will be hosted on a performant, optimized, and reliable server. You are also welcome to utilize and pay for another hosting service of your choice.
Can you help with design changes, content updates, SEO, social media, graphics, and other requests?
Yes, I am happy to help with requests not covered in the Website Care Plan! I can help on a flat rate or hourly basis, and offer a discount to clients on my care plan.
What is the expected turnaround time for requests?
My goal is to be able to provide a 48-hour turnaround for small tasks and requests. Larger requests typically require a few weeks. Providing a thorough request is the first step in ensuring this goal is achievable. My Website Care Plan clients receive priority support for their requests.
My site experienced a random, technical issue and I have no idea what is wrong. Can you help?
Definitely! These types of issues are exactly what I'm here to help with. I don't want my clients to have to worry about the day-to-day issues with their sites. If something on your website isn't working properly, I want to help. While I can't guarantee unlimited support for every theme or plugin made by all the different authors out there, I will always do my best to ensure my client sites are functioning to the best of their ability. In most cases, I'm able to repair the issue or recommend an alternative solution and implement the fix without much trouble. There may be times where extensive development work may be required on custom or high-level functionality. When this occurs, I'll make my best possible recommendations to you in order to give you the information needed to make a clear decision of how you would like to proceed.
How can I sign up?
Please reach out using the contact form below.
My question is not answered here.
Please get in touch, refer to my general FAQs, or see if your question is answered in my Services Agreement.
