Website maintenance: your existing site updated, secure and looked after

What does website maintenance actually involve?

Website maintenance means someone keeps your site technically sound and makes the small changes for you, all year round. At Atelier Web it comes as a yearly maintenance package: hosting and the domain, WordPress and plugin updates, backups, security, and the adjustments you need along the way.

For most business owners, that last part matters most. You don’t want to log in yourself to announce a closing day or swap a photo. You email Louis, and it gets done.

Why doesn’t a website stay in shape by itself?

A website looks finished once it’s live, but the software underneath keeps moving. WordPress and its plugins release new versions regularly, often to close a security hole. Skip those updates and nothing seems wrong at first. Then one day the contact form stops sending, spam piles up, or a plugin that sat untouched for months no longer works with the rest of the site.

It usually happens without anyone noticing. A customer whose message never arrives won’t tell you; they’ll go to someone else. That’s why, after updating, we also check the forms and the main pages.

Can Atelier Web take over a site someone else built?

Yes. Adelante, a group medical practice in Bierbeek, already had a website. Its forms had become unreliable and spam was coming in, which is serious for a practice: a patient who sends a message needs to know it arrives. We repaired and tested the forms, added a captcha against spam and updated the technology underneath. Since then, Atelier Web has looked after the site.

At Leadout, a consultancy in Antwerp, the job looked different. The site itself was decent, but it lacked a careers page and a team page, and access to Google Analytics and the Google Business Profile had been lost. We added what was missing, reviewed the existing pages for SEO and restored the access. The site runs on WordPress and we keep it up to date.

What else does Atelier Web handle besides the site?

A website depends on a string of other things: a domain name, hosting, a mailbox, a Google Business Profile, Search Console and often social media. In many small businesses that knowledge is scattered across a former web designer, a relative who knew about computers and a password nobody can find.

With the maintenance package, Atelier Web pays for and manages the hosting and the domain. We set up a professional email address on your domain, make sure your Google Business Profile and Search Console are configured properly, and keep working on your site’s speed and findability. Questions about your website, email, Business Profile or social media all go to one person: Louis, who works in English, Dutch and French and replies within 24 hours.

How do you keep a site current without starting over every few years?

By updating it gradually. Web design moves on, and a site nobody has touched in years soon feels dated. We keep your site current over time, so there’s no need for a big break. We’ve done that for the Promosport web shop for several years now: updates, new seasons and changes to the range, while the owner gets on with his clubs.

If your site is technically too old to be worth updating, we’ll say so plainly. In that case a new website is the better choice.

How do you get started?

Ask for a quote and include the address of your current website, along with what bothers you today: a form that doesn’t work, updates that have been waiting for ages, or simply the feeling that nobody looks after your site any more. Louis will look at it and send you a proposal.