When you pay someone to look after your website, most of the work happens where you can’t see it. That’s the whole point. You get on with running your business, and your website quietly keeps working.
But it does leave you wondering what you’re actually paying for. One of my clients told me that her previous provider never sent any reports, and she “often wondered if they were doing anything.” Fair question.
So here’s what really happens behind the scenes, using a real month from one of my client’s websites.
A real month, in numbers
Here’s what August 2026 looked like for one small business website I look after:
| What | August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Plugin updates | 15 |
| Theme updates | 1 |
| Backups taken | 30 |
| Uptime | 99.98% |
| Google PageSpeed score | 91/100 |
The owner didn’t have to do a single one of those things. Or even think about them.
Updates: checked, not just clicked
WordPress, your theme and your plugins are all updated regularly by the people who make them. Some updates add features. Many fix security holes.
In August, that one website’s contact form plugin was updated three times. Its speed and security plugins were updated twice each. That’s normal, and it’s why updates can quickly pile up if nobody’s keeping an eye on them.
I don’t just press “update all” and hope for the best. I apply security updates within 24 hours, and everything else within a few days. Then I check the site still works properly. If an update ever causes a problem, I fix it or roll it back, at no extra cost to you.
Backups: your safety net
Your website is backed up every day, and the backups are stored securely in the EU. If the worst happens (a hack, a broken update, or a page deleted by accident), your site can be put back the way it was.
A backup is only useful if it actually works, though. So I test them every quarter, rather than waiting for an emergency to find out.
Monitoring: watching while you’re busy
While you’re with clients, on holiday or fast asleep, your website is being watched:
- Uptime is checked every 5 minutes. If your site goes down, I know about it straight away, often before you or your customers do.
- Security is checked for known vulnerabilities every 6 hours, with Patchstack protection in place.
- Your SSL certificate and domain name are monitored, so that padlock in the browser doesn’t quietly disappear and your domain doesn’t lapse.
- Behind-the-scenes errors are flagged, so I can deal with small problems before they turn into big ones.
Most months, nothing dramatic happens. That’s exactly what you want.
The small jobs you send me
Every month, you get 30 minutes of my time for content changes. New blog post? Updated prices? A photo that needs swapping? Just email it over, and I’ll take care of it. No logging in, no hunting for the right button.
It’s also the easiest part of the plan to forget about. So consider this your friendly nudge.
The less frequent checks
Some jobs don’t need doing every month, but they do need doing:
- Every quarter, I test your contact forms and check for broken links. A contact form that silently stops sending is easy to miss, and you’d never know until someone mentions it.
- Once a year, I review your whole website with you and suggest improvements.
Your monthly report: proof it’s all happening
By the 5th of every month, you get a report showing everything I did the month before: the updates, the backups, your uptime, your speed score and your security checks.
You don’t have to read every line. But it’s there whenever you want it, and it’s proof I’m actually working, not just eating Jaffa Cakes.
And what do you do?
Nothing. That’s the point.
No update notifications to worry about. No wondering whether your backups work. No late nights watching YouTube tutorials. Just a website that keeps doing its job, and a real person to email if you ever need anything.
If you’d like to hand all of this over, have a look at my WordPress Site Care Plan. It’s £45 a month, and I’ll review your site before we start, so you know exactly what you’re getting.