Website Hosting & Maintenance Plans Explained

Web hosting is essential for every published website. Think of your website as a house, and web hosting as the block of land. (We're gonna use this analogy a bit in this article, as it's a good one!)



In its simplest form, hosting provides a place for your website to "live" once it's published. It's an ongoing cost that every website owner needs to factor into their business expenses.

As with most services, there are all types of hosting from rock-bottom basic through to ultra-luxury gold star service.

Basic hosting is really only storage space and bandwidth but doesn't include any maintenance or support services. (Just the block of land for your house).

Fully managed hosting includes the basics (your block of land) plus additional services such as site monitoring, regular backups, security updates and more. (Think of this as your own security guard who regularly patrols the outside of your house and installs the best locks to minimise the chance of break-ins).

So, just to re-cap: hosting is like the block of land that your house (website) sits on. It can be basic (just the block of land) or it can involve your very-own security guard who makes sure that no one can break in, and if they do, your "house" can be restored to how it was before the break-in.

Either way - you need hosting. Your website can't go live without it.

Just like a house, your website can run into problems over time, due to many factors. It could be that technology changes, including internet browsers and the devices people view your website on. This means that constant updates are required to your site in order for it to display correctly across all devices and browsers. 

Then, there's the issue of security. Hackers, malware and all kinds of malicious activity impacts every website on the planet and requires constant proactive maintenance and security in order to ensure your site's performance isn't impacted.

That's why an ongoing maintenance plan includes regular back-ups of your site. That way, if something does go wrong, it can either be fixed by your maintenance team or they can restore your site to a previous version.

Here's a list of what's provided in a 2Brownies monthly site maintenance package:

• Hosting on Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the industry’s most trusted and secure cloud-based hosting solutions. There is no limit to bandwidth or storage. (This means your site can grow over time, with lots of new visitors without performance being affected).
• An SSL certificate. This is essential for any website to be trusted by site visitors.
• Ongoing uptime monitoring to ensure your site is functioning well at all times.
• Guaranteed 99.99% uptime.
• Regular site back-ups.
• Security updates: Regular updates to website security to protect against malware, hacking attempts, and other security threats.
• Dynamic serving. Your website automatically responds to the type of device (desktop, tablet or mobile) it is being viewed on, and content is optimised accordingly.
• Use of Global CDN (Content Delivery Network). Load times are significantly reduced, as the CDN hosts all static files (such as images, pdfs, and docs) in a geographic location close to where your site visitor is located.
• Bug fixing: Ongoing monitoring and fixing of any website bugs or errors to ensure that the website functions as intended.
• Friendly technical support for site-related issues.

Because it's so important to attend to all of the above tasks every month, just paying for basic hosting (the block of land) isn't really an option for small business owners who don't have a strong technical background.

An ongoing professional site maintenance plan avoids all of that and allows you to focus on your own business goals.

At 2Brownies, we made the decision to only offer comprehensive site maintenance plans, hosted on our platform. This means you can't take your 2Brownies site and host it cheaply elsewhere. (ie. on someone else's block of land).

Why? We don't want you to spend good money on your website, only for it to perform poorly because no one's looking after it.

In order for your site to perform well, your hosting needs to be great (and ours is). And someone needs to do all the tasks we listed above. It may as well be the team that already knows you and your business, and cares about your success.

If you're reading this, chances are you're a website client of ours. And that means you're running your own small business. There's enough for you to worry about without having to learn the ins and outs of how to take care of a website.

So, when your website is ready to go live, you'll be asked to subscribe to one of our monthly site maintenance packages so that we can host your site and start doing all the technical tasks necessary to keep it in tip top shape.

We usually recommend you start with our lowest-cost plan, our Bronze Website Care Plan. This covers hosting and all the tasks we've talked about in this article. Our higher-cost plans (silver and gold) are suitable for businesses that need ongoing content updates to their site (ie. blog posts, new pages etc.) but you can start low and then upgrade as your needs change.

Call us anytime on 1300 608 114 if you have questions about website hosting or maintenance. We're happy to chat.

A website maintenance plan includes hosting, an SSL certificate, software upgrades, bug fixes, security patches, regular back-ups and performance optimisation. Ultimately, a website maintenance plan is essential for any business to ensure their online presence remains successful.

Security: Websites are susceptible to security threats, such as hacking attempts, malware, and viruses. Regular maintenance, including software updates and security scans, can help prevent security breaches and protect the website and its users' data.

Performance: Websites that are not regularly maintained can become slow, outdated, and unresponsive. Regular maintenance, such as caching and database optimisation, can help improve website speed and performance.

Compatibility: Websites need to be compatible with the latest web browsers, devices, and software. Regular maintenance can help ensure that the website remains compatible with the latest technology.

Website hosting allows a website to be accessible on the internet. Without it, your website has nowhere to "live" and can't be seen by anybody. Think of it as the block of land that your website (house) sits on.

Essentially, it involves storing website files on a server (a powerful computer) that is connected to the internet. When someone types in a website's domain name in their web browser, their computer connects to the server where the website is hosted, and the website files are sent to their browser. This allows them to view the website's content, images, and other media. 

"Hosting" is the block of land your website sits on. "Site maintenance" is all the stuff that needs to happen to keep your site looking great and performing as it should. We combine both by offering comprehensive monthly site maintenance plans for our clients.

Are you a small business looking to build your reputation and make your mark? We create awesome websites, social media content, blog posts, SEO and Google Business profiles for small businesses across Australia. Call us on 1300 608 114 or book a chat here: https://calendly.com/2brownies/chat. Our General Manager Vanessa would be happy to answer your questions.