Websites are definitely not set-it-and-forget-it entities. Neglected sites begin to run slow over time and become vulnerable to hackers. That said, yes, it is entirely doable to manage your site’s security, speed, content updates and overall health on your own, and it can be quite enjoyable and rewarding, depending on who you are and how much time you can commit to educating yourself and caring for you website.

Of course, if this sounds to you like a headache in the making, hiring someone else to take it all off your hands might be a better route. Check out my Hosting + Site Care Plans, or contact me if you would like to discuss your site’s maintenance.

This article says it all!

There are many different companies, or “registrars,” that sell and manage domains. Most charge around $13/year for the initial year of domain-name registration, and then around $15/year for annual renewals. To find out if the name you’d like to use is available, visit hover.com or any of the many domain registrars such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.

I like Hover. They offer straightforward pricing, good customer service, and free privacy protection, which costs $15 annually with some registrars. Privacy protection is important because domain details are public record, and unprotected data is susceptible to being mined by spammers and scammers.

Short answer: I work exclusively with one company, Flywheel Hosting, to offer you premium hosting with super-fast servers at discounted rates. I take care of setting that all up for you.

Flywheel’s hosting infrastructure is custom-built for the WordPress platform, and their awesome set of workflow tools enables me to work efficiently and pass the savings on to you. There are so many different hosting platforms out there with wide variations in how they work; to me it makes the most sense to spend our time (and your money) knowing one hosting company really well versus attempting to decode and learn all the different cpanel interfaces and hosting back-ends. This streamlined process enables me to efficiently and cost-effectively set up and manage hosting for your site while saving you the hassle!

Clients choose between recurring monthly or annual invoicing, and submit payment via automatic processing.

$60/hour. This may include content updates, design work, or technical trouble-shooting.

Sharon Hoyt. She’s great!

Yes. I employ mobile-friendly, responsive design practices, which means your pages will render adaptively to screen size and will look great on smartphone, tablet, and desktop devices. Mobile traffic has surpassed desktop traffic on the internet, so this is more important than ever.

Secure Sockets Layer or “SSL” Certificates are small data files that bind a key to an organization’s details. In other words, they keep your site’s information safe and secure by encrypting information. When installed, SSL activates that little green padlock in the browser bar to let you know that a site’s connections are secure. SSL is required for sites that handle credit card transactions (like online stores), but it’s also considered a best-practice security measure for any site nowadays.

All my sites are set up with a strong foundation of web design best practices and conformance to standards used by Google in its ranking algorithms, for example optimized page speed,  security, onpage SEO (content, title tags, internal links, etc.), and mobile responsiveness. They also come equipped with the Yoast SEO plugin installed. That said, I am not an SEO specialist. Should you require more advanced/intricate levels of optimization, I would be happy to recommend a local SEO consultant.