Security exposure is constant
CMS, plugin and library vulnerabilities are disclosed weekly. Unpatched sites get hit. Maintenance closes the window before it opens.
Website Maintenance
Website Maintenance That Keeps the Site Fast, Secure, and Indexed
A SeoMata maintenance retainer keeps your site updated, patched, monitored and recoverable — without you needing to think about it. Versioned releases, on-call response, monthly change log and quarterly architecture check.
99.95%
Uptime
standard tier
< 4h
P1 response
business hours
Monthly
Change log
every action logged
Daily
Backup
tested restore quarterly
What "website maintenance" means here
Maintenance at SeoMata is operational discipline, not a checklist of "we ran updates this month". It includes versioned updates, security patching, uptime monitoring, daily backups with tested restore, accessibility checks, broken-link sweeps, Core Web Vitals tracking, schema validation, content rollback, support inbox triage and a monthly change log so you always know what happened to your site.
Most clients move to maintenance after a build or redesign with us. We also take over sites we did not build originally, after a one-week onboarding to inherit the runbook.
Tier 1
Standard
monthly hours pooled
Tier 2
Plus
priority support + dev hours
Tier 3
Premium
on-call + monthly architecture review
Why
Six reasons to pay for ongoing maintenance
Performance erodes silently
Every new content edit, new image, new third-party script can regress Core Web Vitals. Without monitoring, you find out from a ranking drop 6 weeks later.
Backups need testing
"We have backups" is meaningless without a tested restore. Most teams find out their backup process is broken during the incident.
Compliance drift
GDPR / CCPA banner, cookie policy, accessibility statement and structured data all rot. Periodic review catches drift before it becomes a complaint.
Broken links + 404s accumulate
Pages get deleted, products go out of stock, partners change URLs. Without sweeping, internal-link graph degrades and SEO with it.
Schema + sitemap drift
CMS migrations break Schema. New CMS plugin replaces sitemap module. Old XML sitemap sits stale. Monthly validation catches all three.
Scope
Six things we run every month
Updates + patches
CMS core, plugins, libraries, OS, runtime — patched on a defined cadence with regression check on staging first.
Performance check
Lighthouse + CrUX review on top templates; regressions triaged and fixed in the maintenance hour pool.
Broken-link sweep
Full-site crawl, 404 / 5xx triage, internal-link map fix, external-link replacement.
SEO health
Sitemap validity, robots.txt, Schema validation, GSC error sweep, indexation check.
Backup + restore test
Daily automated backup verified; quarterly tested restore on a separate environment.
Uptime + error monitoring
Uptime checks on home + 5 key templates, error monitoring via Sentry (or equivalent), alerts to on-call engineer.
Stacks
Stacks we maintain in production
Next.js + Vercel/Cloudflare
Repo-side maintenance: version bumps, security patches, ISR cache config, edge function review.
WordPress (managed + self-hosted)
Core + plugin updates, security patching, performance audit, plugin sprawl audit, malware scan.
Shopify (incl. Plus)
Theme version control, app sprawl audit, checkout regression check, GA4 + integration health.
Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce
Composer-managed module updates, security advisory monitoring, Varnish + Redis health, ERP integration check.
Custom applications
Dependency updates, security patches, backup verification, error rate monitoring, infra cost optimisation.
Hosting + infra
AWS / GCP / Vercel / Cloudflare upkeep — security groups, IAM roles, cost dashboard, scaling alerts.
How it runs
How a SeoMata maintenance retainer runs
Onboarding (week 1)
Stack audit, runbook inheritance, monitoring setup, baseline performance + uptime + backup state recorded.
Monthly maintenance cycle
Updates + patches on staging → review → deploy. Performance + SEO + accessibility check. Broken-link sweep. Change log published.
On-demand requests
Email or Slack request → triaged within SLA → estimated → executed → logged in the change log.
Quarterly review
Architecture review, dependency-risk review, infra cost review. Output: one-page report with priorities for next quarter.
Incident response
P1 incident paged to on-call engineer. Status updates to your team. Post-incident review with written RCA within 48h.
Annual planning
Strategic conversation about the year ahead — major upgrades, replatforms, scope changes. Renew or restructure the retainer.
SLA
SLA + response by tier
Response targets and tier inclusions. Larger sites or compliance-driven verticals move to higher tiers.
| Standard | Premium | |
|---|---|---|
| P1 response (site down) | < 4 business hours | < 1 hour, 24/7 |
| P2 response (degraded) | < 1 business day | < 4 business hours |
| Update cadence | Monthly | Weekly |
| Backup test | Quarterly | Monthly |
| Architecture review | Annual | Quarterly |
| Included dev hours | 4 / month | 20+ / month, priority queue |
For HIPAA, SOC 2, or regulated industries we ship a Premium tier with audit-ready evidence packs.
Portfolio
Sites we currently maintain
Pricing
How tiers are priced
Maintenance retainers are tiered by site complexity and response level. Standard tier (< 50 page service-business site) starts at USD 950 / month and includes the monthly maintenance cycle, 4 pooled developer hours and business-hour SLA. Plus tier (50–150 pages or ecommerce) is USD 1,800 / month with 12 hours and priority SLA. Premium tier (multi-site, regulated, or revenue-critical) starts at USD 3,800 / month with 20+ hours, 24/7 on-call and quarterly architecture review.
Custom-application retainers (apps built by us under /design-development/custom-web-application) are priced separately, typically USD 2,500–6,500 / month depending on user count, integration surface and on-call expectations. Combined Web + App retainers get a 10–15% bundle discount.
There are no hidden fees. Hours roll over a month forward (no further), incidents are billed against the pool, and emergency above-pool work is billed at agreed hourly rate with prior approval.
Common maintenance questions
We did not build the site with you. Can we still get maintenance?
Yes. We run a 1-week onboarding to audit the stack, inherit credentials, set up monitoring and document the runbook. From there the retainer runs the same as any SeoMata-built site.
What if something breaks?
P1 incidents page the on-call engineer. P2 / P3 are triaged within SLA. Post-incident RCA written within 48h. The maintenance retainer absorbs incident time up to the hour pool; above-pool emergency time is billed against the agreed rate with prior approval.
Do you handle hosting too?
Yes — Vercel, Cloudflare, AWS, GCP, managed WP hosts (Kinsta, WP Engine, Pantheon), Shopify, Magento Cloud. We can either manage your existing hosting accounts or move you to ours under managed billing.
Will you fix small content changes for us?
Yes — content edits, image swaps, blog post publishing all fall under the standard retainer hour pool. Most clients use 1–3 hours per month for content + 1–3 hours for small dev requests.
Do you offer support outside business hours?
Standard is business hours (your timezone). Premium tier includes 24/7 on-call for P1 incidents. Custom hour windows available on request.
Can we leave anytime?
Yes. 30-day notice. We hand off the runbook, credentials, monitoring dashboard and a written transition guide. You can take maintenance in-house or move to another vendor with everything documented.
Ready to scope a maintenance retainer?
Start with a free 30-minute maintenance audit. We will look at the current stack, monitoring, backup, security and update posture, and write back with a tier recommendation and rough monthly budget — usually within 3 business days.
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Next step
Get a Free Site Health Audit
Start with a free site health audit. SeoMata will review maintenance gaps across backups, security, plugin updates, uptime, and post-release SEO checks — and flag what could quietly threaten growth.