Maintenance, Hosting, Support, Upgrades

Hosting is only a minor cost component. Having a secure and reliable WordPress website means keeping WordPress, the plugins and theme frameworks up to date on a regular basis. Whilst you are sleeping we are constantly updating your website and making sure it is secure.

Our systems and security are top of the line and trusted by all of our clients. If you choose however to host on your own servers there will be additional monthly fees (the range depends on your own hosting setup) starting at @$250 per month – billed monthly. We require 30 days notice in writing for any service cancellations and you will be billed 30 days from this date.

2023 WordPress Core Updates

WordPress as a core needs to be upgraded on a continual basis for new features and just as importantly security and stability reasons. The WordPress Organization release major updates approximately 4 times per year. Within each upgrade cycle, there are normally 3-4 security and bugfix releases. Each time we upgrade a site we perform a backup and test cycle that takes approximately 1 hour per website. So if a site just sat there and did nothing all year, we would dedicate a minimum of 15 hours per website/per annum, just for this support feature.

WordPress Plugins

WordPress plugins add functionality to the core of WordPress, from Spam Protection to SEO, to Embedded Forms and much more. Each website we manage has an average of 10 plugins, some are free but mostly premium. The reason we choose popular premium plugins over free is that they are better supported, have more features and through upgrades and security releases. The free versions we use are highly regarded by the WordPress community and in most cases, we donate annually to the developer. All of our plugins are upgraded on a regular basis. Each time we upgrade a site we perform a backup and test cycle that takes approximately 15 minutes per plugin. If a site just sat there and did nothing all year, we would still dedicate a minimum of 20 hours per website/per annum, just for this support feature.

2023 Theme Frameworks Updates

All of our sites use a Theme Framework, which allows for rapid development. Frameworks include font, image, SEO, style control, responsiveness (mobile ready), speed tested with GTMetrix and translation ready.

All of these Frameworks are premium (paid for), extremely popular and well supported. All of our frameworks are upgraded on a regular basis.

Each time we upgrade a site we perform a backup and test cycle that takes approximately 30 minutes per website. If a site just sat there and did nothing all year, we would still dedicate a minimum of 20 hours per website/per annum, just for this support feature.

Support

We support all of our clients by phone and email. We also dedicate our support to helping our clients learn how to control and manage their websites. As an example, each time a client attempts something and needs our support, we may provide a screen video of us providing that support, this helps teach our clients progressively how to eventually completely manage their own website. In 2022 we created 670 videos for our clients. Our support includes all of the above. Please note: Basic support does not include basics like adding or editing pages after launch, creating content, managing external integrations such as newsletters.

Note: We do not support sites we do not control, so if a site is moved from our servers, additional fees and charges apply (or we can refuse service) for any support or maintenance! All licenses held by Yakadanda will also be revoked.

Maintenance

Maintenance agreements are entered into on top of basic support for clients who want to have additional support for the creation of new pages and posts (not content), supporting 3rd party apps like Soundcloud, YouTube, WPRocket, Ad Services, Mailchimp, Google Search Console Errors etc and providing additional help.

BuddyPress + Forums

BuddyPress + Forums will require additional monthly fees for the upgrade and upkeep of these additions.

What is Not Included?

Creating Content: We do not create content for any of our clients, we can point you in the right direction, but you are the originators of your content.

Updating/Creating Blogs, Pages, etc: You are given all the tools you need, including help videos on how to do everything. Yes, some things are more complicated, and we will be here to help. But posting content is a skill you need to learn to be successful online. If you need help with this or are too busy – you will need to go into a maintenance agreement with us.

Social Media Marketing: We are not a social media marketing company; we are a web design development company. We set everything up so you can do it yourself, or we can point you in the right direction as to who would be a good Social Media Marketing Company.

SEO: We give you all the tools you need to successfully create the right SEO meta information for all your pages and posts and images.

We can help you be successful here, but it all starts with fresh targeted content. I would avoid all SEO marketing companies. It is easy enough to do it yourself or for an additional monthly fee, we can manage this for you. Taking an extra few minutes to create great titles, descriptions, etc. for each page and post is worth the time in gold (and visitors)

Average Hours Per Site Support

What is not Included in Support?

WordPress Core – 15 Hours
WordPress Plug-ins – 20 Hours
Theme Frameworks – 20 Hours

In short including any support by email, phone or web, we spend on average over 50 hours per year per site we host and manage.

Updating Content like Posts and Pages
Creating Content
Fixing Search Console Formatting Errors

In short, we do not create content for you, nor do we update your basic content like blog posts and pages. If you require these additional services you will need to go onto a maintenance agreement.

We help/train you to do things for yourselves. About 25% of our clients are also on maintenance agreements and the level of this agreement is in direct correlation to the amount of work we do for you!