Guide
What a monthly website fee should include
Monthly website plans are everywhere now and the quality varies wildly. Some are a full service. Some are hosting with a nice name on it. Here is what a fair monthly fee should actually cover.
Hosting that is actually fast
Hosting is the floor, not the ceiling. The thing to ask is not whether hosting is included but how fast the site loads on a phone on mobile data. That is the situation most of your customers are in.
Cheap shared hosting is usually where slow sites come from. If a plan is priced suspiciously low, hosting is often the corner being cut.
Backups, security and updates
Every site needs its software kept current, an SSL certificate that does not lapse, and a backup you could actually restore from. None of that is glamorous and all of it matters the day something breaks.
Ask how often backups run and how quickly a broken site gets put back. A plan with no answer to that is not a maintenance plan.
Content edits without an argument
A new price, a new service, a new photo from a job you are proud of, a change to your opening hours. These are small jobs and they should not turn into a quote every time.
Our plan includes edits. You send us what you want changed and we do it. There is no client login to learn and no fiddling with an editor on a Sunday night.
Ongoing local SEO work
This is the bit most plans quietly leave out. A website that is never worked on slowly slides down the results while competitors keep adding pages and reviews.
Ongoing work means keeping your Google Business Profile right, adding service and area pages as you grow, and fixing what the search data shows is not landing.
A person who answers
The least technical part of the list and often the most valuable. When a form stops sending enquiries you want somebody on the phone, not a ticket number.
For €59.99 a month on a 12 month minimum, ours covers the build, the hosting, the maintenance, the edits and the ongoing SEO work, and you can ring us.
Common questions
Should hosting be included in a monthly website fee?
Yes. If hosting is billed separately on top of a monthly plan, ask what the monthly plan is actually paying for.
How many changes should a monthly plan include?
Normal business changes such as prices, services, photos and contact details should be covered. Whole new sections or a redesign are a separate piece of work.
Does the fee include Google Business Profile work?
On our plan, yes. Keeping your profile accurate is part of the ongoing local SEO work rather than an optional extra.
Where to go next
Want us to sort this for you?
We build the site for free and look after the hosting, the updates and the local SEO for €59.99 a month on a 12 month minimum. Have a chat with us and see if it suits.
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- What a Trade Website Costs in IrelandThe real numbers behind a trade website quote and what actually moves the price up or down.
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