WordPress website health checks

A health check is a scheduled piece of work carried out on a fixed cycle. We go through your site, update everything that needs updating, check for problems and flag anything that needs attention. It's proactive and predictable.

A support arrangement is a different kind of thing. Rather than scheduled checks, it gives you a block of time you can draw on when something comes up - whether that's a question, a fix, a change to the site, or something that needs doing outside of a scheduled health check. It's more flexible and reactive by nature.

If your site is generally ticking along and you mainly want it kept up to date and secure, health checks are likely all you need. If you want someone on hand to deal with things as they arise, get in touch and we can have a conversation about an arrangement might suit you.

It depends on how actively your site changes and how much risk you're comfortable with. Both options keep your WordPress core and plugins up to date, but the right frequency comes down to your site's situation.

A monthly health check is a good fit if your site is business-critical, you update content regularly, or you simply want the peace of mind of knowing your site is reviewed and maintained every four weeks. More frequent checks mean issues are caught and flagged sooner.

A quarterly health check works well for sites that are more stable - perhaps a brochure or reference site that doesn't change often. Four checks a year still keeps your site secure and up to date, just with a longer window between reviews.

Whichever you choose, the work carried out at each check is the same: a backup, updates to WordPress and all plugins, a review for anything unexpected, and fixes for any small issues found. The frequency is simply about how often that happens.

We take a backup of your site before we carry out the work in each health check, so there's always a recent copy to roll back to if anything goes wrong during an update. If we also host your site, the hosting includes its own daily backups of your files and database. Backups are stored in a folder in your hosting, we can look at off-site backups if you'd prefer but these hosting backups can help if we need to fix problems that arise during the heath check.

If something goes wrong during a health check, we roll back to the backup we took before starting and put it right as part of the work. For other situations it depends on the site and where it's hosted, but in most cases we'd expect to have a site back up within one working day.

It depends on what it is. Small things that come to light during a health check are dealt with as part of it. But if something crops up between checks - a change you want to make, something that's broken, or a piece of work you need doing - that falls outside the health check scope.

For one-off jobs we're happy to quote for the work separately. Some clients also find it useful to have a block of time set aside they can call on as needed, rather than agreeing a fee each time something comes up. If that sounds useful, get in touch and we can talk about what might work for you.

If we're managing your updates and an update we've applied causes a problem, we'll get the site back up at no extra cost. That's the point of taking a backup before we start. If a plugin breaks the site for reasons outside our control, for example it's no longer maintained, or it's incompatible with your PHP version or another plugin, we'll make sure the site stays up, then look at what's needed and quote separately for the fix.

Yes, but it isn't part of a health check. Changing copy, adding pages, moving things around or adding new functionality is quoted separately, or you can set aside a block of time to call on when you need it.

Something we can sort in around fifteen minutes as part of the check. Anything bigger we'll flag, explain, and quote for separately so you can decide how to proceed.

A health check is a regular scheduled check rather than a support package, so it doesn't come with a guaranteed response time. If you need committed support response times, that's a different kind of arrangement and we're happy to talk it through.

A mix, depending on the update and the site. Some updates are safe to leave automated, the ones that don't affect how your site works or looks. Others are better done by hand against a staging copy first, particularly on larger sites or those with a lot of plugins. The main set of updates is done manually with a backup taken first, so if anything goes wrong we can roll back and start again.

Yes. They're separate services and work fine on their own. Hosting keeps your site online, health checks keep it maintained. Plenty of people take both, but you don't have to.

Yes. A one-off check is a good way to get your site up to date and find out what condition it's in. If you then want regular checks, we'll already know your site and can carry on from there.