What a website costs after launch

Website budgets are usually written as one number with a launch date attached. Then the site goes live, everyone moves on, and two years later the conversation starts again from zero because the site is slow, out of date and nobody remembers how to edit it. The redesign is blamed on fashion. It is almost always a maintenance problem.

What upkeep actually is

• Security and software updates. Anything built on a content management system needs them regularly. Skipping them is how sites get hacked.
• Content that stays true. Prices, team, opening hours, programmes, case studies. Wrong information costs more trust than an old design.
• Things that quietly break. Forms that stop delivering, expired certificates, a browser update that moves a button.
• Accessibility and speed. Both drift as pages and images are added. Both are measurable, so they can be checked on a schedule.
• Small improvements. A new section, a clearer page, an answer to the question people keep emailing about.

The cost of doing nothing

A neglected site does not fail on one day. It loses a little every month: a lower position in search, a form that has not worked since spring, a visitor who leaves because the events page shows last year. By the time someone notices, the fix is a rebuild.

How to budget for it

Decide before launch who owns the site, in a named person, not a department. Agree how changes are requested and how fast they are made. Set aside a recurring amount for upkeep instead of saving for the next redesign; the total is usually smaller and the site is never embarrassing.

Our longest-running client, the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv, has been on a support arrangement with us for more than four years. Their site has changed continuously in that time and has never needed to be thrown away. You can read the case study, or see how we approach website design and support.