Affordable Small Business
Website Maintenance
301-873-4701

While a vast majority of my clients host their websites with us, it’s not required. If you would like to host your own website, we would need to gain access to your domain registrar to make some simple edits to DNS (Domain Name System) your configuration.

There are a few added features on the higher level plans that are self explanatory, however the main difference is additional time for web work.

The Basic plan doesn’t include any additional time for minor web changes.

The higher level maintenance plans include various amounts of additional time for website changes such as adding content, images, links, styling etc..

If you know what domain you want, and if it’s available, I’m happy to register it for you.

Sometimes it can be very time consuming for me to get involved in the selection and registration of your domain, therefore I usually recommend that you purchase and register your domain on Godaddy or Bluehost (don’t need to purchase hosting), send it to me, then I’ll host it on my siteground account, design and build the site.

If you prefer another solution,  just run it by me.  I’m flexible.

Owning a website involves two often misunderstood elements ……  a domain and a host. Understanding the difference is key to effective site management.

Domain Registration

The domain is the internet address people use to get to your site. For example, the Lovett Web Design domain is lovettwebdesign.com. You can register a domain with any number of registrars/providers such as domain.com, bluehost.com, or godaddy.com,  by paying a fee, usually $10-$35 yr to use that web address.

Selecting A Domain: Tips

Here are some considerations for domain selection:

Research. Study your niche and to know what the average user wants. Being aware of the most popular keywords and search terms will let you find a domain name that’s best suited to represent your project.

Make it easy to remember. Don’t go for something that is absurdly long or difficult to pronounce. A catchy and short domain name will greatly increase the chances of visitors remembering your website name.

Go with .com if possible. Currently, .com is taking a firm stand as the most popular domain name extension. Thus, it’s a good priority when buying a domain name, as most web users will easily recognize it.

Check for trademark infringement. To avoid any legal issues, it’s best not to register a domain similar to popular, well-established brands. You can use various online tools to look up trademark information and avoid such situations.

Avoid numbers and hyphens. While numbers and hyphens let you create more domain name variations, they can sometimes do more harm than good. For example, people can mistake the number zero (0) with the letter (o) or the number (2) for a word (two). Oomitting numbers and hyphens may be a good idea.

Look for close alternatives. If you already have a domain name in mind, think of possible mistype variations to make sure all the potential traffic reaches you. A great example would be amzon.com which takes you the main Amazon website, or fb.com which goes directly to Facebook.

Research social media platforms. Once you have a rough draft of your domain name, look it up on popular social media platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram or Facebook. Even if you’re not planning to do anything with them at the start, reserving a page for your project will ensure it’s not taken by someone else.

Yes of course. I can host your website on my high speed cloud siteground account.

We do not use common, cheap, shared hosting solutions.

Our cloud platform offers fully managed, powerful dedicated resources and is optimized for efficiency and speed that guarantees a top performance of your site.

See What is web hosting

Security Updates

WordPress websites (core, theme and plugins) often update for security purposes. We safely apply these patches and keep a backup in case things go wrong. We actively monitor your website for new major and minor updates and apply them in the background while your website stays live during the process.

Backups

If your website gets hacked and wiped out entirely, you need to start from scratch. To remedy this, we keep daily backups of your website, so if disaster strikes, you can be back up and running in minutes, not months.

Site Updates

WordPress websites (core, theme and plugins) often update for to improve functionality and design. We safely apply these patches and keep a backup in case things go wrong. We actively monitor your website for new major and minor updates and apply them in the background while your website stays live during the process.

Uptime Monitoring

Part of our Website Care Service is monitoring your website for downtime. If the site is down for more than a couple minutes, we investigate and fix the problem. Approximately 5 minutes of downtime in the middle of the night is natural. No one can guarantee 100% uptime.

1. Domain — Every website needs a domain name. A domain needs to be registered, setup, managed, and renewed as necessary.
2. Hosting — Domain names needs hosting to make your website live on the Internet. We have high-end servers that are both fast and secure. With cheap servers, you get what you pay for. Hosting can be really affordable, yet slow and easily hacked. Our servers are responsive and hardened against hackers.
3. Email Hosting — Instead of operating a business under a Gmail, Yahoo or AOL address, use a professional email address that includes your website’s domain name. A typical business email address format is contact @ YourBusiness.com. We provide hosting for this new email address and support when you have issues.
4. Uptime Monitoring — Guaranteed 99.99% uptime on our servers. This means your website will always be live and ready for your customers. Approximately 5 minutes of downtime in the middle of the night is natural. No one can guarantee 100% uptime. Best of all, part of our Website Care Service is monitoring your website for downtime. If the site is down for more than a couple minutes, we investigate and fix the problem.
5. Backups — If your website gets hacked and wiped entirely, you need to start from scratch. To remedy this, we keep daily backups of your website, so if disaster strikes, you can be back up and running in minutes, not months.
6. Security Updates — WordPress websites (core, theme and plugins) often update for security purposes. We safely apply these patches and keep a backup in case things go wrong. We actively monitor your website for new major and minor updates and apply them in the background. Your website stays live in the process.
7. SSL — eCommerce websites must be secured by an SSL certificate. Otherwise, sensitive credit card information can be easily stolen. SSL certificates also provide a small SEO boost since the tech world advocates security. We make sure SSL certificates are properly installed and renewed.
8. Analytics — What good is a website if you can’t track its performance? We install and monitor Google Analytics to give you real data on your website’s visitors. This includes how many people visited your website, if they returned, whether they’re on mobile devices or desktops, where in the world they are, and much, much more. Use this data or hire a professional marketing specialist to get the most out of your website.
9. Performance Optimizations — High-def photography, videos, seemingly endless content, and lots of pages can cause websites to slow down, even on fast servers. Therefore, we have extra tweaks and optimizations we can do to drastically speed up your website. Some sites load twice as fast after we work on them! This benefits both your search engine rankings and user-experience.