It is common for small business owners to experience some failure or frustration when it comes to their website. There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of- Domain Registration, Hosting, Backups, Logins, SSL Certificates, and even more aspects to maintain to remain relevant. Additionally, there are the people and companies involved: designers, programmers, developers, and a whole host of other know-it-alls who rarely take the time to explain in plain English what is required and what is going on.
The following is our guide to help you navigate these things with ease, clarity, and confidence. For each item I cover, I will explain:
- What is it?
- What should it cost?
- Whose responsibility is it?
By understanding these things and taking responsibility for the status of each, you will protect yourself from major frustration, whether caused by forgetting about a key component or by less-than-reputable actors who might try to use one of these to hoodwink you or hold your website hostage.
So what do you really need to know & keep track of?
1. Domain Registration
2. WHOIS Database
3. Hosting (Control Panel)
4. Email
5. Backups (files & database)
6. Content Management System
7. CMS Maintenance
*Bonus: DIY Site Builders
Finally at the conclusion of this article, I’ve included a free downloadable “Cheat Sheet” you can use to keep it all straight.
1. Domain Registration
What is it?
Domain Registration is your ownership of your website’s “name” or URL: “yourdomain.com.” Domain Registrations are renewed on an annual basis. Many registrars allow you to purchase up to 10 years in advance. Major Registrars include GoDaddy, Enom, and Google, or may be sold through your Hosting account (most web hosting companies resell registration services at a reasonable markup to provide you with a single point of management).
What should it cost?
While some major registrars charge as much as $34.99 annually for registration, as of this revision in December of 2016, the cheapest regular price at reputable companies is around $12/year. Beware of companies offering drastically reduced introductory prices (like $2.99/yr.), they will likely charge exorbitant rates in future years or for “add-on” products that should be included.
Whose responsibility is it?
It is the business operator’s responsibility to renew your Domain Registration before it expires. This can be done simply by setting web registration to auto-renew and then the only task will be to approve the charge with accounting.
Bits of Wisdom
- Be careful of getting nickel-and-dimed with add-on services! $15/year should be your total out-the-door annual cost.
- Many registrars have an “auto-renew” option which will automatically renew your domain and bill you. I strongly recommend using this option.
- Some less-than-ethical web designers will register your domain in their name and then hold your domain hostage for a “transfer fee” or exorbitant renewal fee if you leave them for another company. This is illegal. Make sure you own your domain and have direct access to the registration account- or at least a signed document stating your ownership if your developer offers managed registration & hosting services.
2. WHOIS Database
What is it?
The WHOIS database makes the ownership information for every domain available to the public. The information includes three entries: Owner, Administrator, and Technical contact. In many cases, these are the same.
What should it cost?
Listing in the WHOIS Database is free (and required).
Whose responsibility is it?
It is the business operator’s responsibility to keep the WHOIS Information current. This is done through your Domain Registrar.
Bits of Wisdom
- “Private Registration” in the WHOIS database is one of the most common opportunities for a Registrar to nickel-and-dime you with add-on fees. “Private Registration” means your registrar will list “Private Registrant” with anonymized contact information so you can still be contacted (as required by the registration agreement), while not publishing your personal details to the public. There are reputable Registrars and Hosting companies that offer this service at no additional cost.
- Keep your information in the WHOIS Database up-to-date and accurate – particularly your email address! This is a critical part of recovering ownership of your domain if you let the registration lapse.
- If you are using a “Private Registration” service through your Registrar or Host, make sure to keep your account information with that company up to date.
3. Hosting
What is it?
Websites are, in fact, just files on someone else’s computer that you access through what is essentially a giant computer network (the Internet!). In its most basic form, you could host your own website from your desktop computer. A hosting company is essentially a company you pay to store (“host”) your website’s files on their computers (“servers”), and keep those files available, always.
What should it cost?
Commodity-level shared-server hosting costs in the $5-10/month range. These plans often boast unlimited resources. That means that while they won’t arbitrarily limit any given resource, in reality, they are intended for relatively low-traffic, resource-light sites. Uptime is typically in the 99.9% range (which isn’t as good as it sounds! See below…).
Virtual Private Server, Dedicated Server and Premium Cloud hosting for increased reliability, high-traffic / resource-intensive sites can range from $50-4,000+ per month and often include a level of “Managed Service” allowing the host to actively manage your account.
Relatively new to the scene is WordPress Managed Hosting. These niche hosts cater exclusively to WordPress-powered websites, creating a hosting environment that is tuned specifically for the best performance and security of a WordPress website. They also typically include a WordPress-centric control panel with easy-to-use utilities for deploying new sites, creating staging sites, etc.
Whose responsibility is it?
It is the responsibility of your hosting company to keep your website’s files available as close to 100% of the time as possible. This means maintaining their hardware, software, and network. It is the business operator’s responsibility to choose a good host for your needs and, of course, to pay your host.
Bits of Wisdom
- 99.9% uptime may sound great, but that 0.1% over a year is 8 hours and 40 minutes of downtime.
- Balance uptime vs. costs – each additional “9” past the decimal place costs increasingly more to ensure. What does it really cost you when your website is down? Does the additional expense per month make sense compared to the cost of downtime?
- Managed hosting is often a great value to non-technical business owners who want their hosting to “just work”.
4. Email Accounts
What is it?
Email addresses @yourdomain.com are a critical piece of professionalism. These function just like a personal email address.
Microsoft & Google Suites
Outlook is a constantly evolving, powerful tool for email that connects through the entire Microsoft suite of products. Similarly, Google’s suite of products performs the same way and connects with their suite of products such as their shared drive and GChat. These are two of the most common platforms businesses utilize for email services.
3rd Party Email Service
If you find an email service that suits your needs better than the G Suite or what is included with your host, it’s just a matter of creating the appropriate DNS records with your Domain Registrar to direct email to that service.
Regardless of the email service you choose to use, the following terms are relevant in terms of individual accounts and addresses within your email service:
Full Mailbox
This is what most people think of – an address with its own logins and inbox.
Alias
This is a simple forward to another address. For example, create frontdesk@yourdomain.com rather than mary@yourdomain.com. That way if (when) Mary leaves and is replaced by Sophie, you can create sophie@yourdomain.com and simply re-point frontdesk@yourdomain.com to Sophie. This is a great technique to prevent printed materials from becoming outdated with each staff change.
Group Distribution
This is still a forward-only address but can forward to multiple recipients. Think of addresses like info@yourdomain.com or team@yourdomain.com. Just like an alias/nickname you can update the recipients of these addresses at any time based on your needs.
What should it cost?
Many hosting companies offer basic email functionality for unlimited email accounts with unlimited storage included in their monthly costs. The cost to use the G Suite starts at $5/month/mailbox.
Whose responsibility is it?
It is the business operator’s responsibility to know where your email is hosted and what email accounts you have set up. It is common for maintenance, such as creating new accounts, password resets, and shutting down old ones to fall under IT’s purview.
Bits of Wisdom
- Email is another one of the most common opportunities for a Registrar to nickel-and-dime you with add-on fees. Find a host that includes email services in their base fees or use the G Suite.
- Forgetting a stray email account (or email alias) is a common pain point when moving hosts. Keep track of what email addresses you publish and what you actually use!
5. Backups
What is it?
A copy of all your website files and database. Everything you need to revive your site if all current files were lost or corrupted.
What should it cost?
Depending on your website platform and hosting company, there are many free backup solutions and many paid options as well. Cost should be commensurate with the value of your data. Losing your website completely and having to start from scratch may cost hundreds, thousands, or in extreme cases, even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Whose responsibility is it?
Even when a hosting company offers a level of backup, I firmly believe it is the responsibility of the business operator to maintain a second (or even third) layer of backup separate from your host.
Bits of Wisdom
- When considering your backup schedule (for example, weekly), imagine losing all your data just before your next backup. Would your last backup be sufficient? How much time would you lose recreating the lost data?
- Store your backups in a different location from your primary files. This means both in terms of unique storage drives and unique physical locations.
- As with all backups, keep a keen eye out for single points of failure.
6. Content Management System
What is it?
A software system that allows a layperson to update content on their website without needing to know how to code. Many Content Management Systems offer a core system that provides basic functionality, as well as a wealth of extensions to provide specific functionality. In terms of your desktop computer, think of the main CMS software as your Operating System (Windows), and the individual extensions as Programs (MS Word, Quickbooks, etc.)
What should it cost?
There are three major open-source content management systems: WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, which are all free to use. A number of proprietary content management systems also exist at a variety of licensing costs.
Whose responsibility is it?
The core code is maintained by the open-source development community (or corporation offering proprietary software). Extension code is maintained by individual extension developers, or “micro-communities.” You or your developer must keep up with regular security and feature updates. See the next section on “CMS Maintenance”.
Bits of Wisdom
- A few years ago, these three open-source platforms were about neck-and-neck in terms of popularity, usage, and end results. Now, WordPress has emerged as the clear leader in the Content Management “fight,” with over 27% of all websites built on WordPress.
- Born as a blogging platform, WordPress is a publishing platform – great for blogs or as a Content Management System.
- Drupal is a programming platform. If your site requires heavy-duty custom functionality with complex programming, Drupal may prove the better choice.
- New Content Management systems are cropping up all the time. While many have cool features, consider your long-term plans and your confidence in their longevity.
7. CMS Maintenance
What is it?
Performing regular updates to the software of the Content Management System, as well as updates to all extensions.
Why didn’t my old site need maintenance?
A Content Management System is software that actually creates the content to display on each page “on the fly” each time the page is visited. This allows for all kinds of flexibility and powerful features. It also comes with the same risks and liabilities of any software – viruses, malware, and the ability to be hacked. Just like running Windows Updates on your computer – your website needs its software updated regularly for both security and features (but more importantly – security.)
Many older websites are “hard-coded” – the end result of programming. Any updates must be hard-coded as well. Think of these web pages as being created by a typewriter – printed on paper once, then available for all to view. There is no software creating the content of the website each time the site is visited – and thus, there is nothing to get hacked or catch a virus.
What should it cost?
The cost of your site maintenance should be commensurate with the size and complexity of your site. Primarily, “size and complexity” refers to how many extensions your site uses. With each added extension, you are expanding the body of code running your site, as well as the amount of functionality that could go wrong.
WordPress Monthly Maintenance Plans range from $49 – $999+ per month:
https://maintainn.com/pricing/
https://www.wpsitecare.com/plans/
https://www.copperleafcreative.com/wordpress-professionally-managed/
Whose responsibility is it?
The business operator or the developer must keep up with regular security and feature updates for both the main CMS system and all extensions. I recommend paying your developer or a third-party company to maintain your site. Frankly, you should be running your business, not your website updates (but they still need to be run!).
Bits of Wisdom
- Check up on your provider – log into your admin area and spot-check that the updates you are being sold are actually being performed.
- If you have a maintenance plan, do not run your own updates! This can cause major headaches for both you and your provider and may violate your agreement with them. Make them do their job – don’t do it for them.
- Many providers offer proactive and reactive security scanning and even a “restoration guarantee” – if your site is ever hacked, they’ll fix it at no additional cost.
*Bonus: DIY Site Builders
There are a number of Do-It-Yourself site builders available today, including Wix, Weebly, and SquareSpace, as well as offerings from GoDaddy, Intuit, and even DIY Themes & Plugins for WordPress.
While many of these advertise themselves as “free,” there is a myriad of premium features you can pay for.
Most DIY site builders are either included with commodity-level hosting accounts or are a hosted solution themselves. They often include your Domain Registration and Hosting. The builder itself is your CMS. On the plus side, you have no separate CMS maintenance to worry about. A major con, however, is that you do not own your site. You are stuck with the platform. If you stop paying your monthly fees, your site is gone.
DIY builders can be an excellent value tool for young businesses just getting off the ground. Established businesses with complex needs, however, should look at more robust solutions.
