Website maintenance and SEO are not the same service

What maintenance covers

Maintenance keeps your website running and safe. It is necessary, and it is not growth work.

Software and security updates
Backups, and the ability to restore one
Fixing things that break
Small content edits like changed hours or prices
Keeping hosting and the domain active

What SEO covers

SEO is work aimed at getting more of the right people to the site in the first place.

Researching what customers actually search for
Writing new pages and articles
Improving pages that already exist
Internal linking and site structure
Reporting on what changed and what is next

Why the confusion costs money

Paying for both, getting one

A "monthly website plan" may be pure maintenance. Ask which of the two lists above it covers.

Expecting growth from upkeep

Backups and updates will never move you up the results. That is not a failure of the service — it is the wrong service.

Skipping maintenance entirely

A site nobody updates eventually breaks or gets compromised. Then the SEO work is wasted too.

Ask any provider one question: what will actually be produced this month? Maintenance answers "we kept it running." SEO answers "we published these pages and improved these ones."

Which do you need?

Every live website needs maintenance. Not every business needs monthly SEO — if your enquiries come from referrals and repeat customers, ongoing SEO may not be the best use of the budget yet.

We would rather tell you that than sell you a retainer. What monthly SEO includes →