Short answer: if your website is live and matters to your business, yes, someone needs to look after it. That someone can be you.

The real questions are what the job actually involves, whether it’s worth your time doing it yourself, and what you’d pay to hand it over. I’ve built WordPress sites since 2008. Here’s how I’d think it through.

What “looking after a website” actually means

A WordPress website is not a finished object. It’s software, and software needs upkeep. There are three moving parts that all update independently: WordPress itself, your theme and your plugins. When one updates and the others don’t keep pace, things break. If you want the fuller picture, I’ve written a separate piece on what WordPress website maintenance actually involves.

Looking after a WordPress site means staying on top of all of that before it becomes a problem. In practice that’s:

  • Updates. WordPress core, theme and plugins, applied carefully and checked afterwards. Not clicked blindly, because a careless update is how forms and layouts break.
  • Backups. A recent copy of your files and database, stored somewhere safe, that can actually be restored. A backup you’ve never tested is not a backup.
  • Security monitoring. Watching for the things that get small sites hacked, mostly outdated plugins, and patching them quickly.
  • Uptime checks. Knowing your site is down before your customers tell you.
  • Small fixes. The broken link, the wonky mobile menu, the contact form that quietly stopped emailing you three weeks ago.

None of this is glamorous. All of it matters, because every item on that list is something that costs you enquiries when it goes wrong.

How do I maintain my WordPress website myself?

You can. Plenty of owners do, and if your site is small and rarely changes it might be the right call. Here’s the honest version of what it takes.

Set a regular slot, weekly is sensible, and work through the same routine each time. Back up the site first, always, before you touch anything. Then update WordPress, your theme and your plugins one at a time, checking the site still works after each one rather than firing them all off at once. Log in to check your key pages load, your forms send and nothing looks broken on mobile. Every few months, clear out plugins you no longer use, because a deactivated plugin is still a security risk sitting on your site. The official WordPress documentation walks through the update process if you want the technical detail.

That’s the core of it. It’s not complicated. The catch is that it’s relentless and it’s easy to skip when you’re busy, which is exactly when problems creep in. The other catch is knowing what to do when an update goes wrong. Restoring a backup, fixing a plugin conflict or cleaning up after a bad update is where most DIY owners get stuck, and it usually happens at the worst possible moment.

So the real question isn’t whether you can maintain your own site. It’s whether your time is better spent doing that or running your business.

What happens if you don’t look after it

This is the part people underestimate.

A neglected WordPress site doesn’t fail politely. Outdated plugins are the single most common way small business sites get hacked, and it happens more than most owners realise. Wordfence, one of the main WordPress security firms, reports that the average WordPress site is attacked once every 34 minutes. A hacked site is a genuinely bad day. You’re looking at £200 to £1,000 to have malware professionally removed, and that’s before you count the time your site spent offline, the enquiries you lost and the damage to your Google rankings while it was down.

And it’s not just hacks. An update conflict can take your site offline with no warning. Your hosting company can upgrade something behind the scenes and break an old plugin overnight. A form can stop sending emails and you won’t know until a customer complains that they never heard back, which means you’ll never know how many didn’t bother to complain at all. That last one matters more than it sounds, because as I’ve written before, ranking well means nothing if your site quietly stops converting.

The maths is simple and it’s why maintenance exists. One serious incident costs more than a year of looking after the site properly. Prevention is dull and cheap. Recovery is stressful and expensive.

How much does it cost to pay someone to maintain a website?

Prices in the UK vary a lot, so here’s a straight answer. I’ve broken this down in more detail in my guide to what WordPress maintenance costs in the UK, but here’s the short version.

For a typical small business WordPress site, basic maintenance runs from around £30 to £100 a month. That end of the market usually covers the essentials: updates, backups, security and uptime monitoring. Cheaper than that and you’re often paying for an automated plugin updater with no actual person behind it, which is fine right up until the moment something breaks and there’s no one to call.

Once you go above roughly £150 a month you’re no longer paying for insurance, you’re paying for someone who also does real work on your site each month. Content changes, new pages, fixing things, improving how it performs. That’s the difference between someone keeping your site alive and someone helping it earn its keep. You can see how I structure that in my support packages.

Where you should sit depends on one thing: how much your website matters to your business. If it’s a brochure that never changes, keep it simple. If it brings in enquiries and you’d feel the loss if it went down, pay for a real person who knows your site.

What I’d actually recommend

Be honest about two things. First, will you genuinely do the upkeep yourself, every week, including the weeks you’re slammed? Most people say yes and mean it and then don’t. Second, if your site went down tomorrow morning, how much would that cost you in lost work?

If the answer to the second question is “a lot”, then paying someone to look after your WordPress site isn’t an expense, it’s the cheapest insurance you’ll buy all year. If it’s “not much”, then a careful DIY routine or a basic plan is plenty.

What I’d avoid is the middle ground where nobody’s really doing it. A site that everyone assumes is being looked after, but isn’t, is the one that ends up costing £800 and a fortnight of stress.

The way I do it

When I look after a client’s WordPress site, you get me. Not a ticket system, not a junior, not a queue. The person who understands your site is the person who picks up when something’s wrong. I’ve worked with some of my clients for over ten years, which means when you need a change I already know your business and you don’t have to explain it from scratch. That’s what my WordPress support is built around.

That’s the bit most maintenance plans miss. The updates and backups matter, but what you’re really paying for is not having to think about any of it, and knowing there’s someone who’ll sort it when it counts.