Website Hosting

We believe in the old saying – stick to your knitting – and that’s why we focus on what we do best. In order to offer you a stellar service, we have partnered with Define Web. They are a New Zealand based company who’s ‘knitting’ is hosting and domains. We work in a close partnership with them to offer you affordable and reliable hosting packages you can trust.

Understanding Hosting

One of the best ways to understand website hosting and ongoing maintenance is to relate them to cars.

As an overview, trying thinking about it like this – Your car is your website, your parking lot is the web host (the space on the web) and the sign on your carpark that ensures no one else takes it is your domain name. They are three separate entities that combine to make your website work.

Like your car, you will need to service, upgrade and maintain your website. As for the domain and the hosting – well you simply pay an annual fee for them and they remain intact and maintained.

The website, like your car requires a bit more ongoing support, and that’s where we come in. Our care plans handle that for you. Ensuring the software remains up to date and everything is as it should be. Like your car – your site can sometimes break down but the more hands on we are the less this happens and the quicker the fix.

Expecting your website to be live and accessible 100% of the time is a little bit unrealistic as there are just so many variables that can affect it. We aim for 99% of the time and if your site happens to go awry – then just get in touch ASAP – it’s likely we will already be working on the fix.

Our webhosting care plans will allow you to relax and trust that your site is being looked after.

See our pricing structure below:

FAQs

Where will the site be hosted?
We use Sydney based servers, we chose these servers based on their location, reliability, track record and speed.

Why is the location of your servers relevant?
It’s very easy to sign up to a large hosting company – without really understanding much about the process.
It can be a confusing world. The location of the servers are important because they have an effect on the speed of your site – many of the large companies have their closest servers in Singapore or Asia or even further afield meaning that the loading time is increased. Loading time is important and it’s important to have your servers closer to the bulk of your audience here in New Zealand.

Do you do emails also?
We offer set up for the G suite email service. This service allows you to use the reliable gmail service but with your own domain name. It allows you to access your emails from anywhere ( www.gmail.com ) or they have a great mobile app. We prefer this option due to its reliability and ease of use. If you would like to integrate your gmail email account into one of your computer’s built in email programs (like Apple Mail or Outlook) this is a specialist job requiring an IT specialist, not something we support currently.

Can’t I just update the site myself?
In theory, yes – but the updates of both the plugins, themes and core WordPress can sometimes be problematic. If we are in the site and uncover an issue we are able to rectify the issue as quick as possible to ensure uptime of your site.

Does all of this monitoring mean my site won’t be hacked?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t give you a guarantee against hacking, but it does make it less likely. All of these steps work together to reduce the risk but there will also be issues that are out of our control in this constantly changing industry.

What happens if my site is hacked?
Contact us and we will let you know your options, typically we can restore your site to a clean back up, but there are times when the hack is deeper and a site clean may be required.

Are there any other benefits to keeping my site up to date?
Of course, Google tends to favour sites that are up to date and adding content, so this can help in your search engine ranking.

How will I know if the work required is more than the monthly allotment?
If you are on our tier one plan then ten minutes is the allotted time. If we think it will run over – we will drop you an email and give you an estimate. As always, we are very fair with our time management.

Can I save up my hours like rollover data?
Yes but only up to three months worth. We are a pretty fair and kind bunch, so we will let you know should your requested edits take longer than expected.

Can I cancel at any time?
Yes, it is possible to move your site from one web host to another. Keep in mind it’s not as simple as drag and drop and some companies may charge for it. If you jump around it could also affect your google ranking, so it’s a good idea to stay settled once you are happy. If you are unhappy with our service – simply drop us an email and we can see what we can do to help.

What’s an SSL certificate and can I frame it?
No frames needed for this one. SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browser remain private. That’s enough of the technical stuff – what matters is an SSL makes your site more secure and google prefers secure sites. Google has publicly stated that two websites which are otherwise equal in search results, if one has SSL enabled it may receive a slightly rank boost to outweigh the other. As a result, there is a clear SEO benefit to enabling-SSL on your website, and across all your content.

A lot of that stuff up there seems like a foreign language to me?
I know that’s not a question, but it’s also a common feeling. What you need to know is by signing up with us it’s our job to keep your site updated and functioning at peak performance. By keeping your site up to date, we do our best to keep it as secure as possible and as efficient as possible. At the end of the day, working with us means you shouldn’t have to worry about all that gobbly gluck.