It's 9 AM on Monday. A customer tries to visit your website and gets an error message. Or worse—your site loads, but it's been replaced with ads for pharmaceuticals you've never heard of.
This isn't a hypothetical. Over 500 WordPress websites are hacked every day. Plugins break. Hosting goes down. SSL certificates expire. Something will go wrong eventually.
The question isn't whether your website will have problems. It's who fixes them when they do.
The Three Ways Most Small Businesses Handle Website Problems
When your site breaks, your response depends entirely on how your website was built and who (if anyone) is maintaining it.
Option 1: You Built It Yourself (DIY)
If you built your site on Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress, you're the IT department. When something breaks:
- You Google the error message
- You watch YouTube tutorials at 11 PM
- You submit a support ticket and wait
- You spend hours on hold with chat support
The platforms have support teams, but they're dealing with millions of users. You're not a priority. And if the problem is something they didn't cause—a plugin conflict, a theme issue, something you accidentally broke—they'll tell you it's outside their scope.
52% of WordPress vulnerabilities come from outdated plugins. If you're not updating your plugins regularly (and testing that the updates don't break anything), you're leaving the door open. (We wrote more about why DIY websites cost you customers.)
Option 2: You Hired an Agency
Agencies build beautiful websites. But most agency relationships end at launch. They hand you the keys and move on to the next big project.
When something breaks six months later:
- You email your old project manager (who may have left the company)
- You get quoted hourly rates for "support work"
- Small fixes become expensive fast
Agency and freelance maintenance plans typically range from $50 to $500+ per month—on top of what you already paid for the build. And that's for a retainer. Actual work often costs extra.
The issue isn't that agencies do bad work. It's that their business model isn't built around ongoing support for small sites. Your $5,000 project isn't big enough to keep their attention once it's launched. (For a full breakdown, see How Much Should a Small Business Website Cost?)
Option 3: You Hired a Freelancer
Freelancers can be great. They're often more affordable than agencies and more personal than platforms. But they have a significant weakness: they're one person.
When your site breaks:
- They might be on vacation
- They might be slammed with other projects
- They might have moved on to a full-time job
- They might have simply... disappeared
This happens more than you'd think. Poor communication contributes to 56% of failed projects, and 70% of freelancers juggle 2-4 projects at once. Your "small" update request is competing with their bigger, higher-paying clients.
When a freelancer disappears mid-project or stops responding to emails, you're left holding a website you may not even have full access to. (Sound familiar? We covered this in detail: Why Your Web Designer Stopped Returning Your Calls.)
Why Website Security Isn't Optional
Some business owners think, "My site is too small to hack. No one cares about my little plumbing company."
That's exactly backward.
Small businesses are targeted nearly four times more often than large enterprises. Why? Because small businesses have weaker defenses. Hackers aren't personally targeting you—they're running automated scripts that scan millions of sites for vulnerabilities. Your outdated WordPress plugin is an open door.
43% of all data breaches involve small businesses. And 49% of hacked websites contain backdoors—hidden access points that let attackers return even after you think the problem is fixed.
The consequences are real: 60% of small businesses that suffer a cyberattack close within six months.
The Hidden Maintenance Work Most People Ignore
Even when nothing is visibly broken, websites need ongoing care:
- Software updates: WordPress, plugins, and themes release updates constantly. Only 38% of WordPress sites run the latest version—the rest are running known vulnerable code.
- SSL certificate renewal: That little padlock icon expires. When it does, browsers show scary "Not Secure" warnings that send visitors running.
- Backups: If something catastrophic happens, do you have a backup from yesterday? Last week? Ever?
- Performance monitoring: Slow sites lose customers. But most business owners don't check load times until someone complains.
- Content updates: Changed your hours? Added a new service? Someone has to update the website.
When you built the site yourself, all of this is on you. When you hired someone, the question is: are they still around to do it?
What "Handled" Actually Looks Like
Imagine this instead:
Your website has a problem. You send an email or make a phone call. By the end of the day, it's fixed. You didn't google anything. You didn't watch a tutorial. You didn't negotiate hourly rates or wonder if your freelancer is still alive.
Someone who knows your site handled it.
That's what ongoing website management should feel like. Not a panic every time something goes wrong, but a simple handoff to someone whose job is to make sure your website works.
What YouGrow Does Differently
At YouGrow, we don't build your site and disappear. We build it and manage it—forever.
Here's what that actually means:
- You never log in. Need something changed? Email or call. We handle it.
- Security is our problem. We build sites that are secure by design—no databases to hack, no plugins to exploit.
- Backups happen automatically. Daily. You never think about it.
- Updates happen when you ask. New hours, new photos, new page? Just tell us. Most changes are done within a business day.
- Same person, same number. I'm Onur, I'm in Arroyo Grande, and I answer my phone. You're not getting transferred to a call center.
All of this is included in the $79/month. No hourly surprises. No extra fees for "emergency support." Month-to-month, cancel anytime—we earn your business every month.
And for founding members? No setup fee. Just $79/month for a professional website, managed forever.
When your website breaks—or when you just need something changed—you know exactly who to call.
Ready to Stop Worrying About Your Website?
At YouGrow, we build your website and manage it forever—$79/month, everything included. No setup fee for founding members. Month-to-month, cancel anytime.
Get Your Website or call 805-439-6288.
Onur builds and manages websites for SLO County small businesses at YouGrow.pro. Based in Arroyo Grande. $79/month, everything included.