Full Transcript
Lauren: Okay so my friend calls me the other day, completely stressed out. Her website went down and she had no idea who to call. Like, she didn't even know where to start.
Honor: Welcome to the 805 Web Minute with Lauren and Honor... We make interwebs and website stuff make sense... Let's get into it.
Honor: Yeah, that's actually super common. And it's not about if your website will have problems... it's about when. Over 500 WordPress sites get hacked every single day.
Lauren: Wait, 500 a day?
Honor: Every day. And that's just hacking. Plugins break, hosting goes down, SSL certificates expire... something will go wrong eventually. The question is, who fixes it?
Lauren: Okay so let's say something breaks. What are the options?
Honor: There are basically three paths, and they all have problems. Path one: you built it yourself on Wix or Squarespace or whatever. Which means you are the IT department.
Lauren: Oh no...
Honor: Right. So now you're googling error messages at 11 PM, watching YouTube tutorials, sitting on hold with chat support... and if the problem is something they didn't cause, they'll just tell you it's not their issue.
Lauren: That's like being your own plumber because you installed the sink yourself. And now the pipe burst and you're watching TikToks on how to not flood your kitchen.
Honor: Exactly. Path two is you hired an agency. They build beautiful websites. But most agency relationships end at launch. They hand you the keys and move on to the next big project.
Lauren: So six months later when something breaks...
Honor: You email your old project manager... who may have left the company... you get quoted hourly rates for support work... suddenly a small fix costs hundreds of dollars. Your 5,000 dollar project just isn't big enough to keep their attention anymore.
Lauren: Ouch. Okay, what about freelancers?
Honor: Path three. Freelancers can be great... more affordable, more personal. But they're one person. When your site breaks, they might be on vacation, slammed with other projects, moved on to a full-time job... or they might have just... disappeared.
Lauren: They ghosted!
Honor: It happens way more than you'd think. 70 percent of freelancers are juggling multiple projects at once. Your small update is competing with their bigger, higher-paying clients.
Lauren: So it's like hiring a handyman who disappears in the middle of fixing your roof. And now it's raining and you don't even have his new number.
Honor: Perfect. And here's the thing people don't realize... small businesses actually get targeted more than big companies. They're hit almost four times more often because they have weaker defenses.
Lauren: Wait, they specifically go after small businesses?
Honor: It's automated. Hackers run scripts that scan millions of sites looking for outdated plugins, weak spots... your little plumbing company website is just as much a target as anyone else. Maybe more.
Lauren: Okay that's terrifying. So what's the moral here? What should my friend have done differently?
Honor: Before you hire anyone to build your website, ask one question: when something breaks, who do I call? If the answer isn't clear and simple... that's a red flag.
Lauren: Who do I call when it breaks. That's the question. And if you want a really simple answer to that question... give YouGrow a call!
Honor: Yeah, with us you never have to figure it out yourself. We build your site and we manage it... forever. Something breaks? You email or call. It gets fixed. Usually same day. Security is our problem, backups happen automatically, updates happen when you ask. 79 dollars a month, everything included, month-to-month, cancel anytime. I'm Onur, I'm in Arroyo Grande, and I answer my phone.
Lauren: No more 11 PM YouTube tutorials. Alright, this has been 805 Web Minute. Thanks for listening.