What to consider regarding ongoing running of a new website
This article is intended for individuals and small business owners who are—or are considering—embarking on setting up their first website. Please let me know in the comments below if you find it helpful or have any questions. I hope it clarifies a few things rather than making it seem even more complex.
Hosting charges
Hosting covers the server that runs 24/7 in order to keep your website online and accessible to users around the world. Hosting charges may or may not include email and are likely to be dependant on disk space and monthly bandwidth (i.e., how much traffic your site can deal with) allocated to your website. Most simple websites should be fine on the most basic hosting plans.
Many hosting providers, ISPs (internet service providers) and web designers provide email as a free add-on. This can be fine if you don't rely heavily on your email but it can also not be the most reliable long term. As your business grows, it's likely that your email will become the most important service you use and therefor it's important to have it set up properly with a reliable provider that is not tied to your designer or ISP. It is also strongly recommended that you do not use an email address @your-isp.co.nz (e.g., @xtra.co.nz, @paradise.net.nz, @ihug.co.nz etc) because when the time comes for you to change providers (and it's likely to happen), you are in the situation where you need to advise all your friends and colleagues that your email has changed. Further, if you have any printed material—such as brochures, business cards, letterheads—you will need to reprint them. It's strongly recommended that you use an email address @yourdomain.co.nz because, as long as you keep your domain name, your email address does not need to change.
CMS (content-management system) charges
If you are likely to be updating your content regularly (and it is generally advisable to do so to keep your site relevant), it is great if you can make these changes yourself so you don't need to pay your designer for every little change. Many sites now come with the option of a CMS that enables you to manage the content yourself easily and efficiently. If you don't need this, it's worth checking to see if you can avoid paying for it.
Domain names
You need a domain name in order for users to find your website. These are usually billed annually.
Maintenance
The internet is a dynamic and rapidly-changing medium. A web designer cannot anticipate all the changes in technology and, while a good web development company should make minor tweaks and changes to your website to keep it running smoothly, things can break or stop working. In this case, there may be ongoing costs involved with fixing a site. Most small sites are so simple in their implementation that there is very little to go wrong. The biggest problem for web designers is all the different web browsers (Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8; Firefox 2, 3; Safari 2, 3, 4; Opera; etc). Web developers should test your website in all the major browsers when they build your site but there is the possibility that, when a new browser comes out, something may break.
General upkeep
If you have a CMS, you can manage the text and images yourself. However, it's quite likely that, as time goes on, you will want to make little changes to the layout or look-and-feel of your site. Perhaps you've had comments from your readers that things could be a bit easier to read or that navigation is not as clear as it could be. In any case, you need a web designer who will be around in the future to help with these changes and you need to be prepared to pay for these when you're ready for them. Again, with small sites, it's quite possible to have your site online for several years with no ongoing work—if it's been designed well from the start.
Growing and changing
As your business changes and grows, it's likely that your website will need to change and grow too. It's a good idea to have a site that starts out simple and within your limited startup budget but that has the flexibility and adaptability to grow with you. Of course, if you start with something really really simple, it might be totally realistic to build a completely new site in a year or two if your business really takes off or changes direction.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
For small websites, this is often something you can focus on yourself if you choose to dedicate the time to learn the simple basics. There are many things you can do for free to help increase your website's presence in the major search engines. If you need some help, your web designer should be able to give advice and help you to make changes to your site on an ongoing basis.
Help when you need it
Your web design company should be able to help you with getting up to speed with how your website works, what to expect from it and how everything else associated with it works such as email, etc. If they don't have this capability in their team, they should be able to steer you towards someone who can help you. It's often a good idea, if you're not so computer-savvy, to find a computer tech support outfit nearby who can help you when you need it. At the end of the day, you're probably good at what you do but you don't need to be trying to do everything else in order to keep your computer and website always running smoothly.
Conclusion
Ask questions. As someone famous said, "there is no such thing as a stupid question."