Dedicated Website Administration Retainers
Stop letting junior agency accounts or set-and-forget plugins babysit your digital storefront. You get one senior practitioner handling website management end to end — updates, technical SEO, accessibility, and Core Web Vitals, plus proprietary internal-link auditing, scaled to what you actually run.
- Monthly CMS, theme, and plugin updates with rollback
- Monthly site health review by a senior admin, not a plugin: broken links, SEO hygiene, and accessibility flags
- Monthly health report with a prioritized fix list
- Named senior contact and incident response within 24 hours
- Everything in Essentials, plus:
- Twice-weekly updates + database optimization
- Internal-link and SEO monitoring via LinkSentinel (WordPress); broken-link + redirect audits on Shopify & static sites*
- Core Web Vitals tuning toward a sub-2.5s LCP
- Conversion and analytics support: GA4 event tracking and A/B test setup
- 1 hour of senior implementation or edits each month (front-end, CMS, HubSpot; small changes, does not roll over)
- Priority response within 24 hours (email + chat)
*LinkSentinel is WordPress only; Shopify & static sites get broken-link + redirect audits
- Everything in Growth, plus:
- Weekly updates + proactive review
- 3 hours of senior administrator dev or edits each month (front-end, CMS, HubSpot; small changes, not new builds; does not roll over)
- Full ADA/WCAG accessibility + CCPA/CPRA/GDPR privacy compliance-readiness auditing
- Monthly technical SEO audit with structured data and local/GEO review
- Quarterly digital-operations strategy call
- Same-business-day response. A real person, not a ticket queue.
Every tier is month-to-month. Cancel anytime with 30 days' written notice. No long-term contract, no lock-in. Third-party license, hosting, and plugin costs are passed through at cost.
What a Retainer Covers (and What It Doesn't)
Clear scope is what keeps a retainer fair to both of us. Here's exactly what's included in keeping your site current, fast, found, and accessible, and what gets quoted separately. New to this? Here's the difference between website management and website administration (short version: I do both).
- Tiered CMS, theme, and plugin updates with rollback (monthly on Essentials, twice-weekly on Growth, weekly on Pro)
- Scheduled site health reviews: broken links, SEO hygiene, and accessibility flags
- Technical SEO and internal-link health (Growth and Pro): LinkSentinel monitoring on WordPress, broken-link + redirect audits on Shopify and static sites
- Core Web Vitals and performance tuning (Growth and Pro)
- Conversion and analytics support: GA4 event tracking and A/B test setup (Growth and Pro)
- ADA/WCAG accessibility and CCPA/CPRA/GDPR privacy compliance-readiness auditing (Pro)
- Senior implementation time included monthly: 1 hour on Growth, 3 hours on Pro (small edits, not new builds)
- Named incident response within your tier's SLA, plus health reporting on cadence (monthly report on all tiers; quarterly strategy call on Pro)
- Net-new page or feature builds — quoted ad-hoc
- Full redesigns or platform migrations — quoted ad-hoc
- Emergency rescue of a site not under retainer — quoted ad-hoc
- Content writing and production — quoted ad-hoc
- Paid ads and paid-media campaigns — not a service I offer
- 24/7 uptime monitoring and server backups — your host's job, not mine
- Third-party license, hosting, and plugin costs — passed through at cost
- Recovery from changes made outside the administrator — quoted ad-hoc
How Onboarding Works
No black box. The first weeks are about understanding what you actually run before anything goes live on a cadence.
Technical audit
I inventory exactly what you're running: CMS version, theme, plugins, hosting, DNS, SEO health, accessibility, and any open performance debt. No guessing.
Fix what's bleeding first
I connect LinkSentinel (WordPress) or link auditing (Shopify and static), wire up analytics, and close the critical SEO, accessibility, and speed gaps the audit surfaced.
Baseline + priority list
You get a baseline health report and a ranked list of what to fix first, so the first month closes real gaps instead of busywork.
Ongoing cadence
From there it runs on your tier's rhythm: updates, health reviews, SEO and performance work, and reporting, with one named senior administrator accountable when something needs attention.
Fractional vs. the Alternatives
A full-time senior web admin runs $80k–$110k a year. Freelancer roulette only shows up after something's already broken. Fractional is the rational middle: senior expertise on a retainer, for a fraction of a hire.
| DIY / "my nephew" | Per-incident freelancer | Fractional admin (this) | Full-time hire | Agency retainer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Free until it isn't | $75–$200/hr, only after it breaks | $50–$250 / site / month | $80k–$110k / year | Often $1k+/mo |
| Who does the work | Whoever's available | Different person each time | One named senior administrator | One person (plus benefits + overhead) | Rotating junior account team |
| Proactive vs. reactive | Reactive | Reactive | Proactive | Proactive | Mixed |
| Accountability when it breaks | None when it breaks | Ends when the ticket closes | SLA-backed, named owner | Yours to manage | Faceless ticket queue |
| Proactive SEO, speed & accessibility | Not happening | Not their job | Built into every tier | If they have time | Usually costs extra |
Retainer FAQ
The questions that actually decide whether a retainer is right for you.
What does "per site" mean?
One production website, with its staging environment included. If you run multiple production sites, each one is its own retainer line. Multi-site brands usually land on Pro.
Monthly vs. weekly updates — which tier do I need?
If your site is stable and rarely changes, monthly updates on Essentials are fine. If it actively generates leads or revenue, the larger attack surface and faster-moving plugin ecosystem make Growth's twice-weekly updates, LinkSentinel monitoring, Core Web Vitals work, and monthly hands-on implementation hour the safer call. High-traffic, multi-site, or compliance-conscious brands belong on Pro with weekly updates, compliance auditing, and senior dev hours.
Do you handle 24/7 uptime monitoring and backups?
No, and I won't pretend otherwise. I'm a fractional administrator, not a managed-hosting or security-operations service. Your host owns uptime and server-level backups. I own the administration layer: updates, technical SEO, accessibility, performance, conversion, and the senior hands-on work that protects what your site earns. When something breaks, I'm the named person you call, and I triage it within your tier's SLA.
What's not included, and how does ad-hoc billing work?
Retainers cover keeping your existing site current, fast, found, and accessible. Net-new builds, redesigns, migrations, content production, paid-media campaigns, and rescue of a site not under retainer are quoted separately as ad-hoc work. Third-party license, hosting, and plugin costs are passed through at cost. See the ad-hoc rates above.
Can I cancel?
Yes. Retainers are month-to-month. Cancel anytime with 30 days' written notice. No long-term contract.
Is this website management or website administration?
Both — two names for the same job here. Website management is the remit (what to fix, what to grow); administration is the hands-on execution. A fractional web admin does both, so nothing falls between a strategist and a technician.
Does LinkSentinel work on Shopify?
No. LinkSentinel is WordPress-only and is bundled into Growth and Pro at no extra cost. Shopify and static sites get broken-link and redirect audits instead, covered under the same tiers.
Do you fix sites you didn't build?
Yes. Most sites I take over were built by someone else, sometimes someone long gone. The onboarding audit exists precisely to map an inherited codebase before I touch anything.
What happens when something breaks?
You report it, I triage within your tier's response SLA (within 24 hours on Essentials, priority within 24 hours on Growth, same business day on Pro), and I stay on it through resolution. One named administrator owns the loop, not a queue.
Is my data or compliance actually certified?
No, and anyone who tells you a maintenance retainer certifies you is overselling. Pro includes ADA/WCAG accessibility and CCPA/CPRA/GDPR privacy compliance-readiness auditing: I find and document the gaps so you can close them. Certification is a separate formal process with an accredited assessor.
Ad Hoc & On-Demand Systems Services
Need targeted technical intervention or a major systems upgrade? We offer flat-rate on-demand services for projects, emergency rescues, and platform migrations.
Platforms We Administer
Expert custody for the architectures you rely on, with hands-on systems experience. Local? See how this works for Jacksonville-area businesses.
Not Sure Which Plan Is Right for You?
Not sure if you need Essentials or Pro? Tell me what's running, what's broken, and what keeps you up at night. I will tell you straight which tier actually fits. No upsell.