Question 1

What is WordPress?

Accepted Answer

Right from the WordPress.org website:

“WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website, blog, or app. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.”

In a nutshell, WordPress is web software that assists in the creation of websites. It offers a nice balance of content management features and backend technologies to satisfy both end users (our clients) and web developers. Rather than reinventing the wheel, WordPress gives us a great, extendable framework from which to build beautiful, feature-rich sites for our clients that they can maintain themselves or allow us to serve them further with ongoing Website Management Services.

Question 2

Why do you use WordPress?

Accepted Answer

WordPress powers nearly half of all websites on the Internet. It is an effective content management system (CMS). That means we have complete authority over the design and functionality of your website.

The best thing about WordPress is that it can grow with you as your company expands. This means that we can create any functionality you require now or in the future, including custom forms, a directory, e-commerce, a blog, and most anything else you can think of.

Question 3

I'm already using Wix (or similar). Why should I switch?

Accepted Answer

Many of our clients reach out to us after outgrowing the features Wix offers. Although Wix is a great tool for getting started, it can be quite limiting in terms of what you can design or create. Think of it as a toolbox with pretty nice tools inside, but they are the only tools you can use.

WordPress, on the other hand, can grow with your company or organization. If you need additional features, you won't have to revamp your entire website. WordPress is very extensible, allowing you to add features outside the Wix box.

Question 4

Why does WordPress need to be updated?

Accepted Answer

WordPress is software that is used to build and operate websites. As such, it needs to be updated to patch discovered vulnerabilities, fix bugs, and maintain functionality.

It’s basically the same concept as your computer — you have to keep it up-to-date to protect yourself and gain new features. If you don’t, you are subject to hackers, malware and other intrusions.

With Harness Media’s Website Management Plans, you need not worry about any of these issues because we test, install, and troubleshoot every update that becomes available for your website.

Question 5

What kinds of updates are installed?

Accepted Answer

Every day, we check to see if any updates are available for your website. Updates that we install are applicable to the core WordPress installation as well as the plugins and themes you have installed.

Before we initiate these updates, we review and test them to reduce the chance of potential security and incompatibility problems with your website.

What would you do if you updated your website on your own and something broke? You’d have to find a way to fix the problem and restore your website to full functionality, which could get costly. You and your potential clients may also experience website downtime which could cause you loss of business.

Question 6

How often do you run malware scans?

Accepted Answer

We are constantly monitoring our servers for malware and other malicious threats, so there is no need for occasional scans. Basically, you can look at our system as having a constant, ongoing, and infinite malware scan.

Question 7

Do you remove malware from my website?

Accepted Answer

Yep! If a hacker, malware, or other intruder just happens to get past all of our front-line protections, we’ll take care of it. We’re confident that their chances of breaching our system are slim to none, so we’ll take responsibility for cleaning up their mess if they somehow manage to slip through.

Note: If you are on our Essentials Plan, you may incur a hack recovery fee, if applicable. All of our other Website Management Plans include hack recovery.

Question 8

Do I have to use your hosting service?

Accepted Answer

We include web hosting for your website with all of our Website Management Plans. Unfortunately, we do not offer any Plans that allow for third-party hosting.

The reason behind this is because we cannot offer the high standards of service that we promise if we don’t have total access to the hosting system, including the server and DNS settings.

Question 9

Can I get a discount if I use my own hosting?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately, we can’t provide a discount for using a third-party hosting service simply because of the extra time it would require us to maintain websites in different systems. Each hosting service is different, which causes procedural issues for us. In fact, we no longer offer our Website Management Plans for websites that are not hosted with us.

By hosting with us as part of your Website Management Plan, we are more efficient and can provide all of our services to you without restriction. Because of our increased efficiency, this actually saves you money overall because you don’t have to pay for hosting services on top of our Website Management Plans.

Question 10

How often can I request support?

Accepted Answer

The whole point of our Website Management Plans is to make it easy on you. There shouldn’t be much need to contact us for general support, but we realize that the need may arise. You are welcome to contact us anytime, as often as you like, for any reason.

General support requests typically consist of technical issues, not content updates, design changes, or custom features. For example, general support requests might pertain to issues such as: problems submitting a contact form; images not loading; or other technical issues.

Content updates, such as editing pages or adding new blog posts are limited by the number of tasks allotted in your Website Management Plan.

Question 11

Can I make changes to my website myself?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We construct the site so that you can easily add, edit, or remove content yourself. But if you run into more technical issues, you can submit a support request and we'll handle it for you.

Some of our clients want us to handle everything, while others want to do all the content updates themselves. But our most common client is one that requires a hybrid version that combines both of these scenarios -- they handle many of the content updates and call upon us when they don't have time to do it themselves or the task requires more expertise.

Question 12

How often do you backup my website?

Accepted Answer

All of our Website Management Plans include same-server backups on a regular basis based on the features of your Plan. We also save remote backups to servers in an entirely different location on a regular basis; how often is based upon which Plan to which you subscribe.

When you need a backup restored, just submit a support ticket and we’ll take care of that for you.

Question 13

How often do you check website uptime?

Accepted Answer

If included in your Plan, our uptime bot checks your website every 5 minutes or 30 seconds. If it is down, we are notified immediately so we can investigate. This is considered a very high-priority event so we can respond within minutes or less, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

That said, the uptime rate for our hosting system is 99.99%, which means downtime is a very rare event. You can check our server status at any time.

Question 14

Can you fix a problem with my website?

Accepted Answer

While we do everything we can to keep your website problem-free in the first place, sometimes things happen that are outside of our control. For example, if you install a new plugin and your website breaks, you may need us to fix it for you.

If your Website Management Plan includes monthly tasks, we’ll apply those toward fixing the problem. However, if the time required to fix the problem extends beyond your allotment, we’ll bill you on a discounted hourly rate. Don’t worry though, we’ll assess the situation to provide you with a time and cost estimate (and receive your approval) before we proceed.

Question 15

How do I move my website to your hosting?

Accepted Answer

You don’t. We offer free migration for all new clients! All you have to do is give us access to your existing hosting account and domain registrar account, and we’ll do it all for you — with little or no downtime!

Question 16

Do you host non-WordPress websites?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately, no. Our hosting system is custom-tailored for WordPress websites only.

Question 17

Can I change to a different plan later?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Just let us know if you need to change your plan and we’ll adjust your billing accordingly. We can start it at the next billing period, or we can prorate the difference.

Question 18

Do I have to agree to a billing contract?

Accepted Answer

No. You can cancel at any time. Your payments are made in advance of service, so if you cancel, your services will be terminated at the end of the current billing period.

The only exception to this rule would be if you are already on one of our Website Build Plans, which include Website Management as part of the package. Once you completed the term of the Website Build Plan, you'd be welcome to continue with Website Management services (at a reduced cost, of course), find your own, or do it yourself.

Question 19

Can I pay annually instead of monthly?

Accepted Answer

Typically, we only allow monthly subscriptions. However, we understand there may be specific instances where annual payments are necessary. Please contact us if you’d like to discuss your billing options.

Question 20

Do you offer bulk discounts?

Accepted Answer

No. Regardless of the number of websites you own, each one requires the same amount of attention. Thus, we cannot offer a multi-website discount.

World-class website care services

Benefits of a managed website

Managed Hosting

SSL Certificate

Software Updates

Server-Side Caching

Local & Remote Backups

24/7 Malware Monitoring

Expert Support

Comprehensive Reports

Monthly Tasks