Your Security & Hosting SpecialistOnline, patched,
and out of trouble.
Your Security & Hosting Specialist keeps the site up and safe: hosting that fits the traffic, updates applied, backups that have actually been restored, and someone watching. Attacks on small business sites are automated and constant — almost nobody is targeted, they are just reachable and out of date.
What this person does for you
Almost nobody is targeted
The scanning is automated and indiscriminate. Being small is not protection; being current is.
Backups nobody has tested are not backups
The only backup worth having is one somebody has restored.
Hosting has to fit the site
Most hosting problems are a mismatch between the plan and the traffic or the images, and they show up as a bill or as downtime.
What people come to us with
These are the sentences business owners actually say on the first call, and what a Security & Hosting Specialist does about each one. If one of them is yours, the audit will tell you how many hours it takes to fix.
My site went down and I found out from a customer
Uptime and certificates are monitored, so we find out first. You get told what happened and what stops it happening again, not just that it is back.
I have been told we were hacked
Clean-up, then root cause, then hardening — in that order. Almost nobody is targeted: the scanning is automated and indiscriminate, and being out of date is what makes a site reachable.
I do not know whether we have backups
Then you do not have backups. A backup nobody has restored is an assumption; restores get tested here, before the day you need one.
My hosting bill went up and I cannot see why
Most hosting problems are a plan that does not match the site, in either direction. We size it to your real traffic and your real image weight and tell you if you are paying for headroom you will never use.
Our emails keep going to spam
That is usually the records in your DNS rather than anything you wrote. SPF, DKIM and DMARC decide whether your mail is trusted, and most small businesses have never had them set up properly.
I am afraid to update anything in case it breaks the site
Which is exactly why sites get breached. Updates get applied, checked and rolled back if they misbehave, so staying current stops being a risk you carry.
What they are good at
Disciplines rather than software. The bench changes tools as the work changes; what does not change is what the role is accountable for.
- Hosting sized to your real traffic and your real image weight, not a sales tier
- Platform, theme and plugin updates applied and then checked
- Backups taken, and restores actually tested rather than assumed
- Uptime and certificate monitoring, so you are not told by a customer
- Hardening the obvious doors: logins, permissions, exposed endpoints
- Clean-up and recovery when something does get through
- DNS, and the email records that decide whether your mail arrives
- Moving a site between hosts without a day of downtime
Outside this role
Every agency page reads as though one person does everything, which is how you end up disappointed by work nobody agreed to. These sit outside this role, and where something is simply somebody else’s job we have said whose.
Most hosting problems are a plan that does not match the site, in both directions.
This is the website and what it runs on.
The scanning is automated and constant. Being current and backed up is the part anyone can control.
Cyber Essentials and the like are separate work.
What the hours actually go on
Hours are recorded against your account and reported back to you every month, so you can see exactly where the time went rather than taking it on trust.
Nobody is on a retainer here. In a quiet month you buy fewer hours of this role, and in a heavy one you buy more.
- Applies platform and plugin updates
- Takes backups, and tests a restore
- Watches uptime and certificates
- Keeps hosting matched to real traffic
- Handles anything that gets through
How they work on your business
You never brief this role directly, and you never chase it. There is one route in and one route back, and it is the same every month.
- You raise it
One conversation with your Marketing Manager. You describe the problem, not the solution — working out which discipline it belongs to is their job.
- It goes in the plan
With hours against it, agreed with you before anything starts. If it does not fit this month, you are told that rather than discovering it later.
- The work happens
Updates, backups and monitoring run on a schedule, and anything urgent is handled without waiting for the monthly call.
- You get it back
Reviewed by your Marketing Manager before it reaches you, reported with the hours it actually took, and kept on the rolling view for next quarter.
Updates stop being something you think about, and a restore has been tested before the day you need it.
Where they would start
Gets updates, backups and monitoring in place, which on most sites we audit is the first time.
Your audit works out whether you need a Security & Hosting Specialist at all, and for how many hours. We would rather tell you that you do not.
The rest of your team
You do not brief any of them directly. You tell your Marketing Manager what the problem is, and working out which of these it belongs to is their job.
Marketing Manager
Runs your account, presents your audit, and is the only number you need.
Web Developer
Builds it, fixes it, and keeps it fast and standing up.
Content Writer
Writes the pages, articles and answers that get you found and believed.
SEO Specialist
Works out why you are not being found, and does something about it.
AI Discoverability Specialist
Makes sure ChatGPT and the rest can describe you, and get it right.
Social Media Manager
Keeps the channels alive where your customers actually are.
Designer
Makes it look like a business people would buy from.