New WordPress Website Partner
Need someone new to take care of your WordPress website?
Maybe your developer is retiring. Your agency is closing. The employee who handled the website has moved on. Or maybe you’re simply ready for a change.
Whatever brought you here, you don’t have to start over just because you need someone new to take care of your website.
We take over the maintenance of WordPress websites we didn’t build all the time.
Your website is still yours. We’re simply becoming the team that takes care of it.
A New Website Partner
Sometimes things change.
There are plenty of reasons to need someone new to take care of your website. Some are complicated. Some aren’t.
What matters is finding a reliable team to take it from here.
Yes, we can take over the care of a WordPress site we didn't build.
We maintain WordPress websites built by other developers and agencies.
When you move your website maintenance to Cider House, we become the team responsible for keeping WordPress updated, maintaining backups, monitoring the website and being here when you need help.
We’ll also spend some time getting familiar with how the site was built. We’ll check for malware, tighten security and look for obvious performance or resource problems that could cause trouble later.
There’s a practical reason for that.
If we’re going to take care of your website, we want it running well.
If we discover something more substantial, we’ll tell you what we found and what we recommend doing about it.
Sometimes changing website partners takes a little detective work.
We’ve stepped in because developers retired, agencies closed, employees left and businesses simply wanted better support.
We’ve also dealt with much harder handoffs.
We’ve helped clients figure out who actually controls their domain name and how to get it transferred back to them. We’ve tracked down account information after companies changed hands. We’ve worked through websites where nobody had all the passwords or knew exactly where everything lived.
We’ve even helped a client whose longtime developer passed away and left behind a website nobody else could access. There wasn’t a clean handoff available, so we ultimately rebuilt what the client needed and helped them move forward.
Every situation is different.
If your handoff is complicated, we’ll help you figure out what you have, what can legitimately be recovered and what the next step should be.
Your website is yours.
Changing website partners doesn’t change that.
We believe businesses should have appropriate access to the important things their websites depend on, including their domain registration, WordPress website and critical accounts.
Our job is to manage the technical side for you, keep the website running and be there when you need us. We’re your website partner. We’re not taking ownership of your website.
What about paid plugins and software licenses?
Sometimes a WordPress website uses paid plugins, themes or other software licensed by the developer or agency that originally built it.
Those licenses don’t always transfer when that relationship ends.
We’ll help identify anything the website needs and get the appropriate licenses set up. If a paid third-party plugin, theme or service is required to keep the website running, the cost of that software is the client’s responsibility.
You shouldn't have to be your own website support department.
Our WordPress Maintenance plans cover the ongoing work of keeping WordPress updated, backed up, monitored and supported.
You can keep your current hosting if it’s working well.
Or, if you’re tired of dealing with your hosting company every time something goes wrong, we can take care of the hosting too. Managed WordPress hosting is available with our maintenance plans for eligible websites.
Either way, you’ll know who to call when you need help.
Do we have to rebuild your website?
No.
Changing website partners doesn’t mean changing websites.
If your existing site is doing its job, we’ll take care of it. If we see something we think should be improved, we’ll tell you.
And if changing website partners happens to coincide with a larger change you’ve already been considering, we can also help with Website Design or Search Engine Optimization.
Those are separate decisions. You don’t need a new website just because you need a new website partner.
Real clients.
Real recovery.
Finding out your website has been hacked is unsettling, especially when you don’t know what happened or how far the problem goes. We help our clients clean up the infection, repair the damage and get their WordPress website back where it belongs.
Questions about changing WordPress website partners
Can you maintain a WordPress website you didn't build?
Yes. We take over the maintenance of WordPress websites built by other developers and agencies all the time.
We’ll get familiar with the website, make sure we have the access we need and take care of some basic security and performance housekeeping as part of bringing it into our maintenance program.
Do I have to rebuild my website?
No.
If your existing website is working for your business, we’ll work with what you have.
Needing a new website partner does not mean you need a new website.
Do I still own my website?
Yes. Your website is yours.
Cider House becomes the team maintaining and supporting it. We’re not taking ownership of your website because you move your maintenance to us.
What if I don't have all the passwords?
Don’t assume that’s a deal breaker.
We’ll help you figure out what access you have, what accounts need to be recovered and who may need to be contacted.
We can’t bypass account security or ownership requirements, but we can help you work through legitimate recovery options.
What if my previous developer controls my domain name?
We’ve helped clients work through this before.
The exact process depends on how the domain was registered and who controls the account. We can help identify the registrar, determine what information may be needed and help you understand the steps for recovering or transferring control where possible.
Can I keep my current hosting?
Yes.
If your current hosting is working well, you can stay there.
If you’d rather have your maintenance and hosting handled by the same team, managed hosting is available with our maintenance plans for eligible websites.
What happens to plugin and theme licenses from my previous developer?
It depends on how the software was licensed.
If a plugin, theme or service was licensed through your previous developer’s account, that license may not continue after the relationship ends.
We’ll help identify anything the website needs and get new licenses set up where necessary. The client is responsible for the cost of paid third-party software required by the website.
What if you find problems after you start maintaining the website?
We’ll tell you what we found.
Existing websites can contain custom code, outdated software, plugin conflicts or previous development decisions that aren’t immediately obvious.
If something needs work beyond normal maintenance, we’ll explain the problem and recommend what we think should happen next.
Looking for someone new to take care of your WordPress website?
Tell us about your website, who’s taking care of it now and what you’d like to change.
If everything is organized and ready to hand off, great.
If it isn’t, that’s okay too. We’ll start with where things are now and figure out the next step.