First, the important bit: with BuildMySite you own your site outright — domain, hosting, the lot — so ongoing maintenance is a choice, never a subscription you're trapped in. That said, websites do need looking after. Most $99/month "maintenance plans" sold to Melbourne tradies are 95% hosting, 5% "we'll deal with it if something major breaks". Here's what actually breaks on tradie sites, what you can handle yourself, and how to tell whether paying someone is worth it.
What "$99/Month Maintenance" Usually Covers
Most of these plans break down roughly like this:
| What's included | What it actually means |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Your site sits on a server. Costs about $5–10/month at cost. |
| SSL certificate | Comes free with any modern host. $0. |
| "Backups" | Auto-backup feature most hosts include for free. Rarely tested. |
| "Security updates" | Auto-applied by the platform (WordPress core, etc.). Done by software, not the agency. |
| "Bug fixes" | Sometimes. Often "billed separately" when one actually happens. |
| Content updates | Almost never included. Or limited to "30 minutes/month" of vague support. |
So you're paying $99/month for $10/month of hosting and a vague promise. The work that actually keeps a tradie site bringing in leads — adding new project photos, replying to reviews, making sure forms still work, refreshing GBP — none of that is in the plan.
What Actually Goes Wrong on Tradie Websites
Real-world breakage we see across Melbourne tradie sites:
The silent killers:
- Contact form delivery fails — usually because an email provider tightened spam rules and the agency never updated the SMTP setup. Site looks fine. Leads vanish.
- SSL certificate auto-renew fails — Google flags the site as "not secure", organic traffic drops 30–50% within a week.
- Plugin or theme version out of date — site starts throwing errors, sometimes only on mobile, sometimes only on certain pages.
- Reviews go unanswered — Google's algorithm penalises businesses that don't engage, your map ranking slowly drops.
- Project photos never get added — your competitors who post weekly start ranking above you on "[trade] [suburb]" searches.
- Contact forms silently stop sending — you think things have gone quiet, but enquiries are vanishing into a dead inbox.
What Proper Maintenance Should Cover
If you're paying for ongoing maintenance, here's what should actually be in the plan:
- Active monitoring — alerts when something breaks (not waiting for you to notice and complain)
- Monthly content updates — at least one new photo set, one service or product change, refreshed GBP
- Reviews handled — replies written for you, fakes flagged, asks sent to recent customers
- Form delivery tested — actual test enquiries sent through your form to confirm they reach you
- Software updates — applied, then tested (not just blindly auto-applied)
- Hosting + SSL + backups — monitored, tested quarterly
- Monthly report — short, in plain English: traffic, leads, anything to flag
That's actual work — usually 2 to 4 hours per month per site, varying by how much content the tradie wants updated. At market rate, that's $200 to $500 of work per month, plus the hosting/infrastructure baseline.
Should You Pay for Maintenance at All?
Honest answer: not always.
When it makes sense
- Your site is bringing in real leads (more than 5 per month). Letting it break is leaking real money.
- Your site is your main lead source — a broken form on a busy weekend means jobs you'll never even know you lost.
- You don't have time or interest in logging in to fix things yourself.
- You've had at least one "the form was broken for months" incident already.
When it doesn't
- Your site is a static brochure with very low traffic. There's not much to maintain because nothing's moving.
- You enjoy the admin side and have a system for checking your site monthly.
- You're early stage, on a tight budget, and getting leads through Google Business Profile alone — better to invest the $400/month in ads or photography first.
How Site Care Works
Our Site Care add-on is From $300 AUD / month, cancel anytime, no lock-in contract. It covers everything in the "proper maintenance" list above. If your site doesn't need that much each month (smaller scope), we'll quote you accordingly — we don't pad billing.
We don't insist on Site Care for every tradie we work with. About a third of our Website clients add it on, two-thirds don't. We tell you straight whether it's worth it for your case.
If your current $99/month plan is only giving you hosting and silence, you're not getting maintenance — you're getting a server bill in disguise. Either upgrade to something that does real work, or drop it and move your site to your own host for $10/month.
Free mockup in 48hrs. Pay only if you love it.