Website QA & Testing, Security, Maintenance and Hosting
What we do before and after your website goes live.
Before your website goes live, we run it through a series of tests to ensure it’s fast-loading, secure, and reliable. For instance, to make sure your new site renders consistently across browsers and platforms, we test it using Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, iOS, and Android. We also test it in the final hosting environment to ensure all functionality works once the site goes live.
How fast your website loads, and its reliability, depend on the quality of the hosting platform or server. Knowing this, we ensure that your website is on a hosting account that provides top performance, and we develop it within a secure hosting environment. Our structured go-live process ensures no last-minute surprises or hurdles before launch, while making sure the site is properly indexed by Google and Bing. Quality checks ensure forms and functionality are working as expected and without issue.
After your new website goes live, we offer ongoing service plans to maintain security and functionality.
After launch, for any website to remain effective, continuing attention to security and maintenance is necessary. Our ongoing security and maintenance plans provide a proactive, seamless way to protect your site with frequent updates and quality assurance (QA) checks, form and transaction testing, and performance monitoring. Plan subscribers receive access to our client-facing team, priority service for hourly development work, and emergency support from Windmill during business hours.
We offer a variety of plans to suit the needs of simple or complex websites, including these key services:
- Weekly automated WordPress core / plugin updates with manual remediation* if needed.
- MySQL and PHP upgrades per server requirement schedule
- Automated regression testing to scan and revert failed updates or performance issues
- Manual remediation for any failed updates via regression testing
- Monthly manual WordPress core / advanced function plugin updates, page render and form testing
- Manual render QA for key templates/features
- Form testing QA
- Monthly proactive manual core/plugin updates including page render and form testing
- Additional customized options for non-WordPress websites
- Email support access to a technical account manager
- Access to select Windmill plugin license keys
- Priority service for hourly development work
- Emergency support – contact Windmill during standard business hours, contact WP Engine via their user portal 24/7
Best-in-class Hosting and 24/7 Support Through Our Recommended Hosting Partner, WP Engine
All WP Engine hosting plans include:
- 24/7 chat support via WPEngine User Portal
- Daily & on-demand backups (restorable up to 30 days, 60 days via support chat)
- Free SSL & SSH with automated renewals
- Production, Staging & Development environments with one-click enablement
- Site content in the cloud (Cloudflare CDN)
- Threat detection & blocking
- Faster site speed with Cloudflare tiered caching (increases cache hit rates using multiple tiers)
- Automatic image compression with Cloudflare Polish – converts images to next-gen format (webp)
- HTTP/3 (reduces latency for return visitors & performs better on congested networks)
Optional, often recommended add-ons:
- Optional: Extra Layer of Security: DDoS mitigation, app-layer protection, and a Cloudflare CDN performance booster
- Optional: Page Speed Boost
- Required: site monitoring
- Required: smart plugin manager
Windmill Strategy didn’t build my website. Can I still sign up for a website maintenance package?
Although our website maintenance packages are designed for sites that were built by us, we also selectively partner with clients who are looking for a partner to maintain their existing website.
When considering maintenance of a website not built by our team, we first perform a Website Investigation to become familiar with the website, how it was built and any potential issues that could arise. We then make a list of issues to fix, required software updates, and suggestions for improvement needed in order to proceed with the website on a monthly website maintenance package.