Managed WordPress hosting set up and looked after for you
My website hosting Darwin service puts your WordPress site on fast, secure servers and keeps it backed up. You get one person to call when something needs sorting rather than a support queue.
The plain English version
Hosting is the computer your website lives on. When someone types your address or taps your Google listing, their phone asks that server for your pages and it sends them back. If the server is slow, overloaded or offline, so is your website.
Cheap shared hosting packs thousands of websites onto one machine. It works until a neighbouring site gets busy or hacked, then everyone slows down. Good hosting gives your site enough room, keeps the software current and takes regular backups.
Because your website sits in a data centre rather than in your shop, it keeps running when the power goes out in a storm or a cyclone warning shuts the town down for a day. Customers can still find you and send enquiries.
The things that matter for a small business site
The padlock in the browser bar so visitors and Google know the site is secure.
Copies of your site and database kept off the server so it can be restored quickly.
A layer in front of your site that blocks bad traffic and speeds up page loading.
PHP and server software kept current so WordPress runs fast and safely.
Business email on your own domain. Or help connecting Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
Questions go straight to me by phone or email, not to a ticket system overseas.
Long distances and patchy reception
A lot of Top End customers search on a phone with less than perfect reception. Out along the Arnhem Highway, on a rural block near Berry Springs or on a boat in the harbour, a heavy website can take so long to load that people give up.
Fast hosting is half the answer. The other half is building the site lean, with compressed images, minimal plugins and caching switched on. I look after both sides, which is one of the advantages of having the same person build and host your site.
Google measures page speed too. A quicker site is a small but real help for local search rankings and a big help for keeping visitors on the page.
A careful transfer with no downtime
If your site is with a large hosting company and you are tired of slow support, I can move it across. I copy the whole site, test it on the new server and only then point your domain at it. Visitors never see a gap.
Email is the part people worry about most, so I check where your email lives before anything changes. If it is on the old host, I plan the move so nothing is lost. If it is on Microsoft 365 or Google, it stays exactly where it is.
Hosting pairs naturally with a maintenance plan, so updates, backups and the server are all handled in one place.
Four steps, usually done within a few days
1
I find out where your domain, website and email currently live and who has the logins.
2
Your site is copied to the new server and tested on a temporary address.
3
The domain is pointed to the new server, usually overnight to keep things quiet.
4
I check the site, forms and email are working and help cancel the old hosting.
What Darwin site owners want to know
Can’t see your question here? Give me a call or send a message and I’ll get back to you within one business day.
Website Design Darwin offers managed website hosting for Darwin and Northern Territory businesses, run by Nick Fritzkowski. Hosting includes SSL, backups, Cloudflare and direct support by phone or email. It suits WordPress sites built by Nick or by other developers.
Your Darwin website does not go offline when the local power goes out in a storm, because it is hosted in a data centre rather than at your premises. Customers can still find your site and send enquiries while you wait for the power to come back.
I can move an existing Top End website to new hosting without losing email. Before the move I check where your email is hosted and plan around it. Mailboxes on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace are not affected at all.
Website hosting is not included in the fixed price of a Darwin website from Website Design Darwin. It is a separate yearly cost along with your domain name. I can set up hosting for you or you can use any host you prefer.
Fast hosting matters even more when your customers are in rural Northern Territory areas with weaker mobile reception. A quick server and a lean website together make pages load in a few seconds instead of timing out. That keeps people on your site long enough to call.
You keep full ownership of your domain when you host your website with me. The domain stays registered in your name and can be pointed anywhere. If you decide to leave, I provide a complete copy of your site to take with you.
Cloudflare is a service that sits in front of a website to filter out bad traffic and serve pages faster from nearby servers. Darwin websites benefit from it because it blocks a lot of automated attacks before they reach WordPress and speeds up loading for visitors.
Tell me where your site is hosted now and I will let you know what moving it would involve.
