Website Maintenance vs. VIP Day Updates: Which Does Your Business Need in 2025?

Website Maintenance vs. VIP Day Seasonal Updates

Your website isn’t a crockpot meal where you can “set it and forget it.” It’s more like your skin-care routine: daily moisturizer (regular website maintenance) and the occasional spa facial (VIP Day). Both matter. Both serve different purposes. And if you want your website working as hard as you do, you probably need a bit of both.

But what’s the difference between monthly website maintenance and VIP Day website updates? Do you need one, the other, or both? And— honestly— what’s worth DIY’ing versus outsourcing to a professional website designer? Let’s dig in.

What Is Monthly Website Maintenance?

Monthly website maintenance is exactly what it sounds like: the small, recurring tasks that keep your website secure, SEO-friendly, and up to date.

Here’s the thing: monthly maintenance can be DIY or on retainer.

• DIY Website Maintenance: If you’re comfortable making small updates, you can absolutely log into your site and handle things yourself. (Updating your hours, swapping a photo, fixing a typo—these are all low-stakes updates.)

• Website Maintenance Retainer: If you’d rather not worry about it, you can totally hire a web designer to handle ongoing updates on a monthly plan. This means someone else is on-call to catch problems, fix them quickly, and keep your site running smoothly.

Examples of website maintenance tasks include:

• Updating service descriptions or packages, pricing, and contact info

• Uploading new testimonials or portfolio pieces

• Adding blog posts or resources

• Swapping out photos or seasonal offers

• Checking and fixing broken links

• Updating your website copy

• Running backups and software/plugin updates (especially for WordPress or e-commerce sites)

• Keeping basic SEO fresh: meta descriptions, alt text, keyword adjustments

Here's why it matters... Regular website maintenance keeps your site relevant to both people and search engines. When your website looks abandoned, Google takes note— and so do potential clients.

What Is a Website Maintenance VIP Day?

A VIP Day is your website’s seasonal reset button. It’s a focused, one-day session where a designer dedicates their time exclusively to giving your site a strategic refresh.

Unlike small monthly tweaks, VIP Days tackle bigger projects that make a noticeable difference in how your site looks and performs.

Typical VIP Day updates include:

• Redesigning or revamping key website pages

• Refreshing your homepage with updated branding and messaging

• Creating new landing pages for services, products, or events

• Improving user flow and navigation (so people actually find what they’re looking for)

• Adding new functionality (booking systems, e-commerce, memberships, etc.)

• Overhauling your on-page SEO strategy site-wide

Here's why it matters... Your business evolves. Maybe your services have changed, or your brand visuals need updating, or maybe your website just feels dated compared to your competitors. A VIP Day gives your site the strategic overhaul it needs— fast.

Website Maintenance vs. VIP Day: How They Work Together

So do you need a monthly website retainer, or should you just book a VIP Day once or twice a year? The truth is: most businesses need both.

Monthly website maintenance = ongoing care. Keeps things tidy, functional, and SEO-healthy. Can be DIY or outsourced.

VIP Day updates = strategic, high-level refreshes. These shouldn’t be DIY unless you want to risk breaking things or missing big SEO opportunities.

For example, let's say you own a local wellness studio... Your monthly tasks might look like updating class schedules, posting new blog content, and uploading fresh photos of events. During a Seasonal VIP Day, the scope of work might look like reorganizing service packages, adding a new landing page for retreats, refreshing homepage copy, and re-optimizing SEO across the site.

Together, these approaches make sure your site is both consistently active and strategically updated.

Why You Should Still Learn Some DIY Website Maintenance

Even if you’re outsourcing some tasks, I always recommend business owners get comfortable with basic DIY website maintenance. Why?

• You don’t want to wait weeks to fix something as small as changing your business hours.

• You’ll feel empowered to actually use your site instead of being scared of it.

• Google loves sites that are updated regularly—even tiny changes can signal “this site is alive.”

Think of it like changing a lightbulb: you can handle that. But if you need to rewire the entire electrical system? That’s when you call the pro.

FAQs About Website Maintenance & VIP Days

1. Do I really need monthly website maintenance? Yes. 1000%. Even if you’re not constantly changing your services, your site still needs regular check-ins for security, SEO, and relevance.

2. Can I do website maintenance myself? Absolutely! Small updates like swapping photos, updating prices, or adding a blog post are very DIY-friendly. For more technical tasks (backups, plugin updates, SEO audits), many business owners prefer to outsource, and that's usually a good idea.

3. How often should I book a website VIP Day? Most businesses benefit from 1–2 VIP Days per year. Think of them as seasonal refreshes to realign your site with your evolving business goals!

4. Is a retainer or VIP Day better for SEO? Both matter... Monthly maintenance supports SEO with fresh content and clean site health, while VIP Days allow for bigger strategic changes like restructuring content, optimizing site speed, or improving technical SEO.

The Takeaway

Your website doesn’t need a total rebuild every year—but it does need consistent love.

Monthly website maintenance (DIY or through a retainer) handles small, ongoing updates.

Seasonal VIP Day website updates give your site the bigger-picture refresh it needs to keep up with your business.

Together, they keep your site relevant, SEO-friendly, and primed to convert visitors into clients.

Ready to figure out what your site needs right now? Book a VIP Day or let’s chat about a website maintenance retainer that fits your business. And if you’re more of a DIY type, no worries— just promise me you won’t ghost your website, okay? 😉