Trusted by established organisations across Australia

Government, health, energy, education, finance and enterprise.




Conduct team collaborating in the Melbourne studio on social impact digital products

Looked after by the team that designs and builds websites

Conduct has designed, built and supported websites and software since 2008. Our website support and maintenance retainers are run by the same in-house Australian designers and engineers who build websites for government agencies, enterprises and not-for-profits. When a plugin update breaks a template or a form stops sending, you reach people who know how the site is put together.

Our team works from Melbourne and looks after organisations across Australia. Each retainer has a named point of contact you can call, who knows your site, your editors and your release calendar.

Agencies can engage this team through the five government panels Conduct is on (GovCMS, the DTA’s Digital Marketplace Panel 2, the Victorian eServices Register, DJCS Solution Delivery and DoH Solution Delivery), which can keep procurement simple. Our government sector page lists our agency projects.

What website support and maintenance covers

Our website maintenance services are scoped at the start of each retainer, and usually cover the following.

  • Security patchingCore, plugin and module updates applied and tested
  • Uptime and performance monitoringAlerts when the site slows, errors or goes offline
  • Hosting and backupsScheduled offsite backups, with restore testing
  • Accessibility upkeepNew templates and content checked against WCAG 2.2 AA
  • Content and BAU changesNew pages, forms, landing pages and copy edits
  • Incident responseTriage, a fix and a root-cause review
  • Domains and certificatesSSL certificates and domain renewals tracked before they lapse
  • Monthly reportingUpdates applied, issues fixed and hours used

Website management services, the day-to-day changes your marketing and communications teams ask for, sit in the same retainer with the people who patch and test the site.

Website support for Drupal, GovCMS, WordPress, Webflow and more

How we patch, test and release changes depends on the platform your site runs on.

  • Drupal supportCore and module security releases, configuration management and upgrades between major versions
  • GovCMS supportThe GovCMS team manages Drupal core and modules, and we look after themes, configuration and custom code through the platform’s release process
  • WordPress maintenance and supportCore, plugin and theme updates tested on a staging copy first, including custom Timber themes, with unused plugins and old PHP versions tidied up
  • Webflow supportWebflow hosts and patches the platform, and we look after pages, components, CMS collections, forms and the integrations around them
  • Umbraco and other platformsWe can look after Umbraco and other content management systems too, starting with a review of how the site is built and hosted
  • Custom web applicationsSearch tools, booking and enquiry flows, member areas and CRM or payment integrations that sit behind or beside a site

Running a software product, a larger custom platform, a mobile app or a fleet of devices? Our software support and maintenance service looks after those.

Keeping a website accessible and secure after launch

Whatever the platform, a site that met WCAG 2.2 AA at launch can drift as new content is published. Pages arrive with missing alt text, skipped heading levels, low-contrast buttons and PDFs that screen readers cannot read. Your agreement can include WCAG 2.2 AA checks on new templates and components before release, regular automated scans, and notes to your editors on how to fix content issues.

For security, we apply tested security releases in the monthly window and urgent ones as soon as they pass testing, and we watch vulnerability notices for the plugins and modules you use. We can also set up two-factor authentication on administrator accounts and review user accounts so former staff and suppliers no longer have access.

For sites that must meet the Essential Eight or the ISM, our secure software development service builds to both.

The difference between website maintenance and support

The patching and accessibility checks above are planned website maintenance, and support is how we respond when something breaks. Maintenance follows a monthly calendar of updates, backup checks, scans and reports. Outages, broken forms and urgent content changes come in as support requests, and the same team handles both under one agreement.

What happens when your website goes down

Every request is logged with a severity, and the severity sets how fast we respond and who picks it up. Your service level agreement sets the response and resolution targets for each level.

Severity What it means Website example
P1 Critical The site is offline, or a core function fails for every visitor Donations or bookings stop going through
P2 High A key feature is broken and there is no workaround Site search returns nothing, or editors cannot publish
P3 Medium A fault with a workaround, or one that affects a few visitors A form rejects a valid postcode
P4 Low Cosmetic issues, questions and small changes Swapping the banner image on the home page

For a P1 the first job is getting the site back online, then finding the root cause. If your site has been hacked and you are not yet a client, go to our emergency help page.

Signs your website support needs a refresh

A support arrangement that suited a site at launch can fall behind as the site grows and the tools move on, whether an agency or your own team looks after it. These are the signs marketing and digital teams describe.

  • Change requests that take weeksA simple page update joins a queue with no date attached
  • Updates that break the sitePlugin or module updates go live untested and take forms or pages with them
  • Security handled after the factPatches applied when something goes wrong, not on a schedule
  • No clear picture of the siteIt isn’t clear who holds the logins, what is installed or when it was last backed up
  • No regular reportingNothing tells you what was updated, fixed or found each month, and problems surface after users notice them

Each one has a fix. Your retainer sets response targets by severity, updates are tested before they go live, security releases go on a schedule, and between monthly reports we raise problems as soon as monitoring picks them up. When it is time for a refresh, the steps below give you a clear picture of the site, put its accounts in your organisation’s name and keep it covered throughout.

Conduct team working on Melbourne rooftop with city skyline

Moving your website support to us, with no gap in cover

Whether an agency, a freelancer or your own team looks after the site today, moving support to us runs in five steps.

  1. Audit the siteWe check the hosting, CMS version, plugins or modules, custom code, integrations and who holds which logins.
  2. Put ownership in your nameDomains, hosting, CMS administrator accounts and code repositories are often registered to whoever set them up, which can leave an organisation without control of its own site. We confirm who holds each one, recover access where needed, and move them into accounts your organisation owns.
  3. Put the code under version controlWhere the platform allows, the site’s code goes into a Git repository your organisation owns, with a staging copy and a DevOps release process, so every change is tracked, reviewed and can be rolled back.
  4. Patch and protectWe apply urgent updates, set up uptime monitoring and offsite backups, and record how the site is deployed.
  5. Start the retainerWe agree the scope and service levels, work alongside the current team where that helps, then start support.

How website support is priced

Once the scope is agreed, each retainer is a monthly block of senior design and engineering time, sized to the site’s traffic, integrations and release cadence. Retainers usually start at A$1,350 a month.

Website support with Conduct starts with a review of your site.

 Talk to a senior engineer

Common questions about website maintenance

What does website support and maintenance include?+−

A website support and maintenance retainer keeps a live site secure, accessible and working. Depending on the agreement, it covers security patching and core, plugin or module updates, uptime and performance monitoring, backups, accessibility checks against WCAG 2.2 AA, content and BAU changes, incident response and a monthly report. Planned upkeep and reactive fixes sit under one service level agreement, with a named point of contact who knows your site.

How much do website maintenance services cost?+−

Our website maintenance retainers usually start at A$1,350 a month. The price depends on the size of the site, how many integrations it has, how often it changes and the response targets you need. A site with a handful of templates and a small editing team sits near the starting price, while a high-traffic site with forms, payments and a CRM integration needs more senior time each month.

Do you provide GovCMS and Drupal support?+−

Yes. We support Drupal websites and GovCMS sites for government agencies and other organisations. On Drupal that covers core and module security releases, configuration changes, theme and template updates, and planned upgrades between major versions. On GovCMS we work within the platform’s own release process, looking after themes, configuration and custom code while the GovCMS team manages the platform. We also support WordPress and Webflow sites and custom web applications, and can look after Umbraco sites.

How often should a website be updated?+−

Critical security releases for the CMS core, plugins or modules should go on as soon as they have been tested. Routine updates suit a regular monthly window. Content reviews, accessibility checks and backup tests also need a schedule, because a site that is only touched when something breaks builds up risk quietly between releases.

Can you support a website another agency or our own team built?+−

Yes. We audit the site, move the domain, hosting, CMS administrator account and code into accounts your organisation owns, put the code under version control where the platform allows, fix anything urgent and set up monitoring and backups. We can work alongside the current team until the move is complete. The timing depends on how much documentation exists and how many integrations the site has, and we set the dates during the audit.

Will you keep our website accessible?+−

Yes. Accessibility upkeep can be part of any retainer. We can check new templates and components against WCAG 2.2 AA before they go live, run automated scans across the site, and send content issues such as missing alt text or inaccessible PDFs to your editors with the fix. Where a site needs remediation first, we scope that as a separate project.

Who owns the website, hosting and domain?+−

You do. We set up support so the domain, hosting account, CMS administrator access, code repository and backups sit in accounts owned by your organisation, with access granted to our team. If you move support elsewhere later, the site, its documentation and every login go with you.

Can government agencies engage you through a panel?+−

Yes. Conduct is on five government panels (GovCMS, the DTA’s Digital Marketplace Panel 2, the Victorian eServices Register, DJCS Solution Delivery and DoH Solution Delivery). Agencies on these panels can engage us through an existing arrangement. Whichever route you use, support starts with a review of your site and an agreed scope.

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Contact us

Melbourne HQ

Level 3/88 Jolimont St,
East Melbourne VIC 3002 hello@conducthq.com
1300 368 277

Office hours

Monday – Friday
8:30am – 5:30pm AEST Closed weekends and
Australian public holidays