What Does a Webmaster Do, and Does Your Business Need One?

Most businesses put real effort into launching a website and then very little into looking after it. For a while that seems fine. Then a plugin update breaks the contact form, the SSL certificate expires on a Friday evening, or someone notices the opening hours on the site have been wrong since last spring.

Looking after a website is the job of a webmaster. The title sounds a little old fashioned, but the work matters as much now as it ever did. This article explains what a webmaster does in practice and how to decide whether you need one.

The webmaster role in plain terms

A webmaster is the person responsible for keeping a website working, accurate, secure and visible. They are not necessarily the person who designed or built it. Think of the designer as the architect and the webmaster as the building manager: someone who knows where everything is, keeps it in good repair and deals with problems before visitors notice them.

In a large organisation this may be a full team. In a small business it is often one person inside the company, an outside specialist, or, too often, nobody at all.

What a webmaster does day to day

The work falls into a handful of areas. A good webmaster covers all of them, even if some take only a few minutes a month.

Keeping the site running

• Uptime monitoring. Setting up alerts so that someone knows within minutes if the site goes down, rather than hearing about it from a customer.
• Software updates. Applying updates to the content management system, themes and plugins, and checking that nothing breaks afterwards.
• Backups. Making sure regular backups run, are stored away from the main server and can actually be restored.
• Hosting and domains. Keeping track of renewals, DNS settings, email records and SSL certificates.

Keeping it secure

• Managing user accounts and removing access for people who have left.
• Enforcing strong passwords and two-factor authentication where the platform supports it.
• Watching for malware, spam injections and suspicious login attempts.
• Acting quickly when a vulnerability is announced in software the site uses.

Keeping it accurate

Websites drift out of date quietly. Prices change, staff move on, services are added and old offers linger. A webmaster makes content updates promptly, checks forms and calls to action still work, and fixes broken links and missing images.

Keeping it visible and fast

A webmaster usually looks after the technical basics that affect search visibility: Google Search Console, XML sitemaps, redirects when pages move, page speed and the Core Web Vitals. They are not always an SEO strategist, but they stop technical problems from undoing the work of the people who are.

Signs your business needs a webmaster

Not every business needs dedicated help. A simple brochure site that rarely changes can sometimes be looked after by a capable member of staff. But you probably need a webmaster if several of these sound familiar:

• Nobody in the business is sure who has the login for the domain registrar or hosting account.
• Updates in the site dashboard have been waiting for weeks because people are worried about breaking something.
• You do not know when the last backup was taken, or whether it would restore.
• Content changes take days because they go through a busy developer or agency queue.
• You have had a security scare, such as spam pages appearing or a warning in the browser.
• The website generates enquiries or sales, so downtime costs you money.

In-house, freelance or managed service?

There are three common ways to cover the role, each with trade-offs.

1. A member of staff. Works well when the site is simple and someone has the time and interest. The risk is that the knowledge sits with one person and the work slips when they are busy or leave.
2. A freelancer. Often flexible and affordable. Check how they handle holidays and emergencies, and make sure access and documentation stay with your business, not with them.
3. A managed webmaster service. A team handles maintenance, monitoring, security and updates on an agreed schedule. This usually suits businesses that rely on their website and want predictable cover without hiring.

Whichever route you choose, insist on a few basics: you own the domain and hosting accounts, there is a written record of logins and settings, and there is an agreed response time for urgent problems.

Questions to ask a potential webmaster

• How often will you apply updates, and how do you test the site afterwards?
• Where are backups stored, and when did you last test a restore?
• What happens if the site goes down outside working hours?
• How do I request content changes, and how quickly are they usually done?
• What will you report to me each month?

Clear, specific answers are a good sign. Vague reassurance is not.

Key takeaways

• A webmaster keeps a website running, secure, accurate and technically sound after launch.
• The work is mostly routine, which is exactly why it gets forgotten.
• If your website brings in business, someone should clearly own its day-to-day care.
• Whoever does the job, your business should keep ownership of accounts and documentation.

Webmaster services are where SEO Fleet started in 2007, and they remain a core part of what we do. If you would like a clear, dependable arrangement for looking after your website, our webmaster team can talk you through what that would involve for your site.