You build websites. That’s what you tell people at parties, and it’s true. But it’s not the whole picture.
Because after the launch — after the confetti and the “it looks amazing” emails — your phone keeps ringing. And it’s not about the next build. It’s about the last one.
“The form stopped working.”
“Can you change the hours on the homepage?”
“Our payment processor sent us an email and we don’t know what it means.”
“There’s an update and now everything looks different.”
“We just need someone to handle this.”
So you handle it. You fix the form. You update the hours. You call the payment processor and figure out what changed. You run the update and test everything afterward. You do it because the client trusts you, and because nobody else is going to.
You may not have a word for this work. But there is one.
You’re a webkeeper.
The Work That Doesn’t Have a Name
Every web professional knows there are two kinds of work. There’s the project — the big build, the redesign, the new site. And then there’s everything after.
The “after” work is where most of the trust gets built. It’s the ongoing relationship. The retainer. The monthly check-in. The “hey, can you take a look at this?” calls. It’s not glamorous. Nobody gives conference talks about updating a dentist’s holiday hours or reconnecting a church’ event registration form. But it’s steady, it’s needed, and for a lot of small web shops, it’s what keeps the lights on.
The problem is, this work has never had a professional identity. “Website maintenance” undersells it. “Managed services” sounds like enterprise IT. “Support” sounds like a help desk. None of those words capture what it actually means to be the person a small business calls when anything on their web isn’t working.
Webkeeping is that word. And a webkeeper is the person who does it.
What a Webkeeper Actually Does
Think of it like bookkeeping. A bookkeeper doesn’t just balance one account — they manage all of your books, ongoing, so you don’t have to think about it. A webkeeper does the same thing for everything a business does on the web.
That includes the obvious stuff: website updates, content changes, design tweaks. But it also includes the operational layer that most businesses now depend on — payment portals, scheduling systems, online forms, member directories, event registration, document repositories. The tools that customers, patients, members, and constituents actually use to interact with an organization.
A webkeeper manages all of it. Not just the website. Everything web-based that the business needs to keep running.
And when things change — when a vendor gets acquired, when a platform sunsets a feature, when an integration breaks after an update nobody asked for — a webkeeper is the one who picks up the phone, says yes, and figures it out.
You Might Already Be One
If you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance you already do this work. You just call it something else. Maybe you call it “maintenance clients.” Maybe you call it “ongoing support.” Maybe you don’t call it anything — it’s just the part of your business that happens between the projects.
Here’s the question worth asking: is that the work you want to be doing? Some web professionals love the build and tolerate the maintenance. The ongoing support is a revenue stream, but it’s not the thing that gets them out of bed. If that’s you, there’s no shame in it. But those clients still need someone. And handing them off to a dedicated webkeeper means they’re taken care of — and you get to focus on what you actually want to do.
Other web professionals discover that the ongoing work is actually what they’re best at. The relationships. The trust. The satisfaction of being the person someone calls when they need help. If that’s you, then congratulations — you’re a webkeeper, and there’s a growing community of people who do exactly what you do.
Either way, the word exists now. And it changes how you think about the work.
Why This Matters Right Now
The web is getting more complicated. Every tool a business uses is adding AI features, changing its pricing, updating its interface. New platforms launch every week. And the people who set up these systems for small businesses — the freelancers, the small agencies, the solo operators — a lot of them are stepping back. The industry is shifting, and some shops are closing.
But the dentist’s scheduling system still needs to work. The town’s water bill portal still needs to accept payments. The church’s event registration still needs to function for the fall retreat. Those organizations don’t stop needing help just because the person who built their site moved on.
That’s why webkeeping matters. Not as a buzzword, but as a professional category. The work is real. The need is growing. And the people who do it well deserve a name for what they do.
Parker Web Has Been Webkeeping Since 1999
We didn’t coin the term to sell a product. We coined it because after years of doing this work, we realized there wasn’t a word for it — and there needed to be.
Parker Web handles about 5,000 support requests a year for small businesses and community organizations in 31 states. We’ve maintained a 99% client satisfaction rating. We work in WordPress, Joomla, Shopify, HubSpot, Squarespace, and most other platforms. If it’s on the web and a business depends on it, we handle it.
We’re not the only webkeepers out there. But we might be the first ones to say it out loud.
Let’s Talk
Whether you’re a webkeeper yourself and want to connect with others doing this work, or you’re a web professional looking to hand off maintenance clients to someone who’ll treat them right — we’d like to hear from you.
Call us at 877-321-2251 or visit parkerweb.com/partners.