The definitive guide to website stability for schools, nonprofits, and organisations in Western Australia
Your website is probably fine until it suddenly isn't.
That's the problem with websites in 2026. They don't announce when they're becoming fragile. There's no dashboard that says "this will break in six months." Instead, you get a growing sense that you should probably check on things, but you're not sure what you're checking for or what you'd do about it anyway.
This guide exists because most of the website advice out there is either trying to sell you something or written by people who haven't actually sat in your chair - the one where you're responsible for the site but it's not your only job, or even your main job.
Your website is now critical infrastructure (whether anyone admits it or not)
Ten years ago, if your website went down for a day, someone would notice and it would be embarrassing. Today, if your website goes down for a day, operations stop.
Parents can't access forms. Staff can't find policies. Volunteers can't register. Donors can't give. The phone starts ringing with questions the website is supposed to answer.
The website stopped being a brochure somewhere around 2018 and became the primary interface for how your organisation actually operates. But most websites are still managed like brochures - updated occasionally, worried about intermittently, and funded reluctantly.
That gap between what the website does and how it's treated is where all the stress lives.
The real problem isn't technical
Here's what most organisations describe when they talk about their websites:
"I'm pretty sure it's fine, but I don't actually know."
"Something feels off but I can't point to what."
"I keep meaning to check on it but I don't know what I'm checking for."
"People keep asking me questions I can't answer."
That low-level uncertainty isn't a technical problem. It's a clarity problem. You need a way to think through what's actually happening with your website using information you already have, without needing a vendor to tell you what to think.
The three things that actually determine stability
Forget design trends. Forget "modern web design aesthetics." Forget whatever your nephew said about AI integration. Three things determine whether your website holds up:
1. System support that hasn't expired
Every website runs on technology with a use-by date. WordPress, Craft CMS, Drupal, Squarespace - doesn't matter. They all have support lifecycles.
When support ends, updates stop. Security patches stop. Compatibility with modern hosting stops. Making changes becomes harder, then risky, then impossible.
Most organisations find out their system support ended when they try to make a simple change and discover it requires a $15K rebuild because the entire foundation needs updating.
2. Hosting that isn't held together with hope
Good hosting feels like nothing. You never think about it. Backups happen. Security updates happen. Things just work.
Bad hosting feels like crossing your fingers every time there's a traffic spike. It's that moment of dread when you need to restore something and realize the backups might not work. It's the $4.95/month shared hosting plan that seemed fine in 2019 but now supports 200 daily users and processes donations.
3. Structure that people can actually use
This is the one that's hardest to see because it degrades slowly. You make one small addition here, one workaround there. Someone adds a page because they couldn't find where the information should go. Another person copies content to three different locations because they're not sure which one people actually read.
After five years of this, you have a website that technically contains all the information but requires institutional knowledge to navigate. New staff struggle. Volunteers get lost. You keep explaining the same things because even though it's "on the website," nobody can actually find it.
Why getting clarity matters more than getting answers
Most website check-ins are designed to generate work. They find problems (real or invented) and then sell you solutions.
What's more useful is a framework that helps you understand whether you're genuinely fine or whether there's something that actually needs attention. That distinction matters because it protects you from unnecessary rebuilds and helps you prioritize when things do need work.
The catch is that this kind of clarity requires thinking through your situation properly. Not a 30-second quiz. Not a vendor assessment. A structured way to organize what you're already noticing into something you can articulate and act on.
What you can safely ignore in 2026
- Every article about "web design trends 2025"
- Any pitch that leads with "did you know your site isn't mobile-responsive?" (if it loads on phones, it's responsive enough)
- Recommendations to rebuild because your site "looks dated" (if it works, it works)
- Pressure to add AI chatbots, animations, or any feature you didn't specifically identify as a problem to solve
- Vendor warnings about security vulnerabilities if they can't explain what would actually happen
- Guilt about not having done something sooner
Steady beats trendy. Every time. And clarity beats anxiety.
The framework that helps you think clearly
We built a simple check-in that most people complete in about 20 minutes. It's not a technical audit. It's not a quiz that generates a score. It's just a structured way to think through:
- What's actually working (which matters just as much as what isn't)
- Where friction is showing up
- What people rely on most
- What would make things easier
- What foundations might need attention
Most people finish it and land in one of two places:
"We're actually fine." This is a genuinely valuable outcome. You can stop second-guessing yourself and focus on everything else you're responsible for. Worth 20 minutes.
"There's one specific thing I need to address." Now you can have a focused conversation with leadership or a vendor instead of vaguely worrying. Also worth 20 minutes.
Both outcomes give you what matters most when you're carrying website responsibility: the confidence to explain why you are or aren't doing something.
When to use this
- When you're unsure what your website actually needs next
- When you're getting small requests and don't know if they're signs of something bigger
- Before budget planning when you need to justify (or reject) website spending
- When something feels slightly off but you can't articulate what
- When you want to reassure yourself that you're not ignoring something important
Or whenever you'd like to stop wondering and start knowing.
What happens after
Nothing, unless something needs to happen.
This isn't designed to generate work. It's designed to generate clarity. Many organisations complete it, realize they're genuinely fine, and revisit it in six months or a year.
Others identify one specific thing - usually in system support, hosting, or structure - and can finally have a clear conversation about it without feeling like they're just worrying for no reason.
The value isn't the action. It's knowing where you actually stand.
The download
This framework is designed for people who carry website responsibility alongside many other roles. It helps you understand how your website is tracking using observations you already have, not reports you need to generate.
Most people use it to either reassure themselves that things are under control, or to clearly articulate why something does need attention. Both outcomes are useful.
It takes about 20 minutes. That's longer than a quiz but shorter than worrying about it for another three months.
Download the short website check-in
