Bournemouth enquiries about ExpressionEngine support tend to follow one of two paths, a site that's stable but untouched for years, or one that's started causing real problems.
Karl takes both kinds on personally, he always has. Founded Expression 37 in 2007 and hasn't worked outside ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS since, every job stays with him.
He reviews the actual site before recommending anything. From there, it's usually a one-off fix, a version upgrade, or an ongoing retainer.
Where this tends to matter:
Financial and insurance firms where accuracy and consistent uptime matter more than most sites, given the nature of what they're publishing. Tourism and hospitality businesses whose traffic swings hard between winter and the summer season, where a slow site during a bank holiday weekend costs real bookings. Installs left behind by an agency no longer taking on ExpressionEngine work. And sites several major versions old, where the honest work in an upgrade is auditing every add-on individually. Financial firms taking payments through Stripe or syncing client records to Salesforce need those connections held to the same standard as the site itself.
How this tends to start:
Karl reviews the templates and add-ons properly before quoting anything, since Bournemouth handovers rarely arrive with useful documentation either way. Most people reach out after something specific: a busy weekend that exposed fragile hosting, an add-on that quietly broke after a routine update, or a decision that the site needs proper ownership again. From there it's a defined project or an ongoing arrangement, priced upfront.
Common questions Bournemouth clients ask:
Is location an issue if you're not based in Bournemouth?
Not in any meaningful sense. The whole process runs remotely, and it works reliably. If a face-to-face meeting is genuinely useful at some point, Bournemouth is close enough that it's never really a problem.
Our traffic is heavily seasonal, does that affect what you'd recommend?
Quite a bit, yes. Sites with a sharp summer peak need hosting and slower pages properly stress-tested ahead of the season, not fixed reactively once a busy weekend's already gone badly.
Can you pick up a site from a developer no longer in the picture?
Yes, regularly. The starting point is always establishing what's actually custom versus a stock add-on, which needs a proper look at the code rather than a guess.
Should we worry about how old our ExpressionEngine install is?
Less than you'd think, on its own. The core version rarely causes problems by itself. The genuine risk is in whatever add-ons have been sitting unmaintained on top of it.
What's actually included with a retainer?
You're prioritised when something breaks, checked on periodically rather than only after a fault appears, and dealing with someone who already understands your setup instead of starting fresh.
What would this cost us?
Depends entirely on the scope. A one-off audit or fix is a fixed price. Ongoing support runs as a monthly retainer. Either way, agreed before anything starts.
Ready to get started?
If your website is business-critical and needs a specialist who will take proper long-term ownership of it, get in touch. Karl will respond personally and give you an honest view of how we can help.
