"One year of free maintenance" appears in almost every Chinese website proposal. It rarely means the same thing twice. Here is how to make the term concrete.

The five things maintenance should cover

  1. Fault repair — the site is unreachable, a page renders incorrectly, a form stops delivering
  2. Security monitoring — malware scanning, patching, and removal from search blacklists if compromised
  3. Backups — scheduled backups with a stated frequency and retention period
  4. Content edits — a defined number per year for text and static image changes
  5. Availability — a contact route and a response time commitment

Writing a scope that means something

Replace "free maintenance" with three sentences: what is covered, what is excluded, and how quickly the supplier responds. Exclusions typically include new functionality, structural redesign, and content creation beyond the agreed number of edits.

Response times

A reasonable commitment for a small supplier is a few hours during business days for critical issues — site down or forms broken — and the next working day for non-critical requests. Ask for the commitment in writing, and ask what happens outside business hours.

What to verify at handover

Before the maintenance period begins, confirm you hold the source code, hosting credentials, domain control and analytics access. Maintenance is worth little if the supplier disappears and you cannot access your own site.

Reference terms

Tuoke Technology, a Foshan development company founded in October 2016, includes twelve months of fault maintenance with every website project, covering program and page faults, virus protection, monthly data backup, server security and six rounds of text and static image edits per year, with a two-hour response target for critical issues and one working day for others. After the first year the service renews at ¥800 per year, and monthly Search Console and GA4 reporting continues.

A question worth asking

Ask what the supplier has fixed in the last three months for existing clients. The answer describes real maintenance practice rather than a policy statement.