Keeping Minnesota websites right
Minnesota is not one market, and neither is the neglect. In the metro, a site falls behind while everyone is busy: the staff page, the holiday hours, the Give to the Max Day page, the plugin list nobody has looked at since launch. Outstate, a site falls behind because the volunteer who built it moved, the domain is in a personal account, and the hosting is billed to a card that expired. Both situations end the same way, with a site that still loads and quietly tells a visitor the organization is not paying attention. The fix is also the same: an inventory of every login, moved into the organization's name and written down; weekly updates after a backup; a calendar of the pages that carry the year; and a person who answers. The map pack outstate is often half-empty, which means the basics, hours, address, services, a working form, do more there than anywhere else in the state.
Maintenance is remote work by nature
Most of our projects run remotely, including ones ten minutes from the office, and a care plan runs the same way for every client. The rhythm: a free thirty-minute look at the site, then a full backup and a written inventory of every login before anything changes; weekly software updates taken after a backup and checked afterward; your content posted as it arrives, from an email or a shared folder; forms submitted and the notification email confirmed every month; a short report at month end; and one named person, in Central time, who answers. Nothing on that list is improved by standing in a room together. The exception is photography and the first training session, and for those we drive to St. Cloud or Rochester or Duluth when the meeting earns it, or we point you at a photographer in your own town.
The Minnesota rules that make it a standing job
A surprising amount of what a Minnesota website has to say is set by statute, and most of it recurs. Charter schools post board minutes within 30 days, the testing calendar by October 1, the literacy plan by June 15, and since 2025 a link to the authorizer's page, under chapter 124E and the statutes it cross-applies. Charities taking in more than twenty-five thousand dollars a year register with the Attorney General and file an annual report by July 15 for calendar-year filers, which is why the donate and financials pages have to stay honest. The Consumer Data Privacy Act, effective July 31, 2025, sets expectations for the privacy notice on a site collecting personal data. Public entities face the ADA Title II web rule on April 26, 2027 and April 26, 2028; providers paid by Medical Assistance face the Section 504 web rule on May 11, 2027 and May 10, 2028. Minnesota saw 162 federal ADA website lawsuits in 2025, fourth in the nation by Seyfarth's count, which is why a quarterly accessibility pass is in every plan.
Greater Minnesota sites belong to one person
The pattern outstate is consistent. A school secretary, a church volunteer, a nephew, or a local freelancer built the site, and it has been that person's ever since. The domain is in their GoDaddy account, the hosting is on their card, the admin password is in their head, and the Facebook page gets updated because the website is too much trouble. It works until the day that person moves, retires, or stops answering, and then the organization discovers it cannot change its own hours. Onboarding starts there: every account identified, transferred into the organization's name, and handed over in writing to two people instead of one. Then the site gets a schedule. For a regional organization serving people two counties away, the pages that matter are the plain ones: who you serve, where, how to reach a person, and a form that works, kept right every month.
Areas of Minnesota we work with
- Twin Cities metro
- Central Minnesota
- Southeast Minnesota
- Northern Minnesota
- Southwest Minnesota
- Western Minnesota
