How to Put Webkeeping on Your Resume
You've been doing the work. Now it's time to call it what it is.
Whether you're updating your resume for a new opportunity, pitching a retainer client, or building out your LinkedIn profile, the language you use to describe your work matters. If you've been managing the ongoing web presence of organizations — not just building sites, but keeping everything running — you're a webkeeper. Your resume should say so.
Here's how to make it work.
Start with the title
Don't bury it. If webkeeping is what you do, lead with it.
Instead of: Web Developer / Freelance Web Designer / IT Support Specialist
Try: Webkeeper | Ongoing Web Management for Small Businesses and Organizations
or
Webkeeper & Web Professional | [Your Name]
The title is the first thing a client or employer reads. If it says "web developer," they expect someone who builds things from scratch. If it says "webkeeper," they immediately understand the relationship is ongoing — and that's exactly the expectation you want to set.
Write a summary that frames the role
Most resumes open with a summary or professional statement. This is where you define the scope.
Example:
Webkeeper with [X] years of experience managing the complete web presence of small businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations. I handle everything from day-to-day content updates to platform migrations, third-party integrations, and ongoing security and performance management — so my clients never have to think about whether their web is working.
Another option, more concise:
Professional webkeeper serving [X] clients across [industries/states]. I manage websites, payment systems, scheduling tools, online forms, and the dozens of integrations that keep organizations running on the web.
Notice what these don't say. They don't say "built 47 websites." They don't lead with technologies. They lead with the relationship and the scope of ongoing responsibility — because that's what webkeeping is.
Describe your experience differently
The biggest shift is moving from project language to relationship language. Most web professionals describe their experience as a list of things they built. A webkeeper describes what they manage, maintain, and keep running.
Project language (web developer):
- Designed and developed a 12-page WordPress site for a regional dental practice
- Built custom contact form with conditional logic and CRM integration
- Created responsive design with mobile-first approach
Relationship language (webkeeper):
- Manage the complete web presence for a regional dental practice, including the website, patient scheduling system, intake forms, and review platform integration — ongoing since 2019
- Provide monthly platform updates, security monitoring, and content management across WordPress and three connected third-party systems
- Serve as the primary point of contact for all web-related issues, handling approximately 60 support requests per year
Both descriptions might be about the same client. But the first one sounds like a project that ended. The second one sounds like a professional relationship — which is what it is.
Highlight the scope, not just the skills
A webkeeper's value isn't in any single technical skill. It's in the breadth of what they manage and the continuity of the relationship. Your resume should reflect that.
Ways to show scope:
- Number of clients you manage on an ongoing basis
- Total number of support requests handled annually
- Range of platforms and systems you maintain (not just what you build on)
- Length of your longest client relationships
- Types of organizations you serve — small businesses, churches, municipalities, medical practices, schools, nonprofits
Example bullet points:
- Currently manage ongoing web operations for 24 organizations across 8 states, including small businesses, churches, and municipal offices
- Maintain and administer websites, payment portals, scheduling systems, online forms, email integrations, and analytics platforms across WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, and Joomla
- Average client relationship: 4.5 years. Longest active client: 11 years.
- Handle approximately 1,200 support requests annually with a 98% same-day response rate
That last one — response time and volume — is the kind of metric most web developers never think to include. But for a webkeeper, it's everything. It tells a prospective client or employer that you're reliable, responsive, and operating at scale.
Talk about what you keep running, not just what you know
Technical skills still belong on your resume. But for a webkeeper, the platform list isn't about what you can build on — it's about what you actively manage.
Instead of: Skills: WordPress, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Adobe Creative Suite
Try: Platforms Under Active Management: WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, Shopify, HubSpot
Integrated Systems: Stripe, Square, PayPal, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Google Workspace, Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, Formidable Forms, Gravity Forms, GiveWP
The difference is subtle but important. "Skills" is a list of things you learned. "Platforms under active management" is a list of things you're responsible for right now. One sounds like a student. The other sounds like a professional.
Include a webkeeping-specific section
If webkeeping is your primary work, consider giving it its own section on your resume rather than mixing it into a generic "experience" block.
Example:
Webkeeping Practice — [Your Name / Your Business], 2017–Present
Manage the ongoing web presence of 20+ small businesses and community organizations, providing continuous website management, platform administration, third-party system maintenance, and client support.
- Serve as the sole web professional for most clients, managing all web-based systems from content
- updates to vendor migrations
- Transitioned 6 clients from legacy platforms to modern CMS environments with zero downtime
- Manage hosting relationships, domain renewals, SSL certificates, and DNS for all clients
- Provide monthly reporting on site health, uptime, and completed maintenance tasks
- Maintain a client retention rate of 95% over 7 years
LinkedIn deserves the same treatment
Your LinkedIn headline is the single most visible piece of professional language you own. Most web professionals waste it on something generic.
Instead of: Web Developer | Freelancer | WordPress Expert
Try: Webkeeper | Ongoing Web Management for Small Businesses & Organizations
or
Webkeeper — I manage everything your organization does on the web
Your LinkedIn summary can follow the same pattern as the resume summary above. But LinkedIn also gives you something a resume doesn't: the About section is a place to explain what webkeeping is, since many people seeing your profile will be encountering the term for the first time. A sentence or two defining it goes a long way.
A note for students
If you're coming out of a web development program and heading into webkeeping work — whether you know it yet or not — you can start positioning yourself now.
You probably don't have years of client relationships to list. That's fine. Focus on what you can manage, not just what you can build. If your program included any maintenance work, system administration, client communication, or troubleshooting — frame it as webkeeping experience. A capstone project where you inherited and improved an existing site is webkeeping. A practicum where you managed updates for a real organization is webkeeping.
Example for a recent graduate:
Entry-level webkeeper with training in WordPress, HTML/CSS, and web platform administration.
Completed a practicum managing the web presence of [organization], including content updates, plugin maintenance, and third-party system troubleshooting. Seeking ongoing web management roles with small businesses and community organizations.
That positions you for the work you're actually going to be doing — not the work the job boards think you should want.
The word does the work
Every time you put webkeeper on a resume, a LinkedIn profile, a proposal, or a business card, you're doing two things. You're giving yourself a professional identity that accurately describes what you do. And you're making the profession more visible to everyone who reads it.
Use the word. The profession gets stronger every time someone does.
Learn more at webkeeping.org. Join the conversation at r/webkeeping.
Are You a Webkeeper?
If you're here, you probably saw the word somewhere and thought: what's a webkeeper?
Here's a better question: Is it what I already do?
Let's find out
Do clients call you when their website breaks? When a form stops working, a plugin needs updating, or an SSL certificate expires?
Do you manage more than just the website — the payment portal, the scheduling system, the email integration, the event registration, the analytics, the dozen other tools the organization runs on?
Do you have retainer clients who count on you month after month — not to build new things, but to keep everything running?
If you're nodding, you're a webkeeper. You just haven't had the word until now.
What the word means
Webkeeping is the ongoing care and management of everything an organization does on the web. Not the build. Everything after the build.
A webkeeper is the person the organization calls when anything on their web presence needs attention. The website, yes — but also the payment processing, the online forms, the member portal, the hosting, the CMS, and all the integrations that connect them.
If it runs in a browser and the organization needs it to work, it's webkeeping.
Why it needs a name
You've felt this. Someone asks what you do and you reach for words that don't quite fit.
"Website maintenance" sells you short. "Web developer" implies you're building, which you mostly aren't.
"Managed services" sounds like enterprise IT. "I handle their web stuff" isn't a profession.
The work is real. The demand is enormous. But without a name, you can't market it clearly, you can't scope it properly, you can't price it as a professional service, and you can't connect with the thousands of other people doing the exact same work.
Bookkeeping wasn't always a recognized profession either. Someone had to name it, define it, and start using the word before the rest could follow. Webkeeping is at that moment right now.
Why it matters right now
AI is making it easier than ever to build a website. That means the build is becoming less of a differentiator. But AI can't manage the messy, interconnected, ever-changing ecosystem of web-based tools that a real organization depends on. AI can't call the hosting company. AI can't sit with a nonprofit board and explain their options. AI can't triage three systems breaking at once because a vendor pushed an update on a Friday afternoon.
The build gets easier. The ongoing management gets more essential. The webkeeper becomes the most important web professional in the room — not because of what they create, but because of what they keep running.
A career, not a side gig
Webkeeping is a recurring-revenue practice. Monthly retainers. Predictable income. Long-term client relationships. It's not project work where you finish the build and go hunting for the next client. It's a portfolio of ongoing relationships that grows more stable over time.
If you're a student learning web development, this is a career path worth knowing about — and it uses every skill you're building right now.
If you're already doing this work, you know how good the model is. You just haven't had a professional name to put on it.
Now you do.
Use the word
Webkeeping doesn't belong to anyone. The terms webkeeping and webkeeper aren't proprietary — they describe a professional category, and we want you to use them.
Put it on your website. Put it in your LinkedIn headline. Use it when a client asks what you do. The word gets stronger every time someone uses it, and the profession becomes more real every time a client hears it.
You've been doing this work. Now there's a name for it.
Welcome to webkeeping.
Learn more at webkeeping.org. Join the conversation at r/webkeeping.