If your website was previously managed or hosted by Floodgate, please take a few minutes to read this page.
Over the past several weeks, New Wave Digital Marketing has been reviewing the websites, hosting environment and website systems we inherited from Floodgate.
During that process, we have identified several issues that we believe clients need to know about.
Most importantly, the legacy shared/cloud hosting environment used by many former Floodgate websites has been compromised.
For that reason, we have made the decision to permanently retire this hosting environment.
We have also found that a number of websites have not received comprehensive maintenance for an extended period of time, which has created additional issues around security, spam, email delivery, website performance and outdated content.
Our goal with this page is to clearly explain what is happening, what your options are, and what we need from you before 24 October 2026.
If you don't have time to read everything right now, these are the important points:
Many former Floodgate websites were historically hosted together within a large shared/cloud hosting environment.
We have now identified security issues within that environment and have made the decision that continuing to operate it is not the right long-term solution.
Rather than continually cleaning, patching and maintaining a legacy environment containing a large number of unrelated websites, we are shutting the old environment down completely.
Moving forward, New Wave will only offer premium website hosting using a much more controlled setup with greater website isolation.
The principle is simple:
A security issue affecting one website should not be able to put dozens of unrelated businesses at risk.
This gives us a much clearer and safer structure around hosting, backups, website ownership, troubleshooting and future client offboarding.
Moving a website to new hosting fixes the hosting problem.
It doesn't necessarily fix the website itself.
As we have worked through the inherited Floodgate websites, we have also found that many have not received comprehensive website maintenance for quite some time.
Depending on the website, we are seeing issues such as:
Not every website has all of these problems. Some are still in very good condition. Others require considerably more work.
A WordPress website is a little bit like owning a building.
When a building is finished, you don't expect to rebuild it every year. But you still need to:
A website works in a similar way.
Even if nobody actively changes your website, the technology around it continues to change.
WordPress changes. Plugins change. Browsers change. Email security changes. Google changes. Spammers and hackers change their methods.
A website can therefore look perfectly fine from the outside while important things behind the scenes are no longer working properly.
For example:
Your homepage might load normally, but your enquiry emails could be going to spam.
Your website might look okay, but an old plugin could have developed a security vulnerability.
Your contact form might technically work, but most of the submissions could be automated spam.
Your website might still exist in Google, but its structure may no longer properly explain your services or locations.
This is why we want to be clear:
The refresh gets the website back to a healthier baseline. Some level of ongoing maintenance is still required to keep it there.
For clients who are happy with their current website, we can complete a comprehensive Website Refresh before migrating it onto our new premium hosting environment.
Rather than simply copying an old website — and all of its existing problems — onto a new server, our team works through a 50+ point website checklist.
The review covers areas including:
WordPress, plugins, themes, administrator accounts, backups, suspicious files and unnecessary software.
We test website forms, notification addresses and email delivery to help make sure genuine enquiries are actually reaching you.
We review forms and spam protection to reduce automated junk enquiries.
We review speed, mobile presentation, images, plugins and other common performance issues.
We identify obvious broken layouts, outdated content, poor mobile sections and other issues that may be affecting the way your business is presented.
We review important SEO foundations including page structure, headings, metadata, indexing and service/location information.
Search has changed significantly over the last two years.
People are increasingly discovering businesses through Google AI results, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI-powered search experiences.
We therefore also review how clearly your website communicates your services, locations, expertise and business information to both traditional search engines and newer AI platforms.
The goal of the refresh is not simply to make the website "look nicer." Depending on the condition of the site, the result should be:
There is another option that may make more sense for some businesses.
AI has changed both how websites can be created and how customers search for businesses.
At the same time, reviewing these older WordPress websites has reinforced something we have noticed for years:
Most business owners don't actually want to spend their time managing a website.
One of WordPress's traditional advantages has always been that a business owner can log into the website and make changes themselves.
But in reality, many business owners weren't doing that anyway. And in many cases, they were also unaware that the WordPress software, plugins, forms and other systems behind the website still required ongoing maintenance.
So instead of handing a business owner a website and hoping someone remembers to look after it, we are increasingly moving toward a managed website model.
We now build many of our newer websites outside of the traditional WordPress CMS using modern website frameworks such as Next.js.
For the business owner, the important part isn't the technology itself.
The difference is that we can build a faster, cleaner website with fewer of the moving parts commonly associated with older WordPress setups, while New Wave takes responsibility for the technical maintenance.
Our current New Wave Sites offering includes professional design, mobile-first development, SEO-ready structure, hosting, maintenance and ongoing support. Plans currently start from $149/month plus setup on a minimum 12-month term.
You can see the new website service here: View New Wave Sites →
Historically, websites built using modern development frameworks were much more technical and expensive to create. They could also make simple business-owner updates difficult.
That has changed.
With the way we now structure these websites, you don't necessarily need to log into a complicated website system just to keep the business information current.
If you need something changed, you can simply contact us. For example:
Our current New Wave Sites plans also allow clients to either make changes themselves or send the change to us as part of the managed service.
There isn't one correct answer for every client.
If the existing website is fundamentally good, we won't recommend rebuilding it just for the sake of rebuilding it.
But if significant money needs to be spent repairing an ageing website, sometimes it makes more sense to start again.
One of the main changes we want to make moving forward is how we define a successful website service.
We don't think success should simply mean:
"The website is online."
We care about the actual business result.
That is the standard we want to build our website services around moving forward.
Ultimately, for most service businesses, a website has one very simple job:
Everything else — hosting, WordPress, Next.js, plugins, security, SEO and AI optimisation — exists to support that outcome.
You can learn more about New Wave Digital Marketing and our broader marketing services here: Visit New Wave Digital Marketing →
If your website is currently within the legacy Floodgate environment, you now have several options.
Historically, websites have sometimes remained stored within hosting environments long after the original service arrangement ended.
We are no longer going to indefinitely archive websites in this way.
Unused WordPress websites still contain software, website files, databases, user accounts and potential security vulnerabilities.
Keeping them forever creates unnecessary security and operational risk.
After this date, New Wave will no longer guarantee that websites remaining in the old environment will continue to be stored or accessible.
Websites that have not been migrated or exported may eventually be permanently deleted.
If you want to keep your website — either with New Wave or somewhere else — please contact us before 24 October 2026.
There is one final complication we want to explain.
During this review, we discovered that some emails we have recently sent to former Floodgate clients may not have reached their intended inboxes.
This may be connected to some of the legacy WordPress and email systems we inherited and attempted to transition as seamlessly as possible.
Because of this, we cannot confidently assume that every email we send is reaching every former Floodgate client.
That is why you may have:
This gives us a verified communication thread with you and allows us to confirm the best email address for future website notices.
Please send an email to:
Please include:
And tell us which option best describes you:
I want to refresh and keep my existing website
I would like to know more about rebuilding the website
I would like a copy of my website files
I no longer need the website
I'm not sure what I should do — please advise
You can also tell us about anything unusual you have noticed with your website, forms, spam or email enquiries.
If possible, please quickly:
If something doesn't look right, mention it in your email.
That's completely fine.
You don't need to understand hosting, WordPress, Next.js, SMTP, DNS or any of the other technical systems involved.
Simply email us with your business name and website address.
We'll help you understand the condition of your website and what we believe makes the most sense.
Please contact us before 24 October 2026.
Email Accounts@newwavedm.com →