Website maintenance checklist

Short answer: Websites don’t break all at once. A plugin falls behind, a form stops sending, the hours go stale, a domain renewal card expires. A short routine catches all of it before customers do.

Monthly

Update the platform, plugins and themes, after a backup.
Submit every form and confirm the message arrives.
Tap every phone number on a phone.
Check hours, prices, specials and events are current, here and on Google.
Look at Search Console for errors and security issues.

Quarterly

Run a speed test on a phone and fix anything new that’s slowing it down.
Check every link in the menu and footer.
Review who has admin access and remove anyone who shouldn’t.
Restore a backup to check it works, at least once a year.
Run the free website check and email check.

Yearly

Domain renewal and the card on file.
Privacy policy and terms still match what the site does.
Photos and team page up to date.
Server software (such as the PHP version) still supported.
Look at the site as a new customer would, and decide what needs rewriting.

Written by Nikita Huttenlocher, founder and lead engineer at Huttenlocher Technologies, a web design and software company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Questions

How long does this take?

An hour or two a month for a typical small business site if nothing goes wrong. The value is in catching the thing that did.

Can you do it for us?

That’s what our care plans are: hosting, monitoring every five minutes, security, backups and same-day changes, from $249 a month.

More guides

Start a project

Tell us what you're building.

A website, a booking system, an app, or the thing you've been running out of a spreadsheet for three years. A few lines is plenty.

01The person who'll build it writes back

02A planning call, then a written plan with the price and the date

03A preview on your phone while it's being built

04Launch night handled: redirects, email, Google

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Not ready to talk yet? Run the free website check and see what Google sees.