Website Maintenance Checklist: What to Check Every Month

A website is not finished on launch day. Like a shop, it needs regular care: things break quietly, software goes out of date, and information changes. Most of the problems we see on business websites — hacked pages, broken contact forms, expired domains — come from nobody looking after them.

Use this checklist yourself, or hand it to whoever maintains your website.

Every week

• Test your contact form. Send yourself a test enquiry. A broken form can cost weeks of leads before anyone notices.
• Click your phone and WhatsApp links on a phone. Make sure they open the right number.
• Glance at the home page on mobile. Is anything broken or out of date?
• Check that backups ran, if your host shows backup status.

Every month

Security and updates

• Update the platform, themes and plugins (for WordPress and similar systems). Outdated plugins are the most common way websites are hacked. Update on a staging copy first if possible.
• Remove plugins and user accounts you no longer use.
• Check the SSL certificate — the padlock should show on every page, and the certificate should not be close to expiry.

Speed

• Test speed on mobile using Google PageSpeed Insights. Look for sudden drops.
• Check new images uploaded during the month. Large, uncompressed photos are the usual reason a fast site becomes slow.

Search and analytics

• Open Google Search Console. Look at the Pages report for errors, and the Performance report for changes in clicks and impressions.
• Look at Google Analytics. Which pages bring visitors? Which bring enquiries? Has anything dropped sharply?
• Check for broken links on important pages.

Content

• Update anything that changed — services, prices, team members, opening hours, offers.
• Add something new if you have a blog or news section. Regular updates give visitors and Google a reason to come back.

Every quarter

• Restore a backup to test it. A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup.
• Review user access. Remove former employees and agencies from the website admin, hosting, domain registrar, Google Search Console and Analytics.
• Read your website as a customer. Is the main message still right? Is it still clear what to do next?
• Check your Google Business Profile matches the website: name, address, phone, hours. See the Google Business Profile guide.
• Review forms and spam protection. If spam is getting through, strengthen it; if real people cannot submit, simplify it.

Every year

• Renew the domain and hosting — or better, confirm auto-renew is on and the payment method still works.
• Review hosting. Has your traffic grown? Is the plan still right? See web hosting explained.
• Update legal pages — privacy policy and terms — if your data practices changed.
• Refresh photos of your team, office and work.
• Ask whether the website still fits the business. If several warning signs appear, read 10 signs your website needs a redesign.

A one-page checklist

Do it yourself or hire someone?

You can do the weekly and content tasks yourself. Updates, backups, security and speed are better handled by someone technical, because a bad update can take a website offline.

When you compare maintenance offers, ask:

• What is included each month, exactly?
• How quickly do you respond if the website is down?
• Are backups stored somewhere other than the website's own server?
• How many content changes are included?
• Will I get a short monthly report?

ONPAD website maintenance

We maintain the websites we build — updates, backups, security, speed and content changes — and we can take over websites built elsewhere. Tell us about your website or see our website services.

Written by the ONPAD TeamWe build ONPAD, WhatsApp marketing software on the official WhatsApp Business API, from Mumbai.