Website Maintenance Checklist: Keep Your Site Running Smoothly

A website is your business’s foundation that attracts customers and enhances credibility. Website maintenance isn’t just about fixing bugs; it’s about being proactive. Considering the growing number of cyberattacks and customer expectations, website maintenance is no longer a choice.

It is a prudent investment to secure your brand, protect customers’ information, and provide business continuity. This guide gives a comprehensive website maintenance checklist for businesses to assist them in keeping their website running smoothly.

What Is Website Maintenance?

Website maintenance is the regular process of observing, renewing, and perfecting a site so that it can function perfectly as expected. It includes an extremely long list of tasks that are vital to business continuity and success.

Let us take an example. 88% of online shoppers are less likely to return to a website once they have had a negative experience.

This means that websites need to keep up with customer expectations and ensure their site is compatible with the latest market demands and more advanced technologies. The objective is to offer a better user experience and avoid downtime that could lead to lost revenue.

Website maintenance is an ongoing activity that involves tracking the site periodically and responding immediately so that the site is secure and accessible.

Why Website Maintenance is Important?

Keeping a website maintained regularly has multiple advantages:

• Enhanced Security

As 46% of cyber-attacks against small businesses occur through website vulnerability, there should be updated security systems.

• Improved User Experience

A properly managed site ensures quick loading and working links, which lowers bounce rates and enhances user interaction.

• Improved Search Engine Placement

Search engines favour newer or updated sites, which results in increased visibility and ranking. Using the right keywords, updating your content strategy, adding security patches, and making technological enhancements can improve your web rankings.

• Cost-Effectiveness

Preventive maintenance can prevent companies from paying expensive repairs and potential revenue loss due to site downtime.

• Business Resumption

Current backups and updates keep your site online, which ensures business continuity. In case of any failure, a well-prepared website maintenance checklist can help in instant recovery which eventually minimises downtime and prevents data loss.

An Expert Website Maintenance Checklist

Here we have divided the website maintenance checklist into four parts that should be followed as per duration. Let’s take a look:

A. Weekly Website Maintenance Checklist

To ensure your website is in the best condition, employ the following weekly tasks:

1. Backup Your Site – Regular backups shield your data from unexpected problems, enabling rapid recovery.
2. Check Website Uptime and Downtime – Track your site’s availability to identify and fix possible problems early.
3. Check 404 Errors – Periodically scan your website for broken links to boost user experience and keep SEO positions intact.
4. Publish New Content – Regularly post new, interactive, and multimedia-rich content on your website to keep your audeince engaged.
5. Remove Spam Comments – Eliminating spam comments can protect the legitimacy and credibility of your site and promote genuine audience engagement.
6. Manage Server Resource – Check the performance and storage usage of your hosting server to operate efficiently and support growth.

B. Monthly Website Maintenance Checklist

Initiating the following weekly tasks ensures that website functionalities remain smooth:

1. Update Your Site and Plugins – Ensure that the core software and plugins of your website are updated to stay compatible with new features and security patches. Also, deactivate any unused plugins that could cause security vulnerabilities.
2. Maintain Your Site Security Up-to-Date – Cyber threats change, so security patches are necessary. Scan for malware, vulnerabilities, and suspicious behaviour to safeguard your site and user information. Get an SSL certificate for your site.
3. Test Website Performance – Make sure your website loads quickly and works well on various browsers and devices. Slow websites can increase the bounce rate by 32%.
4. Examine Content Performance – Use analytics to measure how the content is performing. See what pages are doing well in engagement and which pages are not working using tools like Google Analytics.
5. Check Forms Again – Run all the checkout processes, contact forms, and lead gen forms, and see if they’re all working as anticipated.
6. Check User Access and Permissions – Check on user roles and permissions to ensure only authorised staff personnel can access the site.
7. Review Hosting and Domain Name Renewals – Confirm if your hosting service and domain name are renewed and up to date. This can prevent site downtime or loss of your domain.

C. Quarterly Website Maintenance Checklist

Quarterly maintenance allows businesses to do more advanced website analysis and optimisation:

1. Content Audit – Review published content to see if it’s relevant, accurate, and engaging. Unpublish old content and optimise high-performing pages.
2. Optimise Images – High-resolution image files impact your site speed. Compress and optimise images to quicken page loads and enhance SEO.
3. Update Headers and Footers – Update navigation menus, footer links, and calls to action to ensure they are new and effective.
4. Do Search Engine Optimisation – Perform keyword research, refresh metadata, and execute technical SEO enhancements to preserve or improve search rankings.
5. Software Updates – Update all third-party tools, frameworks, and CMS platforms with the latest versions.
6. Database Maintenance – Clean your database by deleting unwanted content, outdated backups, and spam comments to get the site to load quicker and enhance performance.
7. Audit Hosting and Domain Name Services – Assess whether your current hosting and domain name provider meets your needs and if an upgrade is required for better performance and security.

D. Annual Website Maintenance Checklist

Annual website maintenance is a comprehensive examination of your site’s performance, security level, and long-term plan:

Refresh Older Content – Freshen up older blog articles, product information pages, and service pages to ensure they’re updated and enhance search engine rankings.

Reorganise Website Pages and Aesthetic – Redesign the site appearance and layout to keep it up to date with current trends and enhance user experience.

Year’s Performance Review – Analyse web traffic, conversion rates, and SEO rankings to make new goals for the next year based on past performances.

Incident Response Procedures – Update and enhance your cybersecurity incident response plans to enable your company to bounce back from possible attacks quickly.

Disaster Recovery – Rehearse and update your disaster recovery plan, including backup restoration processes and data security protocols.

Evaluate Hosting and Domain Name Strategy – Review your hosting plan and domain name choices to check if you need upgrades, transfers, or security enhancements.

Website Maintenance Average Expenses

Web site maintenance price depends on your website’s size, complexity, and functionality. The following is an estimated general value:

1. Minimal Maintenance – Small and medium enterprise websites may have to spend between $3600 and $12000 annually for security updates, minor upgrades, and hosting.
2. Advanced Maintenance – Medium enterprise with eCommerce options or dynamic pages can cost anything from $1200 to $30000 annually for security updates, content, and technical services.
3. Enterprise-Level Maintenance – High-traffic businesses with unique features, strict security requirements, and high traffic volumes tend to spend $30000+ annually on full-service website maintenance.

Wrapping Up

A website needs to be constantly cared for and developed. Following a dedicated website maintenance checklist can enhance security, performance, and customer satisfaction which can further lead to business growth and success. Website maintenance can also prevent expensive problems, and optimise search engine rankings.

Using this ultimate website maintenance checklist, you can adhere to a routine maintenance schedule. For businesses that require professional-level assistance, Crazy Domains offers full-featured website maintenance and enterprise-grade hosting. From security updates to performance improvement, the experts ensure your site is secure, scalable, and dependable.

Contact the professionals at Crazy Domains today and make your website work at its best!