Keeping a website running smoothly requires ongoing attention.
Regular website maintenance helps keep your site secure, fast, and functioning properly, while preventing small issues from becoming bigger problems.
To help you stay on top of it, we’ve put together a simple monthly website maintenance checklist. First, let’s look at why regular maintenance matters.
Why Website Maintenance Matters
Your website has many moving parts, and the technology behind it is constantly changing. As software evolves and new security risks emerge, small issues can easily go unnoticed over time.
As a valuable business asset, your website needs regular attention to perform well and continue supporting your business.
Website maintenance helps protect against security vulnerabilities, keeps your website compatible with the latest software and browsers, improves performance, and ensures your content remains accurate. It also supports SEO by keeping your website fast, functional, and up to date.
How Often Should You Maintain Your Website?
Every website is different, but reviewing your website once a month is a good routine for most businesses.
Throughout the month, software updates become available, content changes are made, and routine tasks need to be reviewed. This includes checking backups, security, and website performance. Setting aside time each month helps ensure nothing important is overlooked.
Use the website maintenance checklist below to keep your website running smoothly throughout the year.
1. Back Up Your Website
Back up your website and confirm the backup was completed successfully before installing updates or making other changes. If something goes wrong, such as a software update issue, cyberattack, or accidental data loss, a recent backup allows you to restore your website quickly and minimize disruption.
Store backups securely and periodically verify they can be restored.
2. Update Your Website’s Software
Next, check your website for available updates to your CMS, themes, and plugins. If you use WordPress, this includes keeping WordPress core up to date. Installing updates regularly helps protect against security vulnerabilities, improve performance, and keep your website compatible with the latest technologies.
After installing updates, test key areas of your website to ensure everything is working as expected.
3. Scan for Security Vulnerabilities
Scan your website for malware and other security vulnerabilities. Review login activity for anything unusual, and confirm your SSL certificate is active and functioning correctly. Regular security checks help identify and resolve potential threats before they impact your website or its visitors.
Finally, ensure your security plugins and firewalls are active and up to date.
4. Test Your Contact Forms
Test every contact, quote request, booking, and newsletter form on your website to make sure they work properly. Confirm that submissions are being delivered to the correct inbox, as a broken form can lead to missed inquiries and lost business.
5. Check for Broken Links
Test the links on your website to ensure they point to the correct pages. Broken links create a poor user experience and can negatively affect both your website’s credibility and search performance.
6. Test Your Website Across Different Devices
Test your website on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices to make sure pages display correctly, navigation works smoothly, and interactive elements function as expected. Check formatting and readability so visitors have a consistent experience across all screen sizes.
If your website isn’t optimized for every device, learn more about responsive web design and why it matters.
7. Review Website Speed and Performance
Test your website’s loading speed and performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. Slow-loading pages can frustrate visitors, increase bounce rates, and hurt your search rankings. Fix any major performance issues to keep your website fast and responsive.
8. Review and Refresh Website Content
Review your website content to make sure it remains accurate, relevant, and up to date. Update business hours, contact information, services, pricing, and any other details that have changed. Remove outdated promotions or seasonal content.
You can also refresh blog posts, images, title tags, and meta descriptions to keep your website current, support SEO, and encourage return visits.
Keep Your Website Running at Its Best
Following a monthly website maintenance checklist can help you avoid costly issues, improve performance, and provide a better experience for your visitors. If keeping up with updates, backups, and security checks isn’t something you have time for, professional website maintenance can give you peace of mind.
At Ripple Design & Marketing, we go beyond website design by helping businesses keep their websites secure, up to date, and performing at their best.
Contact us to learn more about our website hosting and maintenance services.