A website isn't a thing you finish. It's a thing you run. Left alone, it drifts: hours go out of date, a plugin update breaks the contact form silently, page speed creeps up, an SSL certificate lapses. None of it is dramatic on any given day — which is exactly why it gets ignored until a customer tells you they couldn't get through.
This is the whole job, split into three cadences. If you do nothing else, do the monthly list — it's 15 minutes.
The one that bites hardest: a broken contact form. Plugin updates, server changes, and full inboxes all stop form submissions silently. Businesses routinely discover it weeks later, after losing every enquiry in between. Testing your form is the single highest-value maintenance task there is.
Every Month (~15 minutes)
Test your contact form. Submit a real message. Confirm it lands in your inbox (and isn't in spam). Do the same for any booking or quote form.
Click your phone number and email links on a phone. Confirm the dialer and mail app open with the right details.
Check for broken links. Run your site through a free broken-link checker. Fix or remove anything that 404s.
Apply software updates. On WordPress: core, theme, and plugin updates — then reload the site and check nothing broke. On a hosted builder this is automatic.
Confirm a backup ran. Check your host or backup plugin shows a recent successful backup you could actually restore from.
Update anything time-sensitive. Opening hours, holiday closures, current offers, staff changes, new services.
Glance at analytics. Traffic up or down? Any page suddenly getting visits or losing them? Two minutes, just to notice trends.
Every Quarter (~1 hour)
Run a page speed test. Google PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Below 70? Usually oversized images or a heavy new plugin. Fix before it becomes a ranking problem.
Review your search performance. In Google Search Console, look at which queries bring you traffic and which pages are slipping. Note content gaps to fill.
Full form + checkout test. Every form, every path a customer might take to contact or buy. Test on a phone and a desktop.
Accessibility spot-check. Check colour contrast on any new sections, confirm images have alt text, tab through a key page with the keyboard.
Review who has access. Remove logins for anyone who's left — old contractors, former staff, that one-off freelancer.
Refresh your Google Business Profile. New photos, updated services, answer any new Q&A, keep posting weekly.
Read your reviews. Reply to any you've missed. Note recurring themes — they're free product feedback.
Every Year (~half a day)
Confirm domain and SSL renewal. Put the domain renewal date in your calendar. A lapsed domain can be lost; a lapsed SSL certificate makes your whole site show "Not Secure".
Audit every page for accuracy. Prices, team, services, testimonials, "since 2018" lines. Remove anything stale. Update the copyright year.
Review your legal pages. Privacy policy and terms — do they still reflect what tools you use and what you actually do?
Check your design against competitors. Pull up three competitor sites. Does yours still look current, or is it starting to date?
Test a full backup restore. A backup you've never restored is a backup you can't trust. Restore to a staging copy and confirm it works.
Reassess hosting. Still fast? Still fairly priced? Renewal prices often jump after year one.
Set goals for the year. One new service page? A handful of blog posts? A photo refresh? Decide, and schedule it.
A Note on DIY vs. a Care Plan
The monthly list is genuinely doable yourself. The quarterly and annual work — especially anything touching updates, backups, and security — is where a lot of owners either fall behind or break something. That's the case for a maintenance plan: someone else owns the checklist, and you get an email if anything needs your attention.
Maintenance Handled, So You Don't Have To
Every LocalPageHQ site comes with hosting, SSL, backups, updates, and monitoring included as standard — the monthly and quarterly checklist is our job, not yours. Content changes (new hours, a new service, fresh photos) are a quick message away.
We'll build a free preview of your site using your real business details, so you can see what "looked after" looks like.
Request your free mockup here →
Sources & Further Reading
