Website Maintenance Checklist: Monthly to Yearly

Launching a website feels like the end of a project. It's really the start of looking after something. Software it depends on gets updated, browsers change, content goes out of date, and every so often something breaks quietly.

None of this takes much time if it's done regularly. Here's a checklist you can follow yourself or hand to whoever looks after your site.

Every month

Apply updates. Update the CMS, plugins, themes or code dependencies. Security fixes are the main reason; leaving them for months is how most sites get compromised.
Check backups ran. Make sure your database and uploaded files are being backed up automatically, and that the latest backup is recent.
Test the important journeys. Submit your contact form, make a test booking or purchase, and check the emails arrive. These break silently more often than you'd think.
Look for errors. Check your hosting dashboard or error monitoring for new errors, and Google Search Console for pages it can't reach.
Review uptime. If you use an uptime monitor, check whether there were outages and why.
Update anything time-sensitive: opening hours, prices, offers, team members, event dates.

Every three months

Restore a backup somewhere safe. A backup you've never restored is a hope, not a plan. Try restoring to a test copy of the site.
Check page speed. Run your main pages through PageSpeed Insights and look at the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console. Core Web Vitals explained tells you what the numbers mean.
Find broken links. Use a link checker and fix or redirect anything that's broken.
Review who has access. Remove accounts for people who've left, and make sure admins use strong passwords and two-factor login where available.
Read your top pages as a customer would. Are the services, prices and photos still accurate?
Look at what people search for. Search Console shows the searches that bring people to your site. They're a good source of new content ideas.

Every year

Renew the domain and check its settings. Turn on auto-renew, and make sure the contact email on the domain account is one you still read.
Check SSL and email settings. Certificates usually renew automatically, but it's worth confirming. Check your email's SPF and DKIM records so your messages don't land in spam.
Review your tools and subscriptions. Cancel what you don't use, and check that the ones you rely on are still maintained.
Update legal pages. Privacy policy and terms should match what the site actually does, especially if you've added analytics, payments or new forms.
Check accessibility. Run an accessibility checker and fix contrast, missing labels and image descriptions.
Decide what's next. Look at the year's numbers and decide what to improve: a new page, a faster checkout, better content for a service that brings in work.

Signs something needs attention now

The site is suddenly slow or shows errors
Form submissions or orders stop arriving
Search Console reports a security issue or a sudden drop in indexed pages
Visitors mention a browser warning
You see pages, links or users on your site that you didn't add

Any of these is worth dealing with straight away rather than waiting for the next scheduled check.

Doing it yourself or getting help

For a simple site, much of this is manageable if you put an hour in the calendar each month. Updates and backup restores are the parts people most often skip, and they're the ones that matter most when something goes wrong.

If you'd rather hand it to a team that knows your code, that's what our ongoing support covers: updates, monitoring, backups and small changes. Thinking about whether your current setup is worth keeping? Our Next.js and WordPress comparison covers how much upkeep each one needs.