The Website Maintenance Checklist: Weekly, Monthly and Yearly Tasks

A website is not a brochure you print once. It is software running on a server connected to the entire internet. Like any system, it needs regular care. Here is the checklist we use for client websites, organized by frequency.

Weekly tasks

• Apply updates. WordPress core, plugins and themes, after taking a backup.
• Check backups. Confirm backups ran and are stored off site.
• Review security alerts. Failed logins, file changes and firewall blocks.
• Test key forms. Contact, quote and checkout forms should deliver correctly.
• Check uptime reports. Look for any downtime incidents.

Monthly tasks

• Performance check. Review page speed and Core Web Vitals.
• Broken links. Find and fix broken internal and external links.
• Search Console review. Indexing issues, crawl errors and manual actions.
• Database cleanup. Remove spam comments, revisions and transients.
• User audit. Remove accounts that no longer need access.
• Content freshness. Update pricing, team, offers and outdated information.

Quarterly tasks

• Restore test. Actually restore a backup to staging. A backup you have never tested is a hope, not a plan.
• Plugin review. Remove unused or abandoned plugins.
• SEO review. Rankings, top pages and opportunities.
• Accessibility spot check. Contrast, alt text and keyboard navigation.

Yearly tasks

• Renew domain and confirm auto renew settings
• Review hosting performance and pricing
• Update legal pages: privacy policy, terms and cookie policy
• Full technical SEO and security audit
• Review the design and messaging against your current business

A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a plan.

DIY or care plan?

If you are comfortable with WordPress, have a staging environment and enjoy technical tasks, maintaining your own site is possible. Most business owners find it is not the best use of their time, and the risk of a missed update or untested backup is real. A care plan turns this checklist into a service that just happens, with experts who know what to do when something goes wrong.