Website Maintenance
Regular maintenance keeps your website useful, dependable, and ready for visitors. Software updates, reliable backups, performance checks, and accurate content all support the same goal: helping people find information and complete tasks without unnecessary obstacles.
Maintain the technical foundations
Routine software updates
Keep your content management system, extensions, themes, and other dependencies up to date. Review security releases promptly and remove components you no longer need.
Before applying significant updates, create a backup and test changes on a separate copy of the website where possible. Afterwards, check navigation, contact forms, search, and any booking or payment features. An update is only complete when the website’s essential functions still work.
Backups you can restore
Automate backups at a frequency that reflects how often your website changes. A frequently updated site needs more frequent backups than a small website with occasional edits.
Include the files, uploaded media, and database where applicable. Keep protected copies separate from the live website, retain several versions, and periodically test restoration. For WordPress websites, the official backup guidance explains why both files and the database are needed.
Check performance and usability
Review important pages on mobile and desktop, especially after adding images, videos, extensions, or tracking tools. Look for slow loading, shifting layouts, broken links, and controls that are difficult to use.
Google PageSpeed Insights provides performance analysis to help identify improvements. Combine those results with practical checks: submit an enquiry, open a download, and follow the main navigation. Prioritise issues that interrupt visitors’ tasks.
Keep content accurate and accessible
Outdated information can create confusion even when a website works perfectly. Review service descriptions, contact details, opening hours, team information, and downloadable documents. Remove expired announcements and update links when pages move.
Check accessibility whenever content changes. Use clear headings, descriptive links, appropriate image alternatives, and readable formatting. The W3C accessibility checks offer a useful starting point, though a full accessibility assessment requires a broader review.
Give maintenance a clear owner
Assign responsibility for updates, backups, and content reviews. A practical starting schedule is:
- Weekly: Check backup results, review available updates, and test important forms.
- Monthly: Review key content, broken links, and page performance.
- After significant changes: Test essential functions, mobile layouts, and accessibility.
Adjust the schedule to your website’s activity and importance. Keep a brief maintenance log so whoever manages the site can see what changed and what needs attention.