What is Included in Website Maintenance?

Introduction

Maintaining your website isn’t just about launching it and forgetting it — in today’s competitive, fast-moving digital environment, it’s essential to stay active and intentional with your website upkeep. A well-maintained website supports growth, improves search engine visibility, delivers a great user experience, and safeguards your investment. This article walks you—drawing on a thousand years of writing wisdom!—through everything that is included in website maintenance: what tasks to include, how often to perform them, why each is important, and how to build a strategy that works for you.

If you’re reading this from the perspective of a business owner, a marketer, or the website manager at an agency such as ours, then this article is for you. Whether you use WordPress or another platform, many of the core principles below apply.

Why Website Maintenance Matters

Before diving into the components, it’s worth revisiting why website maintenance should be treated as a priority rather than an optional extra.

Protecting Your Investment

You invested time, money and energy into creating your website. Without ongoing maintenance, that investment can deteriorate: pages break, performance suffers, vulnerabilities are exposed, and your site may lose credibility. As one industry article puts it: “Leaving a website untouched after its initial launch is, in many ways, like buying a car and never changing the oil.”

Improving Performance & User Experience

A site that loads slowly, has broken links, or is hard to navigate will frustrate visitors—and frustrated visitors tend to leave. This increases bounce rate, lowers conversions, and harms your brand. Regular maintenance keeps things running smoothly.

Security & Compliance

Hackers love outdated themes, plugins, weak passwords and unsupported software. Maintenance helps prevent downtime, data loss and reputation damage.

SEO & Visibility

Search engines favour sites that are secure, fast, mobile-friendly and error-free. Neglecting maintenance can directly harm your search visibility.

Scalability & Future-Proofing

If your website needs to handle peak traffic, new campaigns, or additional functionality, maintaining a clean, optimised site makes scaling much easier. Without maintenance, changes become harder, costlier or riskier.

Core Components of Website Maintenance

Here are the key areas you need to include in your website maintenance plan.

1. Software Updates (CMS, Themes & Plugins)

Why it matters

Outdated software creates vulnerabilities, compatibility problems and performance issues.

What to include

• CMS core updates (e.g., WordPress core)
• Theme updates
• Plugin updates and removals of unused plugins
• Ensure you check for compatibility before applying major updates

Best practices

• Set up automatic updates where safe—but always test first in a staging environment
• Keep a change log
• Perform updates during low-traffic periods
• Backup before updating

2. Security Monitoring & Hardening

Why it matters

With increasing cyberthreats, neglecting security is a major risk.

What to include

• SSL certificate renewal and configuration
• Web Application Firewall (WAF) setup
• Malware and vulnerability scanning
• Two-factor authentication (2FA) for login areas
• Regular review of user roles / access permissions
• Strong password policy

Best practices

• Schedule weekly or monthly security audits
• Use reputable security plugins/tools (especially for WordPress)
• Store backup outside the server (so you aren’t relying solely on hosting backups)

3. Backups & Disaster Recovery

Why it matters

If something goes wrong—hacked site, failed update, server crash—you need a reliable backup to restore your site quickly.

What to include

• Daily, weekly or monthly backups depending on how often you update the site
• Files + database backup
• Off-site storage (cloud, remote server, etc)
• Restoration test (can you restore quickly?)

Best practices

• Automate backups where possible
• Maintain multiple backup copies
• After backup, verify that the backup works (don’t assume)
• Before major updates, take a full backup

4. Performance & Speed Optimization

Why it matters

Users abandon sites that load slowly, and search engines penalise them too.

What to include

• Page load time monitoring (Google PageSpeed, GTmetrix)
• Image optimisation (compression, WebP format)
• Enable caching (browser, server, CDN)
• Minification of CSS/JS, reduce HTTP requests
• Clean database (remove revisions, spam comments, unused tags)

Best practices

• Monthly check of speed metrics
• After new page additions, large media uploads or plugin installations, run another performance test
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) if you serve global audiences

5. Broken Links, Redirects & UX Checks

Why it matters

Broken links harm user experience and SEO alike.

What to include

• Scan for 404 errors, broken links
• Update or remove outdated content
• Check redirects when pages are removed or URLs change
• Review calls-to-action (CTAs) and forms to ensure they work

Best practices

• Monthly scan for broken links
• Keep navigation intuitive and tested across devices
• Check forms and submission flows (especially for lead generation)

6. Content Review & Update

Why it matters

Content can become stale or inaccurate over time; also visitors and search engines favour fresh, relevant content.

What to include

• Review older blog posts (for your site, internal linking opportunities, updated statistics, refreshed language)
• Update product/service pages to reflect current offerings
• Check metadata (titles, descriptions, alt-texts) for SEO

Best practices

• Quarterly content audit
• Identify under-performing pages and refresh or retire them
• Use internal links generously to improve navigation and SEO

7. Mobile Responsiveness & Browser Compatibility

Why it matters

Visitors come from a variety of devices and browsers—if your site breaks or appears awkward, you lose trust and conversions.

What to include

• Check site display and functionality on mobile phones, tablets and desktops
• Test on major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
• Verify touch/click interactions, forms, navigation menus

Best practices

• When making layout or theme changes, always include mobile testing
• Use tools like BrowserStack or similar for cross-browser checks

8. SEO & Analytics Monitoring

Why it matters

SEO is not set-and-forget. Algorithms change; user behaviour shifts. Maintenance includes making sure you remain discoverable and relevant.

What to include

• Check Google Search Console for crawl errors, sitemap issues
• Review analytics: traffic, bounce rate, conversion paths
• Update your XML sitemap (if you publish new blog posts, pages)
• Internal link audits (link from older posts to newer ones, e.g. from your blog list)
• Meta tags, schema markup, structured data review

Best practices

• Monthly analytics review
• Quarterly SEO audit
• Use internal linking strategy to strengthen your site’s architecture

9. Hosting, Domain & Infrastructure Checks

Why it matters

If your hosting is slow, outdated or misconfigured, your site’s performance and uptime suffer. If your domain registration lapses, your site goes offline.

What to include

• Monitor uptime / downtime (use uptime monitoring tools)
• Review hosting performance and resources (CPU, RAM, bandwidth)
• Renew domain registration, SSL certificates on time
• Review backup of infrastructure (servers, databases)

Best practices

• Monthly check of hosting dashboard
• Set renewal email alerts for domain, SSL
• Plan for scaling if traffic spikes (e.g., during campaign)

10. Accessibility & Compliance

Why it matters

Websites increasingly must meet accessibility standards (for users with disabilities) and legal/privacy compliance (GDPR, etc). Ignoring this can hamper reach and expose you to risk.

What to include

• Check alt text on images, keyboard navigation, colour contrast
• Audit compliance of privacy policy, cookie banners, terms & conditions
• Review accessibility on desktop & mobile

Best practices

• Annual audit for compliance and accessibility
• Update policies and site notices if regulations have changed

Sample Maintenance Schedule

Here’s a sample schedule of tasks you can adopt:

Frequency	Task
Daily	Check for critical software updates; respond to form submissions; scan for uptime issues
Weekly	Run backups; perform security checks; review analytics for major drops; check availability of updates
Monthly	Speed test; content review; broken links scan; performance optimisation; hosting review; mobile/browser test
Quarterly	Full SEO audit; content audit; accessibility/compliance check; infrastructure review; internal link audit

This schedule aligns with best practice frameworks.

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Tailoring Maintenance to Your Platform (e.g., WordPress)

Since many websites run on WordPress, here are some specific notes for WordPress Sites:

• Use trusted themes and plugins; avoid many small unknown plugins (they may be unsupported).
• Enable auto-updates for minor releases, but test major ones first.
• Clean up unused plugins and themes regularly (they still might contain vulnerabilities).
• Use WordPress-specific security plugins and backup tools (e.g., UpdraftPlus, Wordfence).
• Ensure your chosen maintenance provider offers proactive version monitoring, staging environments and roll-back options.

How Long Does Maintenance Take & What’s the Cost?

Time investment

The time required depends on the complexity of your site, how often you update content, and how much traffic you have. A small brochure site might require 1-2 hours a month; a high-traffic eCommerce site might need dozens of hours weekly for performance tuning, content updates, security monitoring and optimisations.

Cost considerations

• Hosting & domain renewal
• SSL certificate renewals
• Backup storage costs
• Time cost (in-house or outsourced)
• Tools/subscriptions (performance test tools, security scanners)
• Unexpected costs (emergency recoveries if you don’t maintain)

Multiple resources mention the cost of neglect: losing reputation, traffic, conversions—and thus revenue.

Value

Consider website maintenance as a form of insurance and growth-fuel: fewer surprises, smoother user experience, better SEO, ready for scale.

Metrics

Define measurable outcomes for your maintenance: e.g., average page load time < 3 s, bounce rate < 50%, no critical security incidents, backups restore-ready within 30 minutes.

Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

Mistake: Treating Maintenance as a Once-Off

Some people update their website, launch it, then do nothing until something breaks. That’s reactive maintenance—costly and risky.

Mistake: Overlooking Internal Links & Content Freshness

Without refreshing older pages and linking to new resources, you’re leaving SEO performance on the table.

Mistake: Ignoring Performance Metrics

You might think the site “looks fine” but your users may be experiencing delays. Regular speed testing is critical.

Mistake: No Disaster Recovery Plan

If your backup fails or you can’t restore quickly, even a well-maintained site can be crippled.

Mistake: Neglecting Accessibility & Compliance

Might seem less urgent, but legal requirements and user expectations mean you can’t ignore this.

Mistake: No Proactive Management

If your website isn’t being actively managed (seeing trends, making improvements), it will fall behind competitors, even if it’s “working”.

How to Choose a Website Maintenance Provider

If you’re outsourcing maintenance (or partnering with an agency), look for:

• Clear scope of services: updates, backups, security, performance optimisation, content support
• Checklist that covers all components above
• Regular reporting: you should receive regular summaries of actions taken, performance metrics, upcoming tasks
• Backup & recovery guarantee
• Good communication and transparency
• Experience with your platform (e.g., WordPress) and website type (e.g., blog, eCommerce, high-traffic)
• Evidence of best practices (e.g., staging environment, error rollback plan)
• Pricing that is transparent (e.g., fixed monthly retainer plus extra support for campaigns)

An effective provider will also integrate with your content/editorial teams (so your blog, case studies, internal linking strategy all align) and ensure your website – not just maintained, but aligned with your business goals.

Checklist: Weekly / Monthly / Quarterly Maintenance Tasks

Here’s a printable­-style checklist for you to use.

Weekly

• Check for CMS core, theme, plugin updates
• Run backups and verify integrity
• Security scan for malware/vulnerabilities
• Review form submissions & lead capture flows
• Monitor uptime and performance alerts

Monthly

• Test site speed and performance (Google PageSpeed, GTmetrix)
• Scan for broken links / 404 errors
• Review analytics: traffic, bounce rate, conversion trends
• Mobile/browser compatibility check
• Check hosting performance and resource usage
• Update content where needed; add internal links

Quarterly

• Full SEO audit (metadata, keywords, links, sitemap)
• Accessibility audit & compliance review
• Content audit: older posts/pages for update or removal
• Infrastructure review (hosting plan, scaling, security infrastructure)
• Review & renew domain, SSL, hosting contracts
• Review user roles/access permissions and cleanup

Real-World Example: How Maintenance Transformed a Site

Imagine a website that had slow loading times (8 + seconds), multiple broken forms, outdated plugins and low conversions. A maintenance plan that included a clean-up of unused plugins, image optimisation, caching implementation, security patching, and content refresh could bring load time down to ~3 seconds—improving user experience, reducing bounce rate and boosting search rankings. In fact, case studies show just such improvements can meaningfully affect traffic and conversions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How often should I perform website maintenance?
A: There is no “one-size” answer, but a good baseline is weekly checks for updates/backups; monthly for performance/links; quarterly for audits.

Q: Does maintenance guarantee my website won’t get hacked?
A: No guarantee—but regular maintenance significantly reduces risk by eliminating known vulnerabilities, applying patches and monitoring threats.

Q: My site has hardly any traffic. Do I still need maintenance?
A: Yes. Even low-traffic sites need software updates, backups, security scans and performance monitoring. The cost of a site going offline or being hacked is often higher.

Q: Can I do maintenance myself or should I outsource?
A: You can absolutely do many tasks yourself—especially if you have WordPress experience. But as your site grows (traffic, complexity, conversions) you’ll benefit from specialist support or a dedicated partner.

Q: What if I skip maintenance for a while?
A: The risk is cumulative: broken links, outdated software, slower load times, security holes, and lower SEO rankings. Eventually you’ll spend more time and money to fix what could’ve been prevented.

Conclusion

Website maintenance isn’t optional—it’s foundational. From software updates, security and backups to performance optimisation, content refreshes and active management, a well-executed maintenance strategy keeps your website healthy, effective and aligned with your business goals. Think of it less as “keeping your website alive” and more as “nurturing your online business hub”.

Investing in maintenance now means fewer crises later, better user experience, improved search visibility, and a website that supports growth rather than holding you back.

If you’d like to explore how to build a customised maintenance plan for your website—especially if it runs on WordPress and you’re looking for premium support—get in touch via our Contact us page and we’ll help you get started with a risk-free first 4 hours as a trial.