Website Maintenance Plan: How to Create One, Tips, Checklist

Have you been maintaining your website? If not, the result, over time, can be slow load times, broken links, and outdated content.

These issues can impact the user experience and drive potential customers away, which leads to reduced customer outreach and loss of revenue.

How can you prevent this? Three words: website maintenance plan. Here we’ll show you how to create one and what it should include.

What Is a Website Maintenance Plan?

A website maintenance plan is a strategy to keep a website running smoothly. It ensures the site stays secure and provides a positive user experience. It covers a variety of tasks, from regular updates and backups to performance optimization and security measures.

Some of its key elements include:

• Performance Optimization: Regularly monitor and improve website speed.
• Security Measures: Implement and update security protocols to protect against threats.
• Content Management: Keep content current and relevant.
• SEO Optimization: Maintain or enhance things that can impact search engine rankings.
• Backup and Recovery: Ensure regular backups are available for restoration.
• Monitoring and Analytics: Track performance and user behavior for improvements.
• Software Updates: Keep software and plugins up to date.

Why You Should Maintain Your Website

Some of the benefits of maintaining your website include:

Ensures Smooth Functionality and User Satisfaction

A properly maintained website leaves a positive impression on the visitor. Customers are more likely to bookmark websites that work flawlessly and are easy to navigate.

Protects Against Security Threats

Keeping your website secure can help to establish trust among visitors. A website with the latest security updates helps keep your website is safe and ensures users are comfortable doing business through it. A secure website is also important for SEO performance.

Improves Search Engine Rankings

A well-executed website maintenance plan can maintain your site's search engine rankings. Search engines prioritize fast and well-maintained sites. You need to regularly fix broken links, improve website performance, and update content so that your website remains visible and competitive in search results.

Enhances Website Performance

Regularly checking key health metrics and finding any slow or weak spots is important. Improving these areas helps create a smooth experience that keeps customers on your site longer.

Consequences of Neglecting Website Maintenance

If your website isn't regularly updated, you're risking its security, customer reach, and search engine rankings. Let’s go through some of the drawbacks of not maintaining your website.

Website Downtime and Loss of Revenue

Have you ever seen a shopping website crash on Black Friday as a result of too many users? If you're not keeping an eye on the performance of your website, it can slow down or even stop responding to user requests. A slow or crashed website can result in lost customers and lost revenue.

In fact, an increase in wait times of approximately three seconds decreases conversion rates by 50%. This shows just how crucial website performance is to maintaining revenue.

Security Breaches and Data Loss

Ignoring regular security reviews of your website will put it at a high risk of infiltration. It can be an external cybersecurity threat, malware, or even an insecure password.

Security breaches can lead to data loss and poor customer experience, eventually resulting in reputation damage and revenue loss. A study by IBM found that the average cost of a data breach in 2024 was $4.88 million, up 10% from the previous year.

Lower Search Engine Rankings

What good is a website if it cannot be found by customers? Whether it’s broken links, outdated content, or slow load times, a poorly maintained website can impact user experience. Eventually, this can affect its position in search results.

Decreased Relevance

If you haven't updated your website to reflect the latest happenings in your target niche, you will fail to attract visitors. Outdated content is less relevant to visitors and can lead to a reduced customer base.

Google's algorithm considers fresh content and regular updates as key indicators of your website's quality and relevance. In fact, Google's Quality Rater Guidelines specifically highlight outdated or neglected websites as examples of low-quality content.

What Is Included in a Website Maintenance Plan?

A website maintenance plan should include several key action items. Below is a comprehensive list, organized by how often each task should be reviewed.

Speed Optimization - Monthly

Website speed impacts user experience and search rankings. Optimize images, minimize code, leverage caching, and reduce server response time to enhance loading speed.

How to check: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to test your website’s loading speed. These tools provide detailed reports on factors affecting your site's performance and usability.

What to look for: Focus on optimizing large images, reducing unnecessary code, using browser caching, minifying files, and minimizing server response time to enhance loading speeds. If you don’t have technical skills, you'll likely need a developer's help to implement these changes.

Security Updates - Monthly

Keeping software (CMS, plugins, etc.) up to date prevents vulnerabilities. You need to regularly apply security patches to protect against cyber threats.

How to check: Regularly check for available updates in your CMS, plugins, and themes. For WordPress users, this involves going to the dashboard and checking for core, plugin, and theme updates.

Shopify and Wix users should regularly check their platforms’ dashboards, as these platforms automatically handle most security updates but may require manual action for certain plugins or apps. Additionally, use security tools like Wordfence for WordPress, or built-in security features on Shopify and Wix, to scan for vulnerabilities.

What to look for: Make sure all security patches are applied immediately to protect against known vulnerabilities. For WordPress, prioritize updates for widely used plugins like WooCommerce. Shopify and Wix users should ensure all third-party apps are up to date and check for any alerts or security notifications.

Performance Monitoring - Monthly

Monitor server uptime, response times, and resource usage. Identify bottlenecks and optimize performance.

How to check: Monitor your site’s uptime and response times using tools like UptimeRobot or Pingdom.

What to look for: Look for any patterns of downtime or slow response. Investigate and resolve issues such as server errors, high traffic loads, or inefficient scripts that could be affecting performance.

Broken Link Check - Monthly to Quarterly

Broken links frustrate users and harm SEO. Regularly scanning for broken links is easy to do with most SEO tools. You can either fix them or redirect them to a page with similar and relevant content.

How to check: Scan your site with your SEO tool of choice to detect broken links.

What to look for: Identify and repair broken links, either by fixing the URL or redirecting to relevant content.

Mobile Responsiveness - Quarterly

Make sure your site works seamlessly on mobile devices. Since 2020, Google has been indexing sites based on their mobile site. That means if your site isn’t optimized for a stellar mobile user experience, it could affect your search performance.

How to check: All the best SEO tools include mobile performance data. You can also assess mobile indexing status on the Settings page in Google Search Console, or on a page-by-page basis using the URL Inspection Tool.

What to look for: Make sure the site loads well and looks good on mobile. Check that all site elements like navigation menus, buttons, and images, are functional and visually appropriate on mobile screens.

Content Review - Quarterly

Fresh, relevant content attracts visitors and improves search rankings. Update existing content, add new articles, and maintain consistency.

How to check: Regularly review all pages manually and use tools like Grammarly for grammar checks and a top SEO tool to assess content. You can also use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to keep an eye on how your top content is performing and continue to add to/improve it over time.

What to look for: Identify outdated or underperforming content that needs updates or revisions. All content needs to align with current trends, audience needs, and SEO best practices. Look for opportunities to add new information, improve clarity, or expand on topics to keep your content fresh and relevant.

SEO Health Check - Quarterly

Regularly assess on-page SEO elements (meta tags, headings, keywords), off-page factors (backlinks, social signals), and technical SEO.

How to check: Perform a basic review using an SEO tool to scan for critical issues. You can also check Google Search Console for status errors, increases in broken links, and indexing or sitemap issues.

What to look for: Check for critical errors that affect user experience, crawling/indexing, and site function. Many SEO tools can help you prioritize these but you can also decide what to tackle first based on how much work the fix requires and the impact it has on your site’s function, crawlability, or user experience.

Backup Verification - Quarterly

Make sure your backup systems are working correctly and can be restored in case of an emergency.

How to check: Test your backup system by restoring the most recent backup on a test server using tools like Veeam or Acronis. Additionally, review your web hosting provider’s backup policies to confirm they align with your needs.

What to look for: Ensure that your backups are complete and not corrupt. The backup should cover all critical aspects of your website, including databases and files. Confirm that your hosting provider’s backup solutions are reliable and accessible, especially in emergency situations.

Analytics Review - Quarterly

Analyze user behavior, traffic sources, and conversion rates. Use insights to refine your strategy.

How to check: Analyze user behavior, traffic sources, and conversion rates using an analytics platform like Google Analytics or Matomo.

What to look for: Identify trends, particularly areas with high bounce rates or low engagement, and adjust your strategy accordingly. Of course, you should also look at what's performing well and what you can learn from it!

Database Optimization - Annual

You need to optimize database tables to improve site speed and reduce server load.

How to check: Use tools like phpMyAdmin to analyze and optimize your database tables.

What to look for: Clear out unnecessary data, such as old revisions and spam comments, to improve site speed and reduce server load. Optimize tables to keep your database running efficiently.

Maintaining Your Own Website vs Hiring a Pro

Now that you understand the importance of proper website maintenance, the next question is how to approach it.

You have two options: either maintain the website yourself or hire a professional to handle it for you.

Let's weigh the pros and cons of each option to help you make the right choice.

Maintaining Your Own Website

Hiring a Professional

Go for outsourcing if:

• Your website maintenance requires a specific skill set that you lack in-house.
• You don't have enough time or resources to allocate to website maintenance.
• You cannot afford your website to be down or experience issues that might impact the customer experience.

Maintain the website yourself if:

• Your website is simple and does not require frequent updates.
• You have the expertise in-house to manage the website.
• You would like to have complete control over your website due to the nature of your business.

How to Evaluate the Cost of Your Website Maintenance?

The cost of website maintenance varies depending on several factors. Understanding these factors will help you determine a realistic budget and choose the right maintenance option.

• Website Complexity: The more complex a website is, the more time, skills, and resources it will need to be maintained. Website Traffic: Websites with high traffic volume require more maintenance.

• Maintenance Scope: The broader the scope of website maintenance, the more effort will be required to manage it. Is it simply a monthly blog post, or a busy WordPress site with numerous ecommerce plugins attached?

• Geographic Location: What's the location of the team that will handle maintenance? Certain parts of the world have lower labor rates.

Payment Structures for Website Maintenance

When it comes to payment structures for website maintenance, there are many types available. Some of the most common ones are:

• Hourly: The service provider charges a flat hourly rate for the work. This option is best for websites with undefined scope or recurring tasks (e.g. writing two blog posts every week).

• Project-Based: You'll be charged a fixed amount for a fixed scope of maintenance. This option is ideal if you have one-off maintenance with a clear scope (e.g. annual website audit).

• Retainer-Based: This is a common payment structure for maintenance. You'll be charged a monthly or annual fee for routine ongoing maintenance services. Go for this option if your business needs consistent support and predictable budgeting. One example is patching your website with security updates regularly.

• Performance-Based: If you want the payment to be tied to specific performance metrics, then this payment strategy is best (e.g. you want your website to keep a 99.99% uptime).

Assessing Your Website Maintenance Needs

There's no single tool that can precisely determine all the tasks needed for your website maintenance plan. However, there are some steps you can take to evaluate your needs.

Step 1: Audit Current Website Performance

Begin by assessing your website’s speed, mobile compatibility, and overall functionality. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check load times on both desktop and mobile devices. A good benchmark is a load time of under three seconds.

Additionally, make sure your website is mobile-friendly by testing it across different devices and assessing it in Google Search Console's mobile report.

Step 2: Identify Your Security and Compliance Needs

First, make a list of your existing security measures, such as SSL certificates, firewall rules, and security scans. Then, identify whether your site needs to comply with any regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC2. Lastly, assess your data privacy and backup needs based on your required security posture.

Step 3: Evaluate Content Management Requirements

Start with how frequently you need to update your content. Will it be daily, weekly, or monthly? Evaluate any key pages or areas where you need to ensure performance and develop a plan for regular updates or additions.

Step 4: Analyze Technical Maintenance Needs

Start by reviewing your CMS, plugins, and themes to make sure they're compatible with the latest versions and updates. You can use tools like WP-Scan or PHP Compatibility Checker for this purpose.

Evaluate your website’s codebase for any deprecated libraries. Check your website's error logs regularly to identify hidden issues that may affect performance or compatibility. Additionally, assess if your hosting environment meets your website's needs in terms of bandwidth, storage, and server uptime.

Step 5: Estimate Resources and Budget

After you have created a to-do list of your website maintenance tasks, the next step is to estimate the cost and resources. You'll decide whether the maintenance will be handled by your in-house team or you will outsource it. Then you will identify the cost of any tools or third-party vendors if needed. The final step is the execution plan of your website maintenance in the form of a roadmap.

Tools to Help with Website Maintenance

Let’s go through some of the tools that help you with your website maintenance.

Good Web Hosting Provider

While technically not a tool, a good hosting provider is the key to the successful maintenance of your website. Many hosting providers offer managed hosting packages that handle much of the maintenance for you, including automatic updates, security monitoring, and backups.

By choosing one of the top web hosting companies, you can enhance your site's security and performance. Hosting providers also provide services that are crucial in your website maintenance. These include but are not limited to:

• SSL certificate
• Backups to help you mitigate any data loss in case of accident or cyberattack
• Performance monitoring so that you can keep an eye on the health of your server and proactively resolve any issue that might impact the user experience

Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides you with valuable insights about your website so you can identify the areas to improve and streamline your maintenance efforts. Some of these insights include:

• Traffic monitoring: You can analyze the traffic patterns and any unusual surges in user activity.
• User behavior insights: It provides detailed reports on how users interact with your website including page view, session duration, and bounce rates.

Google Analytics is free and installing it on your website is easy to do.

SEO Tools

SEO tools provide the data to help you improve your website’s reach via search engines. Some example tools include Yoast SEO, Moz, etc. Some of their most powerful features are:

• Providing detailed data on website performance and potential optimization;
• Tracking key page performance over time;
• Providing information on competitors so that you can optimize your strategy and remain competitive;

Site Monitoring Tools

Site monitoring tools help track whether your website is always up and running and will alert you as soon as it faces any issue. Some examples of these tools include UptimeRobot, Pingdom, and New Relic. These tools offer key features like:

• Uptime monitoring: They continually check your website’s availability and send you an alert as soon as it goes down.
• Performance monitoring: These tools let you monitor key health metrics like page load time and server response time. The metrics serve as a foundation to optimize your website performance.

Website Security Tools

These tools help you secure your website by providing the following features:

• Malware protection: Tools like Sucuri and Wordfence continuously scan your website for any malware or viruses so you can proactively manage these threats.
• Network security: Network security tools like Cloudflare and Astra Security provide a firewall feature and protect your website from various attacks like XSS, DDoS, SQL injection, etc.

Maintaining Your Website for Optimal Performance

Maintaining your website is vital to its success. Regular maintenance of your website is the only way to ensure its security, improve user experience, and maintain competitive rankings in search engines.

Whether you choose to handle it yourself or hire a professional, prioritizing your website's maintenance is an investment that pays off in your business’s long-term success.

Web hosting service providers can help deliver a lot of the security features you need. Check out our top picks for best web hosting services and our breakdown of the most secure web hosting services to learn more.