Website Maintenance: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Do It Right

A great website isn’t something you build once and forget; it’s something you maintain. Regular website maintenance keeps your site secure, fast, and performing at its best.

In this guide, we’ll explain exactly what website maintenance is, why it matters, and how to keep your website running smoothly year-round.

What Is Website Maintenance?

Website maintenance is the process of keeping a website up to date to ensure it runs optimally and delivers the best possible user experience.

A core aspect of website management, maintenance can be performed independently or through dedicated website maintenance services.

Several critical tasks are included in website maintenance, with some occurring regularly and others only when necessary.

By keeping on top of these tasks, small businesses and large corporations alike can focus their efforts on business priorities.

Why Is Website Maintenance Important?

Whether you’re launching a new outdoor business or creating a new company site, website maintenance confers many benefits.

Here’s why you should conduct regular website maintenance as part of your overarching digital workflow:

• Ensuring security and compliance: Websites are continually vulnerable to threats, and maintenance helps keep them from becoming easy targets for hackers and cyberattacks.
• Delivering the optimal user experience: Site maintenance also optimized performance, providing a great user experience and supported by up-to-date, informative content.
• Optimizing content for search engines: Another core aspect of website maintenance is SEO, ensuring content ranks higher in search engine results pages.

By verifying that these and other factors are addressed, your website content and functionality will attract a larger audience.

How Often Should Website Maintenance Be Done?

Planning and scheduling website maintenance is a core aspect when making a website for business or personal use.

The frequency of maintenance varies depending on the site’s complexity, the range of assets, and other factors such as functionality.

In general, however, site maintenance should be conducted at least once per month, with more frequent check-ins when needed.

There are also instances where critical updates must be implemented immediately, especially when dealing with security vulnerabilities.

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Website Maintenance Tasks

As with a robust website design timeline, a maintenance schedule is necessary to ensure consistent site performance.

Here’s a brief overview of the maintenance tasks typically performed weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually.

Weekly Website Maintenance Tasks

Once a website is live, weekly maintenance tasks are sometimes necessary, in addition to adding new content for visitors.

This can include security updates and general performance monitoring, as well as updating the press page with favorable media coverage.

Monthly Website Maintenance Tasks

When creating a monthly website maintenance checklist, tasks can include verifying that plugins and tools are up to date and functioning correctly.

This frequency of website maintenance is perhaps the most commonly applied, with most website owners adopting this approach.

Quarterly Website Maintenance Tasks

Some websites undergo a rigorous quarterly maintenance process, depending on their complexity and the size of the business.

This maintenance can include a comprehensive review of the site’s content, particularly when optimizing for search engines.

Annual Maintenance Website Tasks

A comprehensive annual website maintenance and review is essential for sites with significant volumes of content and features.

All aspects of web maintenance are adopted in annual reviews, from industry compliance and security to layout and design updates.

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Types Of Website Maintenance

Website maintenance comes in many forms, with each element fitting into the larger picture for an overall enjoyable user experience.

Let’s break down the main types of website maintenance and how each contributes to enhancing performance and usability.

1. Security Scanning & Updates

With consumers increasingly concerned about cybersecurity, regular security updates and scans are essential for site maintenance.

This can also include implementing specific fixes and patches to the site’s architecture, as well as content management system updates.

2. Content Updates

Engaging visitors requires frequent new content, including product and service descriptions and other multimedia assets.

On large informational websites, this content is often user-generated and heavily focused on community interaction.

3. Fixing Broken Links & Bugs

Broken links and other bugs can lead to a poor user experience, impacting a business’s bottom line and customer trust.

Bugs relating to website displays and other technical glitches are also identified and addressed during website maintenance.

Fortunately, there are plenty of tools available to automate the identification and fixing of broken links on a website.

4. Performance Monitoring & Optimization

General load times and page speed issues are other areas that can diminish the user experience if left unmonitored and unaddressed.

Regular maintenance allows site owners to keep on top of performance optimization before it causes issues with visitors.

It incorporates processes such as asset compression, code streamlining, and the use of appropriate plugins to drive optimal performance.

5. Backup & Recovery

Protecting a site from serious adverse events requires a backup protocol and a clear recovery plan to avoid disaster.

Today, many sites use cloud backup tools that make it easy to revert to a previous update without data loss.

Backup and recovery protocols are also frequently tested throughout website maintenance to ensure they function as intended.

6. Accessibility Testing

Accessibility is another core element of site maintenance, ensuring that visitors with disabilities can understand the information presented.

This may also include ensuring compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

You can consult with a web maintenance services provider to determine the level of accessibility your site requires.

7. Ensuring Legal Compliance

Depending on a business’s location and industry, legal compliance requirements may be incorporated into the site maintenance process.

This can include complying with regulatory organizations such as GDPR and CCPA, or ensuring published business details are accurate.

A professional maintenance service provider will be able to advise on relevant legal compliance based on the business’s requirements.

8. Enhancing The User Experience

Website maintenance is equally focused on improving the overall user experience as on managing technical issues.

This can be fine-tuned to focus on specific types of sites, whether updating a consulting website or an entertainment platform.

Site elements may be redesigned for a more intuitive user experience, with improved site-wide navigation based on user feedback.

9. Social Media Integration

With social media’s impact on business remaining dominant in driving growth, social media integration is vital.

Regular maintenance keeps the site up to date with the latest social media trends and connects visitors to business pages.

This includes adding social media buttons on blog posts to encourage visitors to share insights on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

10. SEO Maintenance

Website owners are likely familiar with SEO maintenance as a core strategy for driving brand awareness.

Whether starting a flower business or a logistics operation, search engine optimization is a constant maintenance process.

Powerful AI tools are emerging that help with SEO-friendly content creation capable of transforming strategic traffic acquisition.

11. Software Updates

General software updates are core to maintenance, covering everything from CMS systems to plugins and additional tools.

If you’re running an e-commerce website, these updates may also relate to integrated payment systems like PayPal.

It’s part of a broader maintenance approach that covers security updates, compatibility, and other crucial factors.

12. Monitoring & Data Analytics

Website performance optimization requires ongoing monitoring and the use of data analytics tools to identify behavioral patterns.

In addition to user account behavior, this monitoring can inform decisions about the site’s overall functionality.

Some website builders incorporate powerful data analytics into their platforms, keeping website maintenance costs to a minimum.

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DIY Vs. Professional Website Maintenance

Whether you’re making a personal website or running a business platform, consistent maintenance is necessary.

Deciding whether to perform this yourself or use professional website maintenance services is pivotal when budgeting for a site.

DIY site maintenance is more affordable, particularly for small sites without complex features or integrations.

While this approach can be satisfactory in some cases, larger businesses or e-commerce sites need a robust maintenance strategy.

In such instances, professional website maintenance services are essential for delivering peace of mind and saving valuable time.

Website Self-Maintenance Checklist

If you do decide to conduct website maintenance yourself, there are several key steps you’ll need to take.

Follow this self-maintenance checklist to ensure everything is covered in the process:

• Monitor the site’s uptime and speed: A basic maintenance task you can perform regularly is uptime monitoring, using the UptimeRobot app to receive notifications when issues arise.
• Update all security and tools: Ensuring security vulnerabilities are addressed is another core aspect of self-maintenance, scanning for vulnerabilities that require a fix.
• Optimize databases and content: Maintenance also requires database updates, removing unnecessary data while also optimizing archived content for SEO.
• Gather user feedback: Incorporating user feedback is essential for improving the user experience and flagging broken links and other errors that automated checks might miss.
• Evaluate and update the design: For complete design overhauls, you may need to temporarily close the site and add a website-under-construction page.

By using automation tools, you can implement checks that allow the business to run itself with a relatively hands-off approach.

Common Website Maintenance Mistakes

With a broad range of elements to check during website maintenance, it’s easy to make fundamental mistakes.

Here are some common website maintenance mistakes and how you can avoid them:

• Poor scheduling of updates: Neglecting regular website maintenance is one of the most common mistakes, and can be avoided through rigorous scheduling.
• A lack of mobile optimization: With most website visitors coming through the mobile website version, failing to optimize for smartphones can lead to a significant loss of traffic.
• Overlooking SSL renewals: Failure to update SSL and TLS certificates can create significant security vulnerabilities that compromise visitors’ data.
• Insufficient analytics monitoring: While most website builders include powerful analytics tools, some business owners neglect to track this data, missing growth opportunities.

Implementing the necessary checks, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs can deliver an exceptional experience for site visitors.

Tools For Website Maintenance

Website maintenance tools are vital for streamlining processes across all tasks, from website builders’ integrated tools to bespoke software.

These are some of the core tools used for site maintenance to optimize website performance and provide protection from vulnerabilities:

• Backup and monitoring tools: Tools like Jetpack and Uptime Robot are frequently used for site backup and monitoring, tracking site updates, and preventing data loss in the event of a disaster.
• Site speed and performance tools: Site and page load speeds must be optimized to retain visitors, with tools like PageSpeed Insights available to help.
• Data protection and security tools: There are plenty of tools to assess websites for security vulnerabilities, with Cloudflare and Wordfence among the most commonly used.
• Search engine optimization tools: Optimizing a site for search engine rankings can be performed via a website builder platform, with Google Analytics and Google Search Console also valuable resources.
• Content management systems: Managing large volumes of written and visual content is easy with an intuitive, centralized dashboard featured in a content management system.

By incorporating these tools into a website launch checklist, site maintenance can be conducted regularly and accurately.

Website Maintenance Costs

Many factors, including the type of website and the sensitivity of the data collected, influence website maintenance costs.

These are the typical costs associated with the small, medium, and enterprise-level websites:

• Small business and personal websites: For bare-bones websites for local companies or personal use, a basic maintenance package can cost between $10 and $75 per month.
• Medium-scale business websites: Monthly website maintenance for mid-tier websites typically ranges between $35 and $500, depending on specific requirements.
• Corporate/enterprise websites: For larger corporations and companies, costs for a well-maintained website start at around $500 per month and can reach over $5,000 per month.

Additional costs for content creation, design, and SEO can also increase expenses beyond routine maintenance fees.

Website Maintenance Plan Payment Structures

Outsourcing website maintenance is a popular option for companies, but the costs can vary widely.

Let’s explore some of the common website maintenance payment structures that professional services use:

• Pay-as-you-go: In this payment structure, clients pay website maintenance services an hourly rate for specific tasks, making it a solid option for smaller business sites.
• Retainer hours: Agreed upon in advance, they deliver a faster, more responsive service for larger enterprises.
• Tiered website maintenance packages: Some website maintenance services offer packages tailored to specific site types, such as e-commerce.

Web maintenance services can also be rolled into a broader web hosting cost that covers domain registration and other features.

You can check with web hosting providers to verify which maintenance services are included in the subscription price.

Read this next: How to make an e-commerce website.

How To Choose A Website Maintenance Service

Every website has unique requirements for updates and maintenance tasks, with different associated web maintenance costs.

If you’re considering hiring a website maintenance provider, consider the following factors:

• Personal and professional site requirements: Understanding your site’s requirements sets the stage for choosing a service provider. If you’re starting a mom blog, you won’t need the same degree of maintenance tasks as a full-scale business site.
• Available site maintenance budget: Your available budget will also determine which maintenance package best matches your needs and whether pay-as-you-go is the best option.
• Website maintenance services offered: Enterprise-level company websites can be highly demanding, requiring a team of engineers with strong industry-specific experience.
• Comparison of Service Level Agreements (SLAs): A clear breakdown of any Service Level Agreements should be reviewed before signing a provider up to manage site maintenance.
• Customer reviews and testimonials: The best maintenance service providers will have a proven track record that’s reflected in positive testimonials and favorable reviews.

When making a decision, be mindful of vague service definitions and check whether their communication style aligns with your own.

Emerging Website Maintenance Trends

Website maintenance is constantly evolving, with many of the top technology trends shaping how it is performed.

Here are some of the most relevant tech trends currently impacting web maintenance, streamlining performance, and preventing security breaches:

• Emerging AI tools: Artificial intelligence has made significant strides in automating website maintenance, performance monitoring, and security threat assessment.
• Progressive Web Apps: Progressive Web Apps can simplify and streamline site maintenance by using a single codebase across all platforms.
• Optimization for voice searches: With users increasingly utilizing voice searches, optimizing for this interactive approach ensures sites are discoverable.
• Prioritizing Core Web Vitals: A relatively recent innovation, Core Web Vitals provide detailed metrics that deliver a comprehensive overview of a site’s performance and stability.

Understanding how these trends impact maintenance when planning a website will future-proof your long-term strategy.

Summary

Regular website maintenance is essential for keeping your site secure, fast, and optimized for search engines.

By following the steps in this guide, you’ll strengthen performance, protect your visitors, and build long-term trust.

As your site evolves, continue refining your maintenance strategy to stay ahead of any technical issues and industry changes.