Originally published March 2020 ยท Updated October 2026 · By SM Web Development
Most small business websites don’t need to change often. What they need is a little regular attention, so the things that quietly break get noticed before a customer does. Here’s a simple schedule, and what each check is for.
Every month: keep it running
Install updates. If your site runs on WordPress, the core software, your theme and your plugins all get updates, and many of them fix security problems. Wix and Squarespace handle most of this for you, which is one of the reasons people choose them.
Check you have a recent backup. A backup only helps if it can actually be restored. If someone else looks after your site, ask them when the last one was taken and whether they’ve ever restored from it.
Send yourself a test enquiry. Fill in your own contact or quote request form and make sure the message arrives. If the form takes photos, attach one. An update is one of the ways a form can stop sending without anyone noticing, and nobody gets an error message to tell you. For a trade, that can mean a week of quote requests that never reached you.
Tap your phone number on your phone. Open the site on your phone and tap the number. It should start a call.
Every few months: check it’s still true
Details go out of date faster than design does. Go through the site and check:
- Opening hours, including holiday hours and any emergency or after-hours service
- Phone number, email address and physical address
- The services you offer and the prices you show
- The areas you serve, if you travel to customers
- Licences, certifications and insurance details you show
- Team members who have joined or left
- Links to social accounts, and any link that goes to another website
- That your hours and contact details match your Google Business Profile, so customers don’t find two different answers
Every couple of years: look at it with fresh eyes
This is the bigger review. Ask yourself:
- Does it work well on a phone? Here’s how to check your website on a phone.
- Is it obvious how to contact you? More on that in why your website needs a clear call to action.
- Does it still describe what you actually do? Businesses change. Websites often don’t. A plumber who now does mostly furnace and boiler work should say so.
- What do customers look for and fail to find? You’re close to your own site, so it’s hard to see. Ask a few customers what they went looking for. The answers are usually specific and easy to act on.
If most of the answers are “no,” a redesign may be worth it. If they’re mostly “yes,” it probably isn’t, and the monthly and quarterly checks are doing their job.
What doesn’t need a schedule
Adding pages or blog posts just to look busy. Add something when you have something useful to say, not because a calendar says it’s time.
Not sure where your site stands?
If you’d rather not keep track of all this yourself, updates, backups and small edits every month are what our care plans cover.
If you’re not sure your site is worth looking after in the first place, start with a free website review. We’ll look at your site on a phone, the way your customers do, and tell you the three things we’d fix first. If the honest answer is that it’s fine, we’ll tell you that too.