17 Nov
Keeping your website healthy, secure, and performing at its best isn’t a one-time task—it’s an ongoing commitment. Whether you’re running a business site, an e-commerce platform, or a personal blog, a consistent maintenance plan saves time, protects your investment, and ensures your users have the best experience.
At Dune Digital, we help businesses maintain websites that aren’t just functional—they’re impactful. Here’s your ultimate website maintenance checklist for 2026.
Weekly Maintenance Tasks
1. Backup Your Website
Regular backups are essential. They’re your safety net if anything goes wrong—like a software update glitch or accidental deletion.
Tip: Store backups in multiple locations, such as cloud storage and an external hard drive. Many hosting providers include automated backup solutions, and at Dune Digital, we help clients set up reliable backup strategies.
2. Update Software, Themes, and Plugins
Outdated software can lead to security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues. Make it a weekly habit to check for updates for your CMS, themes, and plugins.
Pro tip: Always back up your site before updating to prevent data loss if something goes wrong. Our team at Dune Digital can manage these updates for you, so you never miss critical patches.
3. Monitor Uptime
Your site should be available 24/7. Use uptime monitoring tools like UptimeRobot or Pingdom to ensure your website isn’t experiencing unexpected outages. Quick alerts mean you can fix problems before users notice.
Monthly Maintenance Tasks
4. Test Website Forms
Broken forms can cost you leads and frustrate visitors. Test contact forms, checkout pages, and newsletter sign-ups monthly to make sure everything works. We can help automate testing and reporting, saving you time.
5. Optimise Your Database
Websites accumulate unnecessary data over time—like old revisions, spam comments, and temporary entries. Regular database optimisation improves performance. Many hosting providers or plugins offer automated solutions to keep this under control.
6. Scan for Malware and Security Vulnerabilities
Even secure websites can be targeted by hackers. Use trusted security plugins or services to run monthly scans, check for suspicious activity, and fix vulnerabilities.
7. Review and Remove Spam Comments
Spam comments can make your website look unprofessional and may impact SEO. Plugins like Akismet filter spam automatically, but it’s good to manually review and delete anything that slips through.
Quarterly Maintenance Tasks
8. Perform a Speed Test
Website speed affects both user experience and SEO rankings. Tools like GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights help identify performance bottlenecks. Even small improvements can significantly boost user engagement and conversion rates. At Dune Digital, we regularly optimise sites for speed to ensure visitors have a seamless browsing experience.
9. Check Analytics and Search Console
Review your traffic, crawl errors, and indexing issues to catch potential problems early. Monitoring trends helps you spot drops in performance and understand how users interact with your site.
10. Review Hosting and Storage
Check your hosting usage—bandwidth, storage, and server performance. Growing websites may need upgraded plans to maintain speed and reliability. We can advise on hosting setups that keep your website fast and reliable.
11. Update Legal Policies
Privacy policies, cookie notices, and terms of service should be kept up-to-date. This is particularly important if you run an e-commerce or subscription-based site and collect personal data.
Yearly Maintenance Tasks
12. Renew Licenses and Certificates
Ensure all premium plugins, themes, and SSL certificates are renewed. Expired tools can cause broken functionality and compromise security.
13. Review User Access
Audit who has admin access to your website. Remove inactive users and enforce strong password practices to protect your site from unauthorised access.
14. Refresh Content and Design
Update outdated content, fix broken links, and review your design. Keeping your website current improves SEO and builds trust with visitors. Our team at Dune Digital can support content and design updates for a professional, polished website.
Disaster Recovery Planning
Even with the best maintenance, things can go wrong. Accidental deletions, server crashes, or software conflicts happen. A solid disaster recovery plan with regular backups ensures you can restore your website quickly and avoid downtime. Dune Digital helps businesses implement reliable recovery systems that keep their websites safe.
Why Maintenance Matters
Regular maintenance protects your website, improves performance, and ensures a seamless experience for your visitors. Without it, common issues like slow load times, broken features, or security breaches can impact your business credibility and conversions. Partnering with Dune Digital ensures ongoing support, proactive problem-solving, and websites that grow with your business.
Take Action Today
Don’t wait for a problem to appear. Use this checklist to proactively maintain your website and safeguard your online presence. Dune Digital can provide expert support and tailor a maintenance plan to your site’s unique needs—so your website is always secure, fast, and performing at its best. Get in touch today by using the below contact form.
