Website Maintenance Checklist: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Tasks

First: what kind of site do you have?

How much maintenance you need depends on your platform.

• Hosted builders (Wix, Squarespace, Framer and most web hosts' AI builders): the platform runs the software underneath. Your job is mostly content, forms, accounts and renewals. Check your plan's help pages for what is covered, such as backups.
• Self-hosted WordPress: you are also responsible for updating WordPress, plugins and themes, and for your own backups.

Tasks that only apply to WordPress are marked (WP).

Weekly (about 10 minutes)

• Check that enquiries are arriving. If a normally busy form has gone quiet, test it.
• Open your homepage on your phone. Anything broken, slow or out of date?
• (WP) Check that updates and backups ran, and clear spam comments.

Monthly (30 to 60 minutes)

• Test every form and booking link end to end, from a phone. Confirm the email arrives and isn't landing in spam.
• Check for broken links, including links to other websites, which can disappear without notice. A link-checker tool or your platform's SEO tools can help.
• Review your analytics: top pages, where visitors come from, and which pages lead to an enquiry. Write down one thing to improve.
• Look at Google Search Console for new indexing problems or errors, and at the searches that bring people to your site.
• Install updates: builder apps, and (WP) plugins and themes. Remove any plugin or app you no longer use.
• Publish or update one piece of content: a blog post, a new project, a refreshed FAQ.

Quarterly (1 to 2 hours)

• Download a backup or export and store it outside the platform. Make sure you know how you would restore it.
• Refresh one important page: text, photos, prices and proof. Start with the page that brings in the most visits or enquiries.
• Review who has access. Remove former freelancers and staff, and confirm two-factor authentication is on for your main accounts.
• Check the titles and descriptions of your top pages against the searches people actually use. The small business SEO checklist explains what to look for.
• Test checkout or payments if you sell online.
• Update your Google Business Profile if you have one: hours, photos and replies to recent reviews.

Yearly (about half a day)

• Domain: confirm auto-renew is on, the payment card is valid and the contact email at your registrar still works.
• Plan and hosting: review what you pay and whether you still need that plan.
• Content audit: for every page, decide to keep, update, merge or delete it. Redirect the address of any page you remove.
• About page, photos and team: make sure they reflect the business as it is today.
• Legal pages: check that your privacy policy and cookie notice still match the tools you use.
• Footer: copyright year, address, social links.
• Accessibility basics: alt text on meaningful images, readable text contrast, link text that makes sense on its own.
• Your builder: does it still fit your needs? Could you export your content if you had to leave?

WordPress: updates without surprises

WordPress lets you switch on automatic updates plugin by plugin and theme by theme, and by default it runs those auto-updates twice a day. Its documentation suggests making sure you can roll back to a previous version of your site before enabling them, which in practice means scheduled backups stored somewhere other than your server.

A sensible routine: enable auto-updates for well-maintained plugins you rely on, update the rest by hand during your monthly check, and delete anything you no longer use rather than leaving it deactivated.

The checklist at a glance

Frequency	Tasks	Time
Weekly	Enquiries arriving, homepage on phone, (WP) updates and backups ran	10 min
Monthly	Forms, broken links, analytics, Search Console, updates, one piece of content	30 to 60 min
Quarterly	Backup export, refresh one key page, access review, titles, checkout, Business Profile	1 to 2 h
Yearly	Domain, plan, content audit, About page, legal pages, accessibility	Half a day

How to make maintenance actually happen

A checklist only works if the tasks come back to you at the right time. Two habits help:

1. Track "last done", not just "to do". Write down the date you last did each task. The next due date is simply the last done date plus the frequency, and anything past it is overdue.
2. Block one recurring slot. For example, the first Monday of each month, 45 minutes, as a calendar event. Quarterly and yearly tasks attach to that slot when they fall due.

That is how the Maintenance database in the AI Website Launch & Care Kit works: you enter each task's frequency and the date you last did it, and Notion calculates the next due date and flags what's due.

If your site isn't live yet, start with the website launch checklist, then come back here once it's published.

Get the schedule ready-made

The AI Website Launch & Care Kit ($17) includes this maintenance schedule pre-filled with recurring tasks (forms, links, analytics, updates, backups, page refreshes, Search Console, domain renewal), plus a content calendar and launch and SEO steps. It works on Notion's free plan, with any website builder.

Facts checked on 2 November 2026 against the WordPress.org documentation (see sources). Hosted builders differ in what they handle for you, so check your own plan's help pages.