Website Maintenance Checklist: What to Do Monthly

Launching a website is not the finish line — it is the starting line. A website that is not maintained will slowly break down: security vulnerabilities pile up, speed degrades, content gets stale, and your search rankings slip.

The good news? Monthly maintenance is not complicated or time-consuming. Here is a checklist you can follow to keep your site healthy.

Security Tasks

Update All Software

This is the single most important maintenance task. Update:

CMS core (WordPress, etc.) — major security patches
Plugins and extensions — the most common attack vector
Themes — often overlooked but can contain vulnerabilities
Server software — PHP version, web server, database

Before updating, always make sure you have a current backup.

Check Your SSL Certificate

SSL certificates expire. Most auto-renew, but verify yours is active by visiting your site and checking for the padlock icon. An expired SSL certificate breaks your site's trust and triggers browser warnings.

Review User Accounts

Remove access for anyone who no longer needs it — former employees, past contractors, agencies you no longer work with. Check that remaining accounts use strong passwords and two-factor authentication.

Scan for Malware

Use a security scanner to check for injected code or suspicious files. Our 5-minute security check is a good starting point. If you use WordPress, plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri provide free scanning. For other platforms, services like SiteLock or Cloudflare offer similar protection.

Performance Tasks

Check Page Speed

Run your homepage and key landing pages through Google PageSpeed Insights. Compare against your previous scores. If speed is dropping, investigate:

New plugins or scripts that were added
Unoptimized images in recent content
Hosting issues
Database bloat (clean up post revisions, spam comments, transients)

Test on Mobile

Actually open your site on a phone and tap through the main pages. Look for:

Text that is too small to read
Buttons that are hard to tap
Layout elements that overlap or break
Forms that are difficult to fill out

Check for Broken Links

Broken links hurt user experience and SEO. Use a free tool like Broken Link Checker or Screaming Frog (free for up to 500 URLs) to scan your site. Fix or redirect any broken links you find.

Content Tasks

Review Analytics

Check Google Analytics and Search Console for:

Traffic trends — up, down, or flat?
Top pages — what content is performing best?
Search queries — what are people searching to find you?
Bounce rate — are people leaving immediately?
Errors — any crawl errors or indexing issues in Search Console? Learn about technical SEO to understand what these mean

Update Outdated Content

Look for pages with:

Old dates or statistics
Discontinued products or services
Outdated pricing
Old team member information
Expired promotions or events

Updating existing content is often more valuable for SEO than creating new content.

Publish New Content

Aim for at least 2-4 blog posts per month. Consistent publishing signals to Google that your site is active and authoritative. Not sure where to start? See what a website investment looks like in 2026. Each post is a new opportunity to rank for keywords your customers are searching.

Backup Tasks

Verify Backups Are Running

Automated backups are only useful if they are actually working. Monthly, verify:

Backups completed successfully
Backup files are accessible and not corrupted
You know how to restore from a backup (test this at least quarterly)

Keep an Offsite Copy

If your backups are stored on the same server as your website, a server failure means you lose both. Keep at least one copy offsite — cloud storage like AWS S3, Google Cloud, or Backblaze B2.

The Monthly Checklist Summary

Update CMS, plugins, and themes
Verify SSL certificate is active
Review and clean up user accounts
Run a security scan
Check page speed scores
Test site on mobile devices
Fix broken links
Review analytics and Search Console
Update outdated content
Publish 2-4 new blog posts
Verify backups are running

Do Not Want to Do This Yourself?

That is what we are here for. Wakonda Digital offers website maintenance plans that cover all of the above — updates, security monitoring, backups, performance optimization, and content support. You focus on your business. We keep your website running.