Website care · 10 Nov 2026 · 5 min read
Website maintenance plan: what it should include and how to judge one
A website is never really finished. Software ages, links break and small faults pile up. A maintenance plan turns that background work into a schedule with a named owner, so problems are caught before visitors find them.
The short answer
A website maintenance plan lists the regular jobs that keep a site safe, fast and accurate: software updates, backups, security checks, uptime monitoring, broken-link and form tests, content reviews and reporting. It names who does each job, how often, and what happens in an emergency. Ask for it in writing.
Why a plan beats occasional fixes
Without a plan, maintenance happens only when something breaks, usually at an inconvenient time. By then a missed update may have opened a security hole, a form may have been failing silently for weeks, and nobody remembers how the site was set up.
A plan makes the quiet work visible. It answers three questions: what needs doing, how often, and who is responsible. It also gives you something concrete to compare if you are choosing between suppliers or deciding whether to keep work in-house.
The core jobs
Most plans group the work like this. Use it as a checklist when you read a proposal.
| Area | What should happen | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Updates | Apply software, theme and plugin updates, ideally tested on a staging copy first | Closes known security flaws and prevents breakage |
| Backups | Scheduled copies, stored off-site, restore tested | Lets you recover from errors or attacks |
| Security | Review user accounts, check for malware, keep logins protected | Reduces the chance of a takeover |
| Uptime | Monitoring with alerts | You hear about outages before customers do |
| Speed | Check page load and image sizes | Slow pages lose visitors |
| Forms and tracking | Test enquiry forms, checkout and analytics | Silent failures cost enquiries |
| Links and errors | Find broken links and missing pages | Better experience and cleaner search results |
| Content | Review key pages for accuracy | Old details damage trust |
The detail behind several of these rows is in separate guides on backups, security, uptime monitoring and staging sites.
A rhythm that works
The right frequency depends on how busy the site is, but a layered rhythm is easy to follow. Treat the example below as a starting point to adjust with your developer.
- Continuous: uptime monitoring and alerts.
- Weekly or more often: check for available updates, review backup success messages, look at form submissions.
- Monthly: a test of the main journeys (contact, checkout, booking), a broken-link check, a review of user accounts and a look at speed.
- Quarterly: a restore test, a review of plugins and third-party scripts, and a content check on key pages.
- Yearly: a wider review of hosting, domain and certificate renewals, accessibility, legal pages and whether the site still matches the business.
Put renewal dates for the domain, hosting and any paid tools in one calendar. An expired domain is one of the most preventable disasters a business faces.
Content and SEO upkeep
Maintenance is not only technical. Prices change, staff leave, offers end and legal pages go stale. Assign someone to review the pages that matter most: home, service or product pages, contact details, policies. Refresh old articles where facts have moved on; our guide to refreshing old blog posts explains how.
Watch search tools for problems too. Google Search Console, for example, reports pages that cannot be indexed and other issues, and Bing offers a similar tool in Bing Webmaster Tools. Look at them monthly. If a page must be removed or moved, redirect it rather than leaving a dead end. A helpful custom 404 page softens the rest.
What to ask a supplier
If someone else will maintain your site, ask for the answers in writing.
- What exactly is included, and what is charged separately, such as new features or emergency fixes?
- How often are updates, backups and checks done, and where are backups stored?
- How will you tell me what was done? Ask for a short report each period.
- What is the response time for problems, and who do I contact?
- Do you test updates before applying them to the live site?
- Who holds the logins, and will I have my own admin access?
- What happens if we end the arrangement? Can I take my backups, documentation and credentials?
Be wary of vague promises such as "full care and support" with no list. A clear scope is the best protection for both sides. If you are deciding whether to hire or do it yourself, the same questions apply to a comparison of website quotes.
Doing it in-house
A small business can manage a lot with discipline. Write the checklist above in a shared document, give each job an owner and add recurring reminders to a calendar. Keep a log of what was changed and when, so that if something breaks you can see what happened just before. Keep your own copy of logins in a password manager and document how the site is built and hosted.
Be honest about what you cannot do. Updates to a complex shop, server settings and security incidents usually call for a specialist. Knowing when to call one is part of the plan, and our guide on what to do when your website goes down is a good page to keep at hand.
A one-page template to start from
If you have no plan yet, write one page with four columns: the job, how often, who does it and where the evidence is kept. Fill in the rows from the table above. Under it, add three short lists: the key logins and who holds them, the renewal dates, and the emergency contacts for your host, developer and domain registrar.
Share the page with everyone involved and store it somewhere safe. A plan that lives only in one inbox is not a plan. Agree a date for the first review, and treat any task that was missed as a reason to adjust the schedule, not as a failure to hide.
Review the plan itself
Once a year, ask whether the plan still fits. Has the site become more important to sales? Have new tools, forms or payment methods been added? Are alerts reaching someone who will act? Update the schedule and the responsibilities accordingly. If you plan to change platform or host, use a proper migration checklist and rewrite the plan afterwards.
Related guides
- Website development
- Website Backups: How Often and Where to Keep Them
- Website Security Basics for Small Business Sites
- Website accessibility checklist and why it matters
- Website redesign seo checklist
- Website security checklist for small business
Questions and answers
What is a website maintenance plan?
It is a written schedule of the regular jobs that keep a site working: updates, backups, security checks, monitoring, testing and content review, with an owner and a frequency for each.
How often should a website be maintained?
Some checks should run continuously, such as uptime monitoring, while others are weekly, monthly or yearly. Busy shops and booking sites need more frequent attention than simple brochure sites.
What should be in a maintenance agreement?
A clear list of tasks, how often they are done, response times, reporting, who holds the logins, what costs extra and what happens if the agreement ends. Ask for it in writing.
Can I maintain my own website?
Often yes for routine tasks, provided you keep a checklist, backups and a change log. Call a specialist for complex updates, server settings and security incidents.
Does maintenance include content changes?
Not always. Many plans cover technical upkeep only. Ask whether text edits, new pages and design changes are included or charged separately.
What happens if I skip maintenance?
Software gets out of date, security risk grows, broken links and failed forms go unnoticed and recovery from problems becomes slower and harder.
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