Website Maintenance Checklist for Developers

‘There are 1.13 billion websites on the World Wide Web as of 2024.’ – Curate Labs

A well-maintained website helps to stand out in this crowded market. Website maintenance ensures a smooth user experience, protects against data breaches, and improves search engine rankings.

This guide provides a comprehensive website maintenance checklist for developers. It covers essential practices from regular backups to performance optimization.

Website Maintenance Checklist

1. Regular Backups

It is important to consistently save copies of data to prevent loss in case of hardware failure, data corruption, or any other type of disaster.

• Frequency: Developers should know how often backups should be made:

• Daily for databases: Given the dynamic nature of databases, which often store critical and frequently changing information, it’s recommended to back them up daily.
• Weekly for full site: A weekly backup schedule is advised for the entire website. It might not change as often as the database, but it is equally important.

• Tools: Using automated tools simplifies the backup process and reduces the risk of human error.

• cPanel backups: For general website backups, use tools provided by the web hosting control panel, like cPanel, because they are easy to use and integrate.
• Plugins for CMS like WordPress: Specific plugins designed for backup purposes are recommended for websites built on a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress.
• Verification: It is essential to take backups and verify them. This involves periodically restoring backups. This ensures they can be successfully deployed in case a real-world restoration is necessary. It’s a critical step to confirm the reliability and effectiveness of the backup process.

2. Software Updates

• Components: It’s important to keep various elements of the website up to date. This includes the CMS, like WordPress or Joomla, any plugins or extensions that add functionality to the site. It also includes server software, like PHP or MySQL. These updates can bring new features, improvements, and security fixes.
• 2. Security Patches:

It is vital to promptly install updates addressing security issues to protect the website and users’ data. This helps to safeguard the website against potential threats and ensures the safety and privacy of users’ information.

• Testing

After updating the website, it must be tested in a safe staging environment, if possible. A staging environment is a separate space that looks exactly like the live website. This allows the testing of updates without affecting the actual website. Testing in this way allows developers to find and fix any issues caused by updates before they impact how users experience or use the live site.

3. Security Monitoring

• Scanning: Regular scanning is essential to identify vulnerabilities. Tools like Sucuri and Wordfence, specifically designed for WordPress websites, are highly recommended. Regular scanning is critical to identifying potential security issues before hackers can exploit them.
• Firewall: To block malicious traffic, it is recommended to implement web application firewalls (WAF). A WAF acts as a filter between the web application and the Internet. It monitors and blocks malicious traffic and attempts to exploit vulnerabilities. This helps to protect the web application from various attacks.
• SSL Certificate: Developers must check HTTPS certificates’ expiry and renew them on time. SSL certificates encrypt data as it travels between a user’s web browser and the web server. This encryption makes it harder for attackers to intercept and steal sensitive data.

Keeping the SSL certificate up to date ensures that this encryption is always active. This, in turn, maintains the security and integrity of the data being transferred.

Also read: Why Website Maintenance is Crucial

4. Performance Optimization

• Speed Test: Tools like GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights help identify issues that are slowing down a website’s loading time. These tools provide detailed insights and recommendations for making the site load faster, which improves the user experience (UX).
• Caching: Caching temporarily stores copies of files so they can be delivered to users more quickly. It reduces the server load and decreases the website’s loading time. This makes the site more responsive to user actions.
• Database Optimization: It’s important to clean up and optimize the database regularly. Over time, databases can get cluttered with unnecessary data, slowing website performance.

Regularly optimizing the database helps remove this clutter. This ensures smoother, faster access to the necessary data. It also improves the overall performance of the site.

5. SEO Monitoring and Updates

• SEO Tools: Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console help monitor the website’s traffic and overall health. Google Analytics provides insights into the site’s visitors. This includes where they come from and how they interact with the site. Google Search Console helps to understand how Google views the site, reports issues that may impact the site’s rankings, and shows which queries bring users to the site.
• Content Updates: Refreshing outdated content ensures the website remains relevant and valuable to visitors. This could involve updating statistics, incorporating current trends, or revising recommendations based on new information. Adding new content regularly can attract search engines and visitors. This indicates that the site is active and a reliable source of current information.
• Link Checks: Broken links can harm the site’s UX and potentially negatively impact its SEO rankings. Use tools designed to find and fix broken links on the site. This will keep the website free of broken links, helping to provide a better UX and improve the site’s SEO.

6. Accessibility Compliance

• Standards: It is important to align the website with specific criteria to be considered accessible. The “WCAG” (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and “ADA” (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance standards are mentioned as benchmarks.

The WCAG provides a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible. The ADA compliance ensures that services and products, including digital content, are accessible to individuals in the US. This includes people with disabilities.

• Testing Tools: It is important to use specialized tools to assess and improve the site’s accessibility. For instance, “WAVE” is a popular tool for evaluating the accessibility of web content. These tools help identify violations of the WCAG and other accessibility standards.

This allows website owners or developers to make necessary adjustments. It ensures their sites are accessible to everyone, including users with disabilities.

7. Regular Content Updates

• Content Plan: It is essential to create and follow an editorial calendar. This means creating and following a schedule outlining when and what content will be published. Doing this ensures that content updates happen regularly. It keeps the audience engaged with fresh material.
• Review: Remember to regularly review all the content on the site to ensure it is accurate and relevant. Information and trends can change, so it’s important to update the content to keep it current and informative. This process maintains the credibility and reliability of the site’s content.

8. User Experience (UX) Testing

• Feedback: Developers should gather user input regarding their experience with the product’s navigation and usability. The goal is to understand how intuitive and user-friendly the product is. Feedback can be collected through surveys, interviews, usability tests, or direct observations.
• Improvements: Based on the insights gained from user feedback, specific changes are made to the product. These changes aim to improve its usability and ensure a more seamless and enjoyable UX.

Changes could be small, like adjusting the interface, or large, like redesigning features or navigation. The ultimate goal is to make the product more intuitive, efficient, and pleasant to use. This increases user satisfaction and engagement.

9. Mobile Responsiveness

• Testing: Consistent checks ensure that the website looks and works well on different devices. It includes smartphones and tablets, and screens of various sizes. This is important because users visit websites using many different devices, each with its own screen size and resolution.
• Adjustments: Based on the test results, it may be necessary to make changes to the website’s design, layout, or functionality. The goal is for the website to work well on all mobile devices.

This might involve altering images, text sizes, and button placements. It might also include changing the overall layout. This makes the site easier to use and visually appealing on smaller screens.

10. Analytics Review

• Performance Metrics: Monitoring a website’s performance involves regularly checking various indicators. Key metrics include –

• • site traffic (how many visitors the site receives)
  • bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page)
  • conversion rates (the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on the site. It includes making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter)

These metrics help understand how well the website is engaging with its audience.

Also read: Choosing between Data Science or Data Analytics

• Adjust Strategy

Using the data to make informed decisions can help improve the effectiveness of the website and its outreach efforts. For example, examining performance metrics can lead to adjustments in marketing and content strategies.

If the analytics show a high bounce rate, it could mean that the content is not engaging or the site is difficult to navigate. This prompts a strategy shift. Knowing which sources bring the most traffic can also guide targeted marketing efforts. This step involves using data to improve the website’s effectiveness and outreach.

Conclusion

Maintaining a website is an ongoing task that requires diligence, foresight, and a strategic approach. This holistic checklist for developers ensures their websites survive and thrive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

By adhering to the above mentioned guidelines, developers can ensure their websites remain robust, secure, and efficient.

A well-maintained website reflects professionalism and secures a trustworthy relationship with the audience. This fosters growth and success in the digital arena.