Quarterly Website Checkup

Once you’ve had your new website launched and are regularly updating your blogs and social media, there are a few things that it’s worth keeping an eye on to keep your site secure and performing it’s best. Think about a quarterly check of the following:

Passwords

Many websites are attacked by automated systems that try and log in to your control panel. Changing your passwords regularly and making sure they are hard to guess is essential to keeping your site safe. Unauthorised access to your site can be disruptive or even cost you money if you run an ecommerce site.

Software updates

WordPress is constantly updated with security and functionality updates. As one of the most popular systems out there it does get attacked so keeping up to date is strongly recommended!

Link checker

Over time, sites you link to and internal page addresses can change. Having broken links on your website can make your site seem low quality to search engines, so running a link checker and fixing any broken links is a good move.

Check page code

Code errors in your site can make it appear strange or behave in odd ways.  Copying and pasting text from Word or other websites to your site can introduce these errors but they are usually easy to fix.

Update sitemaps

If you have XML format sitemaps these might need updating to show any recent pages and posts you’ve added and remove any old pages that don’t exist.

Page redirects

If you’ve removed any pages from your site, redirecting these old pages to other pages can avoid ‘page not found’ errors and keep the user experience smooth.

Spellcheck

Spelling mistakes can make a site look unprofessional and running a spell check over the site is quick and easy.

Check forms work

One of the most important parts of a site are usually the contact or purchase forms. If these forms are not working you could be missing enquiries or sales! A quick check of the forms on your site is recommended.

Check order process works

Related to the above point, checking your ordering process still works correctly from a customer’s perspective is a key point to check.

Check for broken images

An automated check for broken images can keep your use experience smooth and make sure your site appears as it should.

Check metadata

Having filled in and up to date meta titles and descriptions can help your search engine performance, so regular checks that they are filled in and contain your target keywords are worthwhile.

Summary

Here are some key things it’s worth checking on a regular basis to make sure your site stays secure and performing at its best. If you need help give us a call on 01636 812551 – we’ve got some automated tools that can make this a lot quicker!