Benefits of a Website Health Check
Just like a regular health check with your doctor can catch and prevent bigger issues, your website can benefit from regular checks to stay in top shape. For many businesses the day-to-day operations and demands leave the website as something forgotten - until something goes wrong.
Your website is working 24/7, serving customers, answering questions, and representing your business. Without proper care, even the best website will eventually slow down, become vulnerable, or simply stop working.
The good news? Checking that your website is still healthy doesn't require a tremendous amount of effort. With a basic understanding of what needs attention and a competent web developer on your side, you can mitigate the headaches and costs that come with website emergencies.
Simple Steps to Keep Your Website Running Smoothly
Check How Fast Your Website Loads
Your website may have been lightning fast when it was built but it has changed and the speed calculation algorithms have as well. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, visitors tend to leave. Even worse search engines notice slow websites and rank them lower in search results.
You can easily test your website's speed using tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights. Just type in your website address, and it will give you a score and tell you what's slowing things down. You don't need to understand all the technical details—just look for the overall score and any red warning flags.
If your site is scoring poorly, don't panic. Many speed issues can be fixed rather quickly. Common culprits include oversized photos, uncompressed CSS or Javascript, missing HTML element attributes, or inefficient cache lifetimes. Your web developer can help identify and fix these issues.
Make it a habit to test your site's speed every few months, especially after making changes.
Keep Your Website Software Updated
If your website uses a content management system like Expression Engine, Craft CMS, or Wordpress, there are regular updates that fix security problems and improve how your site works. These updates plug holes that could allow malicious activity, provide fixes to reported platform issues, and at times introduce new features.
Ignoring updates is like leaving your front door unlocked. Hackers specifically target websites running outdated software because they know exactly how to exploit the security weaknesses. The longer you wait to update, the bigger the risk becomes.
Here's what you can do: Ask your web developer to check for updates monthly, or set up automatic updates if your platform offers them. Just make sure updates are tested first—you don't want an update to accidentally break something on your site.
Keep Your Website Secure and Your Hosting Up-to-Date
The server that hosts your site needs security updates and maintenance to stay safe from viruses, hackers, and other threats. This is where having a good hosting company really matters. Quality hosts handle most server maintenance automatically, but cheaper hosts might leave you vulnerable. If you're not sure about your hosting situation, ask your web developer for an honest assessment.
If you are running a PHP-based system (i.e Expression Engine, Craft CMS, Wordpress) you should also make sure you are running a currently supported version of PHP. Supported versions receive security patches and updates. You should consult with your developer about this to ensure your website will run properly with newer versions of PHP.
You should also make sure your website has an SSL certificate. Most modern hosting companies include this for free, but if you don't have one, get it fixed immediately. Websites without SSL certificates look suspicious to visitors and get penalized by search engines.
Finally, make sure someone is backing up your website regularly. Don't assume that your host is doing that for you. If something goes wrong, you'll want to be able to restore your site quickly rather than starting from scratch.
Clean Up Old, Messy Code
Over time, websites accumulate digital clutter. Maybe you tried a plugin that didn't work out, uploaded photos that were too large, shifted your online strategy, or made quick fixes that weren't done properly. All of this "digital junk" can slow down your site and make it harder to maintain.
Think of this like cleaning out your garage—you need to get rid of things you're not using and organize what's left. For websites, this might mean removing old plugins, compressing large image files, or cleaning up messy code that's making your site run slowly. This technical debt over time adds to your ongoing costs so there is value in getting it cleaned out.
You shouldn't do this cleanup without assistance from your web developer, but it's something to discuss with them during regular maintenance visits. A good developer can find these issues and clean them up before they become bigger problems.
Set a Schedule
The biggest mistake website owners make is waiting until something breaks before handling issues. By then, you're facing emergency costs, potential lost revenue, and the stress of dealing with a crisis.
Instead, treat your website like you treat your health—schedule regular check-ups to catch problems early. Work with your web developer to set up a maintenance schedule that makes sense for your business. This might include monthly security updates, quarterly performance reviews, and an annual deep-dive into your site's overall health.
Ask your web developer about maintenance packages that are more affordable than emergency service. Plus, they'll get to know your website and business, making them more effective at preventing problems and suggesting improvements.
The Bottom Line
Here's the reality: website maintenance isn't optional if you want your online presence to be reliable and effective. The cost of regular maintenance is almost always less than the cost of fixing things after they break, not to mention the revenue you lose when your site is down or performing poorly.
You don't need to do it all yourself, but you do need to make sure someone is paying attention to your website's health on a regular basis. Having a responsible web developer doing regular maintenance and health checks is just as important as having someone handle your bookkeeping.
Wondering what's next or what to do? Let us help you with a website health check and keep your website working reliably and securely for your business.