Yearly Website Maintenance Checklist

Once a year, you should be aware of domain and SSL certificate expiration, and generally consider the current state of your site and where you want it to be in the future.

Run this checklist as part of our weekly, monthly, and quarterly web maintenance pack. This way, you'll never forget vital steps and end up with an outdated website (or worse).

Add this template to your Process Street organization, and edit it as you need. Also check out this post which includes the other three maintenance checklists.

If the copyright year in the footer isn't dynamically inserted via PHP, then consider setting it up so you don't have to do it every year.

Your about page, your team page, your product page...

Every year, these could be rendered misleading or inconsistent by a re-brand or a re-structure. By now, you might have more important things to write about that can replace the old text.

Sites change visual branding and language often; don't overlook your site's pages, review them to ensure complete consistency.

Failure to renew your domain name means your site will be offline for 24-48 hours while the domain re-populates after purchase.

Most hosts will furiously notify you when your domain is nearing expiry, but make sure to be prepared for the renewal ahead of time; you might have an old card attached to the account, and have it fail.

While services like ITGlue will notify you when assets like SSL certificates are nearing expiry, anyone can check manually.

This page has a list of methods for checking the expiry dates of any SSL certificates.

SSL renewal can be an absolute pain, so we've provided a step-by-step SSL renewal guide for you.

Using ITGlue, you can automatically run SSL renewal checklists in Process Street whenever the expiry is near.

Think about what you're providing your users, and what you're pushing them to do (opt-ins, sales, landing page copy).

Do these things still match up with the content and design of your site?

Do they match up with your tone and your language?

Pivoting is common for blogs and tech startups alike. It can be a risk, but it's paid off for numerous companies, big and small.

Here are some resources to refer to while making this huge consideration:

• Successful Blogging — Pivoting Your Blog Instead of Jumping Ship
• Buffer — 5 Most Important Writing Lessons Learned After Pivoting Our Blog Twice
• Buffer — Why We’re Pivoting the Buffer Blog

Have you noticed that you can always tell when a website hasn't been updated since 2012? Every few years, modern web design language shifts slightly and can leave your old faithful layout quickly looking dated.

Here are some branding case studies you can refer to to get some inspiration:

• Process Street — How We Rebranded Our Startup in 3 Months
• Erento — How We Rebranded Our Company in 4 Main Steps
• Prsuit — How And Why We Rebranded Our Company From Scratch In Eight Weeks

Look at the design of your competitors, and consider whether or not you need an update.

• Todd Motto — Using PHP to keep Copyright footer year current
• Process Street — SSL Certificate Renewal Checklist
• Successful Blogging — Pivoting Your Blog Instead of Jumping Ship
• Buffer — 5 Most Important Writing Lessons Learned After Pivoting Our Blog Twice
• Buffer — Why We’re Pivoting the Buffer Blog
• Process Street — How We Rebranded Our Startup in 3 Months
• Erento — How We Rebranded Our Company in 4 Main Steps
• Prsuit — How And Why We Rebranded Our Company From Scratch In Eight Weeks

• Server Maintenance Checklist
• Server Security Checklist
• Information Security Incident Response
• SQL Server Audit Checklist
• Privileged Password Management
• Network Administrator Daily Tasks
• Network Security Audit Checklist
• Firewall Audit Checklist
• VPN Configuration
• Apache Server Setup
• Email Server Security
• Penetration Testing
• Cisco Router Setup
• IT Service Call Process
• Scheduled Maintenance Notification
• Patch Management
• Network Security Management
• Client Data Backup Best Practices
• Computer Maintenance Guide
• Inventory Management Process
• Server Setup Process
• Virtual Private Server Setup
• IT Support Process
• Helpdesk Management
• Vendor Management: Supplier Evaluation
• Vendor Management: Contract Negotiation