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Monthly website health check: a 15-minute routine for business owners

Websites rarely fail loudly. A form stops sending, a certificate nears its end date, a page slows down, and nobody notices for weeks. This routine takes about 15 minutes and catches the common silent problems while they are still small. Do it on the same day each month and keep a one-line note of what you found.

7 min read · Updated 2026-10-17

When to use this

For any business owner or office manager with a website. Run it monthly, and again after any big change such as a redesign, a new plugin or a move to a new host.

Forms and enquiries (3 minutes)

  • Submit your main contact form with a test message that says "Monthly test" and use an email address you can open.This is the only way to know the form works end to end, because a form can look fine and still send nothing.
  • Confirm the test arrived in the inbox that should receive enquiries, and check spam if it did not.
  • Confirm the visitor sees a clear success message after sending.
  • Repeat for every other form: quote, booking, newsletter sign-up, download.
  • Check the date of the last real enquiry you received. If it is much older than usual, treat that as a warning.A long silence is often the first sign of a broken form. See forms not sending emails.

Speed (2 minutes)

  • Open the homepage on your phone using mobile data, not office Wi-Fi, and note how long it takes before you can read and tap.Most of your visitors are on phones, and mobile data is slower than the office connection you usually test on.
  • Open one service page and one blog post the same way.
  • Run your homepage through Google PageSpeed Insights and note the three Core Web Vitals results: LCP of 2.5 seconds or less, INP of 200 milliseconds or less, CLS of 0.1 or less are the "good" marks.Those thresholds come from Google and are measured at the 75th percentile of real visits. Write the numbers down so you can compare them next month. See Core Web Vitals.
  • If a page feels clearly slower than last month, send a ticket with the address and the numbers. Read my site is slow first.

Mobile and layout (2 minutes)

  • On your phone, check that the menu opens, every menu item leads somewhere, and the tap targets are not too close together.
  • Scroll the homepage top to bottom and look for text that is cut off, images that overlap, or anything that forces sideways scrolling.
  • Tap your phone number and your email address. The phone number should offer to call.Click-to-call is how many mobile visitors contact a local business, so a dead number is a lost customer.
  • Check the site in a second browser, for example Safari if you normally use Chrome.
  • Send a screenshot taken on your phone for anything that looks off. See site looks wrong on mobile.

Links and content (2 minutes)

  • Click every button in your header and footer and every call-to-action on the homepage.A button that leads to an error page costs you the visitor at the moment they decided to act.
  • Search Google for your business name and click your top three results. Confirm each loads the right page.
  • Check that prices, opening hours, team names and special offers on the site are still true today.
  • Look for stale content: an event that has passed, a seasonal banner, last year's date in a footer.
  • Send the exact pages and exact new wording for any change. See request a website update.

Backups, security and sign-in (2 minutes)

  • Ask your project manager to confirm that a recent backup exists and when it was taken, if you do not already see that date somewhere.A backup you have never confirmed is a hope, not a plan. Learn what a backup covers in your hosting setup in hosting questions.
  • Check the padlock in the address bar on your homepage and on one inner page. Click it and check that the connection is described as secure.
  • Review who has a login to your website and remove anyone who left. See add or remove a user.
  • Confirm two-factor sign-in is switched on for your own admin, email and Google accounts. See two-factor sign-in.

Domain, certificate and billing dates (2 minutes)

  • Find your domain expiry date at your registrar and put it in your calendar with a reminder 60 days and 14 days before.An expired domain takes your website and your email offline together. See domain renewal and expiry.
  • Check that auto-renew is on for the domain and that the card on file has not expired.
  • Click the padlock in your browser, open the certificate details and note the "valid to" date.Most certificates renew on their own, and a date that is close and not moving is the sign that renewal has failed. See SSL padlock warning.
  • Confirm you know who owns the registrar and hosting accounts. See who owns your accounts.

Reviews and local profile (2 minutes)

  • Open your Google Business Profile and read any new reviews. Reply to each in a calm, specific way.
  • Check that your hours, phone number and website link on the profile match the website today.Mismatched details between your profile and your site confuse customers and can hold your listing back. See Google Business Profile basics.
  • Look for new questions or messages on the profile and answer them.
  • Search your business name and check that no unfamiliar listings, old addresses or wrong phone numbers appear on the first page.

Analytics sanity check (2 minutes)

  • Open the Realtime report in GA4 while you load your website in another tab, and confirm you appear as an active user.Realtime is a quick way to confirm tracking is firing. It can lag by minutes, and an empty report may just mean no one is there. See GA4 basics.
  • Compare this month's total visits and total enquiries with last month and write both numbers down.
  • Treat a drop of more than half in one week as a prompt to check tracking and the site before assuming demand fell.
  • Submit your test form and confirm the conversion shows up in GA4 within the day. See what counts as a conversion.
  • Read your monthly report and note one question to ask your team.

Questions people ask

How often should I check my website?

Once a month is enough for most small business sites, with a quick look at your contact form and homepage after any change. Put the check in your calendar on a fixed day so it actually happens. Online stores and sites with bookings may want to test their order or booking flow every week.

What is the most important thing to check?

Your contact form or main enquiry route. A site can look perfect while quietly losing every enquiry. Send a real test, confirm it lands in the right inbox, and check the date of your last genuine enquiry. If that gap looks unusually long, send us a ticket the same day.

How can I tell if my website is slow?

Load it on your phone over mobile data and notice when you can first read and tap. For a measured result, use Google PageSpeed Insights. Google describes a good experience as a largest content render in 2.5 seconds or less, interaction response of 200 milliseconds or less, and layout shift of 0.1 or less.

Do I need to do all of this if Webtec manages my site?

It still helps, because you are the one who knows what a normal month looks like. You see the enquiries, the phone calls and the reviews. The routine takes 15 minutes and lets you flag a problem early. Anything you cannot fix yourself, send through the support form with details.

When should I stop checking and send a ticket?

Send one as soon as you find something that is broken, missing or clearly different from last month. Include the page address, what you expected and what happened, and a screenshot or short video. Our checklist before you send a ticket lists exactly what helps.

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