Make it a habit, not a project
Pick a date, the first Monday, the first of the month, whatever you will remember, and set a recurring calendar reminder titled “Website check”. Twenty minutes. Do it on your phone.
Minutes one to five: the facts
Open the home page. Read the phone number aloud and dial it. Check the address and the timings, including any lunch closure. Look at the footer, which is where stale details hide longest because nobody scrolls that far while reviewing.
Minutes six to ten: the enquiry path
Fill in your own contact form with your name and a note saying “test”. Tap the WhatsApp button. Tap the call button. Confirm all three arrive where they should. Forms break silently, usually after an unrelated change, and you find out weeks later when a customer mentions they wrote and heard nothing.
Minutes eleven to fifteen: what is out of date
Banners, offers, seasonal notices, prices, packages, the team page. Anything tied to a date that has passed comes down today, not next month.
Minutes sixteen to twenty: outside the site
Search your business name on Google. Check the profile hours, add one recent photograph, reply to any new review. Post a one-line update if something has changed.
Twice a year, a bigger pass
- Read every service page end to end, out loud. You will hear the sentences that no longer describe how you work.
- Replace the oldest photographs.
- Check that every menu link and every button still goes somewhere real.
- Confirm the domain and hosting renewal dates are still in your calendar.
Write it down
Keep a plain note titled Website Log. One line per visit: the date, what you changed, anything you noticed but did not fix. Six months of that log makes any future conversation with a developer dramatically shorter, and it stops the same small thing being noticed and forgotten four times.
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