Information checked: 21 July 2026.
A frequency-based checklist is useful only when it reflects the website’s actual customer journeys and assigns responsibility. Use the following as a starting structure, then adapt it to your platform and business.
In brief: Use a recorded checklist with owners and evidence, not an informal memory of tasks.
Continuous or automated checks
- Availability of the public site and essential endpoints.
- Certificate expiry, domain renewal and backup-job failures.
- Server or application errors above an agreed threshold.
- Malware, unexpected file changes or suspicious privileged logins.
- Queue failures for forms, orders, bookings or transactional email.
Daily and weekly review
| Frequency | Task | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Daily on transactional sites | Review failed orders, bookings, forms and payment mismatches | Exception log and resolved cases |
| Weekly | Inspect alerts, security notices and pending updates | Triage record and planned action |
| Weekly | Test one real customer journey from an external device | Timestamped test result |
| Weekly or as needed | Check high-change content and stock/service availability | Content owner sign-off |
Monthly, quarterly and annual work
- Monthly: review users, integrations, storage, logs and broken links.
- Quarterly: restore a representative backup, review performance and test key browsers and devices.
- Twice yearly: review suppliers, permissions, tracking, privacy information and accessibility barriers.
- Annually: rehearse disaster recovery, review contracts and verify ownership of every critical account.
Acceptance check
The checklist is ready when every line has an owner, due date, result field and escalation route. A tick without evidence should not count as completed maintenance.
Turn recurring work into evidence
A checklist should not encourage staff to tick a task without seeing the result. “Check backups” should specify the expected job, storage destination, last successful time and next restoration test. “Check forms” should identify the form, receiving mailbox and confirmation state.
Records to keep
- Checklist version and approval date.
- Result, evidence link and reviewer for every task.
- Exception and escalation log.
- Record of tasks removed or added after incidents.
Owner test: Give the checklist to someone who did not create it and ask them to complete one cycle without verbal instructions.
Sources and date checked
This practical guidance was checked against the following primary sources. Date checked: 21 July 2026.
Keep the decision under your control
Retain the relevant accounts, source material, supplier terms and recovery information. Recheck changing prices, interfaces and rules before acting.