As the year draws to a close, business owners have plenty to manage: deadlines, customer enquiries, staff leave, and plans for January. Website maintenance can easily slip down the list.
A broken contact form, outdated service page, or unclear holiday notice can leave customers struggling to get the information they need. Checking your website before the busiest weeks arrive gives you time to correct problems and organise how enquiries will be handled over December.
Here are six areas to review.
1. Check your mobile navigation
Open your website on a phone and use it as a potential customer would. Can you find a service, read about it, and contact the business without getting stuck?
Check whether the menu opens properly, buttons are easy to tap, and text is readable without zooming. Watch for pop-ups that cover important information or make it difficult to close the window.
Pay particular attention to your contact options. Phone numbers, email links, and WhatsApp buttons should open the correct contact route. Customers should be able to move from a service page to an enquiry without searching through several menus.
2. Review your loading speed
A website that feels quick on your office connection may behave differently on a phone using mobile data. Test your homepage, key service pages, and contact page under both conditions.
Large images, videos, and additional website scripts can contribute to slow loading. Check whether visitors have to wait for important information to appear or for buttons to respond.
If pages feel slow, ask your website developer to investigate the cause. Identifying the problem first helps you decide which changes are needed.
3. Test every enquiry form
Seeing a form on your website does not confirm that it works. Submit a test enquiry through every contact, quotation, booking, or application form.
Check the full process:
- Can you complete and submit the form on a phone?
- Are required fields and error messages clear?
- Does a confirmation message appear?
- Does the enquiry reach the correct inbox?
- Can your team reply using the details submitted?
Also confirm who will monitor enquiries while staff are on leave. A working form still needs someone responsible for responding.
4. Update your service pages
Read your main service pages and compare them with what your business currently offers.
Look for old prices, discontinued services, expired promotions, incorrect contact details, and descriptions that no longer reflect how you work. Check links to brochures, catalogues, and quotation forms too.
Where year-end arrangements affect a service, explain the relevant deadlines clearly. Customers may need to know when orders close, whether appointments remain available, or when work will resume.
Use confirmed information so your website sets expectations your team can meet.
5. Check your backups and recovery arrangements
Find out when your website was last backed up, what the backup includes, and who can restore it.
For a typical WordPress website, a complete recovery requires both the website files and the database. Keep backup copies in a separate location so a problem with the hosting account does not leave you without a usable copy.
Ask your developer or hosting provider to confirm the recovery process and, where appropriate, test a restoration in a separate environment. Make sure the relevant contact details are available to whoever will handle website issues over the holidays.
6. Publish clear holiday notices
If your business hours or response times will change, make that information easy to find.
A useful holiday notice should state:
- Your last working day and reopening date.
- Any changes to trading hours or service availability.
- Relevant order or booking deadlines.
- When customers can expect a response to enquiries.
Update your website, business listings, social profiles, and automated replies with consistent information. Arrange to remove or revise the notices when normal operations resume.
Your practical year-end website checklist
Before the holiday period, confirm that:
- Mobile menus, buttons, and contact links work.
- Important pages load and respond properly.
- Every enquiry form has been tested successfully.
- Enquiries reach the correct inbox.
- Someone is responsible for monitoring and responding to enquiries.
- Service information, prices, and contact details are current.
- Relevant deadlines and holiday arrangements are clearly displayed.
- Current backups are available.
- The recovery process and support contacts are confirmed.
- Website notices, business listings, and automated replies agree.
Need help with your website maintenance?
Need help with your business website? Contact us for a website assessment and practical recommendations based on the condition of your current site.
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