The annual website check: 12 points for January

Why should you check your website once a year?

Many small businesses treat their website like a printed brochure: publish it once and only look again when something breaks. Online, that is risky. Google recrawls pages, legal requirements change and customers immediately notice outdated information.

An annual check is not a relaunch. It is a focused maintenance round: content, contact paths, security and key numbers. In a managed website subscription, this can be planned instead of forgotten.

Which content should be updated in January?

Start with everything customers see first: opening hours, holidays, phone numbers, email addresses, prices, services, team members, references and photos.

Also check whether the homepage still describes your current offer. New services need proper pages, not just a sentence hidden somewhere. PDFs, menus and forms should be replaced or maintained as HTML where possible.

• opening hours and holidays
• prices and service packages
• team, contacts and photos
• references and reviews
• downloads, PDFs and forms

Are legal pages and consent still correct?

Imprint and privacy policy should be easy to find from every page. The privacy policy should not simply be buried inside the imprint.

Check every new tool: booking calendar, newsletter provider, Google Maps, YouTube, chat widget or analytics script. If it processes data, it must be documented and integrated correctly. Accessibility should also be reviewed, especially for shops and digital services affected by the German BFSG.

How can you check SEO and Google visibility without expert knowledge?

A simple look into Google Search Console is enough for a basic review. Use the URL inspection tool for the homepage, main service pages, contact page and new pages from the last year.

Look at queries with impressions but few clicks. Better titles and meta descriptions often help. Add local terms such as service plus city where relevant. SEO support can be added from 69 euros per month if nobody reads the data internally.

• check indexing errors
• review sitemap status
• check titles and meta descriptions
• add local search terms
• link old pages to new services

Which technical and security checks matter?

For websites this means checking CMS, plugins, themes, server versions, forms and admin logins. Outdated WordPress plugins are a common risk.

Backups matter only if they are complete and can be restored. Review database, images, files, settings, strong passwords and two-factor authentication. Managed plans at bezahlbare-webseite.de start from 79 euros per month for exactly this ongoing care.

Do contact paths, forms and conversion still work?

Send yourself a test enquiry. Does the email arrive? Does it land in spam? Do mobile phone links, WhatsApp buttons, booking tools and map links work?

Then review calls to action. A page with visitors but no clear next step wastes potential. A booking module can be added from 149 euros per month when appointments cost too much phone time.

• submit the contact form
• test phone, email, WhatsApp and booking links
• check success messages
• review calls to action
• compare visitors, sources and enquiries

How do you turn the check into a yearly plan?

Do not list twenty tasks. Sort them by risk and impact: broken contact paths, wrong prices, security updates, legal pages and indexability first.

A simple rhythm works: January full check, April content and reviews, July technology and security, October campaigns for the next year. A website is no longer a brochure; it is an ongoing sales channel.