Monthly Website Maintenance Checklist for Pool Builders and Pool Service Companies
This monthly website maintenance checklist covers the 12 tasks that pool builders and pool service companies should complete — or have completed on their behalf — every month to keep their website secure, performing, compliant, and generating leads consistently. Print it, share it with your web team, or use it to evaluate whether your current maintenance plan is actually covering what your website needs.
Website maintenance is one of those things that pool company owners know they should be handling but aren’t always sure is actually happening. Your web person says they ‘take care of it.’ But what does that mean exactly? What should be done every month, and how do you know if it is?
This checklist answers both questions. Twelve tasks. Monthly. Not optional.
Security Maintenance
- WordPress core update: Confirm the current WordPress version is up to date. Apply any pending core updates in a staging environment, test for functionality issues, then deploy to the live site.
- Plugin and theme updates: Review and apply all pending plugin and theme updates. Remove any plugins that are no longer actively maintained by their developers. Confirm that all remaining plugins are from reputable sources with recent update histories.
- Security scan: Run a full malware scan using a security plugin (Wordfence, Sucuri, or similar). Review scan results and address any flagged issues. Check the site’s status in Google’s Safe Browsing tool (transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search).
- Login security check: Review the WordPress administrator user list and confirm that only current, authorized team members have administrator access. Remove any accounts that should no longer have access.
Performance Maintenance
- Speed test: Run a PageSpeed Insights test (pagespeed.web.dev) on the homepage and one or two key service pages. Review Mobile scores specifically. Document results to track trends month over month.
- Image optimization check: Review any images added to the site during the past month. Confirm they were compressed and converted to WebP format before upload. Retroactively optimize any that weren’t.
- Uptime log review: Review the uptime monitoring log for the past month. Note any downtime events — duration, time of day, potential cause — and address any recurring patterns.
Backup and Recovery
- Backup verification: Confirm that automated daily backups are completing successfully. Verify that backups are stored in an offsite location independent of the primary hosting server. Document the date of the most recent backup and confirm the backup file is accessible.
Content and Compliance
- Broken link scan: Run a broken link check using a tool like Screaming Frog or the free Broken Link Checker plugin. Fix any internal broken links. Update or remove any external links pointing to resources that no longer exist.
- Content freshness review: Review service pages, team photos, contact information, and any time-sensitive content (seasonal promotions, current specials) for accuracy. Update anything that no longer reflects the current state of the business.
- ADA compliance scan: Run an accessibility scan using WAVE or Lighthouse. Review any new errors introduced by content added during the past month. Address image alt text, form labels, and any new color contrast issues.
Analytics and Search Performance
- Google Analytics and Search Console review: Review organic traffic trends, top-performing pages, coverage errors in Search Console, Core Web Vitals data in Search Console, and any manual actions or security issues flagged by Google. Note month-over-month trends and flag any anomalies for investigation.
📋 Who should own this checklist: For pool builders and pool service companies managing their own websites, this checklist represents 3 to 6 hours of monthly technical work. Pool Marketing Site’s maintenance programs handle all 12 tasks every month for pool company clients — with documentation and reporting so you always know exactly what was done, what was found, and what was addressed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I skip monthly maintenance for a few months?
The risks compound over time. After one skipped month, plugin and theme vulnerabilities accumulate. After two or three months, a performance decline that was catching up with you becomes noticeable in rankings. After six months of no maintenance, the security risk is significant and the performance degradation is measurable. The consequences of genuinely neglected maintenance — a hacked website, a significant ranking drop, an ADA demand letter — can take weeks to recover from and cost far more than consistent monthly maintenance would have. Monthly consistency is what makes maintenance effective.
Should I be doing this checklist myself or hire someone?
The honest answer depends on your technical comfort level and how much time you’re willing to invest. Most pool builders and pool service companies are better served by having a specialist handle website maintenance — the tasks require specific knowledge and tools, and doing them poorly or inconsistently provides less protection than not doing them at all. Pool Marketing Site provides website maintenance programs specifically for pool companies, so owners can focus on running their businesses while the website maintenance runs in the background.
Is there anything that should happen more often than monthly?
Yes — uptime monitoring should be continuous, generating alerts in real time when the site goes down. WordPress security patches classified as critical should be applied within days of release, not held for the monthly cycle. Backups should run automatically every day. The monthly checklist covers the scheduled review and verification of these systems, but the systems themselves operate continuously. Pool Marketing Site’s maintenance programs include continuous monitoring components alongside the monthly manual review tasks.
Let Pool Marketing Site Handle Your Monthly Website Maintenance
Pool Marketing Site completes all 12 monthly maintenance tasks for pool builders and pool service companies — so your website is always secure, fast, compliant, and performing.