A business website breaks slowly. A form stops sending, a plugin update changes a layout, a certificate expires, and nobody notices until a customer mentions it months later. This check takes fifteen minutes, needs no technical skill, and is worth doing on the first of every month.
Minute 1 to 3: does it load?
Open the site on your phone over mobile data, not office wifi. Count the seconds until you can read the page. More than three is losing visitors. Check that the padlock shows in the address bar and that typing the address without https still lands on the secure version.
Minute 4 to 6: do the forms work?
Submit every contact and quote form yourself. Confirm the email arrives, and arrives in the inbox rather than spam. Half of all “we get no enquiries” complaints turn out to be a form that stopped delivering.
Minute 7 to 9: are the basics current?
Phone number, opening hours, prices, team photos, the copyright year in the footer. Stale details tell a visitor the business might be stale too.
Minute 10 to 12: can search engines see it?
Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and make sure it does not block everything. Open yoursite.com/sitemap.xml or wp-sitemap.xml and confirm it lists your pages. Search for your business name and check the result shows your site, not an old listing.
Minute 13 to 15: is it backed up and updated?
Log in to the admin area. Apply pending updates to the platform and plugins, then confirm a backup from the last seven days exists somewhere other than the same server.
Write down anything that failed, fix the form issues today, and schedule the rest for the week. A site that passes this list every month rarely needs an emergency rebuild.