A small business website needs a short check every month, a longer one every quarter and a review once a year. Monthly: test the forms and booking links, update prices, hours and offers, and check Search Console for errors. Quarterly: replace old photos and work, check every page on a phone, review page titles and fix broken links. Yearly: renew the domain and site plan, review the privacy policy and legal pages, and decide whether the site still matches the business. On a hosted builder such as Framer, the platform handles software updates, so most of the work is content.
A website that says the wrong hours or an old price costs you customers quietly. Most problems are found by a customer before the owner, unless someone checks.
What should you check every month?
- Forms: send a test enquiry and a test booking. Check they arrive and that the auto-reply, if any, is right.
- Contact details: phone, email and address are correct and clickable.
- Hours: including holidays and seasonal changes.
- Prices and offers: remove expired offers and update changed prices.
- Search Console: look for new errors under Pages and any manual actions. See Google Search Console for a Framer site.
- Analytics: note visits, top pages and enquiries.
- Reviews: add any new ones you have permission to use. See customer reviews on your website.
What should you check every quarter?
- Every page on a phone: layout, text size, buttons.
- Photos and work: add recent projects, remove old ones, replace any demo images left from the template.
- Team: add new staff and remove people who have left.
- Links: click through the menu, footer and key buttons. Fix or remove broken links.
- Page titles and descriptions: each page has its own, and they still describe the page. See page titles and meta descriptions in Framer.
- Speed: test the homepage and one heavy page. See Framer site speed.
- Bandwidth and plan limits: check usage against your plan. See Framer bandwidth limits explained.
- Google Business Profile: details match the website.
What should you check every year?
- Domain renewal: auto-renew on, payment card valid, contact email current.
- Site plan: right plan for your pages, CMS and bandwidth.
- Business email: still working, with the right people having access. See business domain names and email.
- Privacy policy and cookie banner: still match the tools you use. See cookie banners and privacy policies on a Framer site.
- Legal and regulatory pages: for regulated trades, check the rules have not changed.
- Accessibility: alt text, contrast, headings, form labels. See website accessibility for small businesses.
- Copyright year and dates in the footer and on pages.
- Logins: remove access for people who no longer work with you; turn on two-factor authentication.
- The big question: does the site still describe the business you run?
What does maintenance look like on Framer compared with WordPress?
| Task | Framer | Self-hosted WordPress |
|---|
| Hosting and server | Handled by Framer | You or your host |
| Software and security updates | Handled by Framer | You update core, themes and plugins |
| Backups | Framer keeps project version history; check what your plan includes | Usually a plugin or host feature |
| Content updates | You | You |
| Domain and plan renewals | You | You |
See Framer vs WordPress.
What should you do after a change?
After any edit, publish, then open the live page on a phone and check the change. For bigger edits, such as a new page or a new form, repeat the monthly form test. If something breaks, restore the previous version rather than fixing it under pressure.
Who should do the maintenance?
Pick one named person, even if it is you, and put the monthly check in your calendar. If an agency or freelancer built the site, agree in writing what they maintain and what you do. When a site is handed over, make sure you own the domain and the Framer project. See handing over a Framer website to a client.
How long does it take?
Roughly 20 to 30 minutes a month for a small site, and an hour or two a quarter, if the site is built on a template and nothing is broken. Your time will vary with the number of pages and how often prices change.
How do templates help?
A template that is easy to edit makes maintenance quicker. Every getsites template is built natively in Framer, so you edit text, photos and CMS items on the canvas and publish. Templates with CMS collections, such as projects, stylists or weddings, let you add new work without touching the layout. See the Framer template launch checklist for the first publish, and how to choose a website template.
What are signs a site needs more than maintenance?
- You avoid sending people to it.
- The design does not fit on phones.
- You cannot edit it yourself.
- Your services or prices have changed so much that most pages are wrong.
At that point a rebuild on a new template can be quicker than patching. See moving from Wix or Squarespace to Framer.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I update my business website?
Check forms, hours, prices and Search Console monthly, photos and pages quarterly, and renewals and legal pages yearly.
What does website maintenance include?
Testing forms, updating content, fixing broken links, checking speed and errors, renewing the domain and plan, and keeping legal pages current.
Do Framer sites need maintenance?
Framer handles hosting and software updates. You still need to keep content, forms, renewals and legal pages up to date.
How much time does website maintenance take?
For a small template-based site, often under half an hour a month plus a longer quarterly check, depending on the site.
What happens if my domain expires?
Your site and email on that domain stop working until it is renewed, and after a grace period someone else may register it. Keep auto-renew on.