Maintaining a website is tricky work, especially when you’re a nonprofit with limited resources and time. However tedious, it is absolutely essential. A poorly maintained website will cost you, not just figuratively, but in donations. In an industry where trust is of the utmost importance, losing credibility from a poorly maintained site is not an option.
Here we’ve laid out the essentials for what you should be doing and when: once a week, once a month, once a quarter and once a year. We recommend that you block out a recurring time in our calendar, add a link to this infographic, and run through the all of the steps. But remember, before you change anything on your website, ALWAYS run a backup.
These steps are designed to be things you can do on your own, whether you’re a technical professional or not. However, make sure that you are checking in with your technical support team every month so they can do a thorough analysis and catch any potential bugs before they happen. For many nonprofits, it will be cheaper to outsource to a dedicated support team than to have someone with this technical skill set on staff. Don’t have a team? Consider a full service firm like Elevation. We specialize in the specific needs of the nonprofit community. Check out our support plans here.
For a more thorough description on how to do these tasks, check out this website maintenance article.
Notice your site isn’t up to accessibility standards? Follow this guide.
