In fact, these sites are deemed so crucial that Google places them in a category they call Your Money or Your Life (YMYL), which means that when they suffer from issues and inaccuracies, it could “significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people, or the welfare or well-being of society.”

For this reason, routine maintenance tasks are crucial for ensuring that health-related sites remain as secure, accurate, and user-friendly as possible.

Here’s a comprehensive checklist of tasks you should do each month, quarter, and year to keep your healthcare site humming along in optimal condition.

Monthly Maintenance Tasks

There are a series of analyses that will help you paint a full picture of your new site’s performance. They include:

CONDUCT A BACKUP & DISASTER RECOVERY TEST

Make sure all automated website backups are working properly and do a full restore test to ensure you can recover your site quickly in the case of a catastrophic failure.

CONDUCT A SECURITY SCAN

Run a malware scan using the tools that are provided by your web host or via reputable services like Norton, TotalAV, or Guardio. Review security logs for unauthorized access attempts. If you find that any were successful, you’ll need to remediate them immediately, block suspicious IP addresses, and strengthen your security measures.

Note: If sensitive user data was compromised, you’ll likely need to alert the affected users, and you may also be required by law to report the incident to authorities or data protection bodies.

CONDUCT A BACKUP & DISASTER RECOVERY TEST

Ensure that all recommended updates are compatible and test them on a staging site before deploying them to your live site to avoid any unexpected functionality glitches.

REFRESH CONTENT

Do a thorough content review and remove anything that is outdated in these commonly affected website sections:

• Health alerts and announcements
• Provider bios, services, and treatments
• FAQs, patient resources, and policies
• Blog posts

REVIEW ANALYTICS & TRAFFIC

Analyze Google Analytics and Search Console for traffic trends. Identify pages that are attracting high traffic volume but underperforming in conversions and take steps to optimize content and related links and calls to action.

CONDUCT AN SEO HEALTH CHECK

The tasks needed to boost search engine optimization will vary by individual site, but may include:

• Verifying meta titles, descriptions, and alt text.
• Checking for and removing duplicate content.
• Confirming that heading tags (H1, H2, etc.) are properly used and ordered.
• Ensuring that metadata, including schema markup, is correctly implemented, especially for medical content.
• Aligning with Google E-E-A-T guidelines with content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

CHECK FORM FUNCTIONALITY

Test all appointment scheduling apps, payment gateways, and contact forms (particularly those that must comply with HIPAA guidelines) to ensure they are working as intended.

CHECK FOR BROKEN LINKS

Use tools like ahrefs’ Broken Link Checker or Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider to identify, fix, or remove any links that lead to 404 errors or outdated pages.

Quarterly Maintenance Tasks

REVIEW ADA COMPLIANCE

Run a comprehensive site test with tools like WAVE or axe DevTools, making sure that all content, navigation menus, webforms, and media are appropriately accessible to users with disabilities.

REVIEW HIPAA COMPLIANCE

Ensure that sensitive patient data is being properly encrypted and transmitted according to the latest Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols. Don’t forget: You’ll also have to audit any third-party services you’re using that share this data.

OPTIMIZE PERFORMANCE & PAGE SPEED

Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to identify opportunities to improve page and server speed; look for easy wins via opportunities to compress images, optimize caching, and more.

Annual Maintenance Tasks

CONDUCT A CONTENT AUDIT

Add new educational articles, health programs, and/or testimonials. Remove, update, or merge any underperforming pages.

REVIEW OVERALL USER EXPERIENCE & VISUAL DESIGN

Gather valuable feedback through sitemap testing, card sorting, first click testing, and other forms of usability testing to understand how users interact with your site. After identifying areas of confusion and uncovering pain points or obstacles in the user journey, make adjustments as needed. Also seek out opportunities to refresh visuals to keep the site feeling fresh and modern.

UPDATE LEGAL POLICIES & DISCLAIMERS

Review and update copyrights, disclaimers, terms of use, and privacy/cookie policies as needed.

How Eastern Standard Can Help

Need help creating and executing a long-term healthcare website maintenance plan? Reach out to start a conversation today.