Launching a church website is a project. Maintaining a church website is a habit. Most churches invest significant energy in the launch and then let the site drift — outdated staff photos, past events still listed, broken links, and a homepage that looks exactly the same as it did 18 months ago. This is how a church website goes from asset to liability.
A church website maintenance routine doesn’t require a lot of time. It requires consistency. This checklist breaks maintenance into monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks — with platform-specific notes and a clear assignment framework so nothing falls through the cracks.
In This Guide
Monthly Tasks (30-45 Minutes)
These eight items should be completed once per month. Pick a day — the first Monday of the month, for example — and block 30-45 minutes.
1. Review and Update Service Times
Verify that all service times on your website, Google Business Profile, and social media are accurate. Service time changes — even temporary ones for holidays or summer — should be reflected everywhere. Wrong service times are the most damaging piece of outdated information on any church website. A visitor who shows up at the wrong time won’t come back.
2. Update Staff Information
Has anyone joined or left staff? Has anyone changed roles? Are all email addresses and phone numbers current? A staff page showing someone who left three months ago tells visitors that nobody is managing this site.
3. Clean Up the Events Calendar
Remove past events, verify upcoming event details, and add any newly announced events. Check that event times, locations, and registration links all work. An outdated event calendar is one of the most common church website problems.
4. Check All Forms
Submit a test entry through every form on your site — contact form, prayer request form, event registration forms, newsletter sign-up. Verify that submissions arrive at the correct email address. Forms that silently break (sending submissions to a former staff member’s email, for example) can go unnoticed for months.
5. Refresh at Least One Photo
Swap out at least one image on your homepage or a key page. Fresh photography keeps the site feeling alive. Even rotating between 3-4 seasonal hero images throughout the year makes a noticeable difference.
6. Verify Online Giving Works
Click through your giving page and verify the giving link/button works, the correct giving platform loads, and the experience is smooth on both desktop and mobile. A broken giving link costs your church real money.
7. Check for Broken Links
Run a free broken link checker (like deadlinkchecker.com or brokenlinkcheck.com) on your site. Fix or remove any dead links. Broken links frustrate visitors and negatively impact your search rankings.
8. Update Google Business Profile
Respond to any new Google reviews, update photos, and add a Google Post about an upcoming event or the current sermon series. Your Google Business Profile is often more visible than your website in local search results — keeping it active improves your local search presence.
Quarterly Tasks (1-2 Hours)
Four times a year, set aside 1-2 hours for these deeper reviews.
1. Review Analytics
Check Google Analytics (or your platform’s built-in analytics) for traffic trends. Which pages get the most visits? Where is traffic coming from? Has traffic increased or decreased? Is mobile traffic growing? These insights help you prioritize content updates and identify pages that need improvement.
2. Audit Content Accuracy
Read through every page on your site and verify that all information is current. Check ministry descriptions, group meeting times, program details, and any statistics or numbers cited. Quarterly is the right frequency — monthly would be tedious, and annually lets errors linger too long.
3. Test Mobile Experience
Visit your website on an actual phone (not just a desktop browser’s mobile preview) and navigate through key pages. Can you find service times? Can you watch a sermon? Can you give online? Can you submit a contact form? Mobile experience can degrade over time as content is added without mobile testing.
4. Review and Update SEO
Check that page titles and meta descriptions are current, your sitemap is submitting to Google properly, and no new pages are missing from search results. Search for your church name on Google and verify that the results look correct. For a complete guide, see our church SEO guide.
Annual Tasks (Half Day)
Once a year — ideally in January or at the start of your church’s program year — invest a half-day in these bigger-picture tasks.
1. Full Website Audit
Go through every page of your site with fresh eyes. Does the design still represent your church? Is the copy still accurate and compelling? Are there pages that should be added or removed? This is the time to assess whether your site needs minor updates or a full redesign.
2. Refresh All Photography
Schedule a photo shoot — professional or volunteer — to capture fresh images of your worship, community, building, and staff. Replace outdated photos across the entire site. Annual photo refresh is the single biggest visual improvement you can make without redesigning.
3. Review Platform and Hosting
Is your current platform still the right choice? Has pricing changed? Are there new features you should be using? Are there better alternatives? The website platform market evolves — what was the best choice two years ago might not be the best choice today. See our church website builders comparison for current recommendations.
4. Security Review
Verify SSL certificate is active, passwords are strong and recently changed, admin accounts are limited to current staff/volunteers, and any plugins or software are up to date. For WordPress sites specifically, check that all plugins and themes are updated and that your security plugin is configured correctly. Full details in our security guide.
Maintenance by Platform
Squarespace: Minimal Maintenance
Squarespace handles hosting, security updates, SSL, and platform updates automatically. Your maintenance is almost entirely content-focused: updating text, swapping photos, managing events, and publishing sermons. This is why Squarespace is our top recommendation for churches that want low-maintenance websites.
WordPress: More Maintenance Required
WordPress requires everything Squarespace handles automatically plus: plugin updates (at least monthly), theme updates, WordPress core updates, backup verification, security monitoring, and hosting management. If nobody on your team is willing to handle this, WordPress isn’t the right choice — or you need managed WordPress hosting that handles updates for you.
Tithe.ly / Wix: Moderate Maintenance
Tithe.ly and Wix handle platform maintenance automatically, similar to Squarespace. Your maintenance is content-focused. The platform updates, security, and hosting are managed for you. Focus your time on keeping content fresh and accurate.
Assigning a Website Owner
Every task on this checklist needs an owner. Ideally, that’s one person — not a committee, not “the staff,” not the pastor (who has enough to do). This person should:
- Have login access to the website platform
- Know how to update content, add events, and upload media
- Have 30-45 minutes per month dedicated to maintenance
- Have a direct line to ministry leaders for content and event information
- Understand basic SEO (or be willing to learn — our SEO guide covers it)
This can be a paid staff member (communications director, admin assistant) or a committed volunteer. The key is accountability — this person reports to someone who will notice if maintenance isn’t happening.
Printable Maintenance Checklist
Here’s a condensed checklist you can print and post:
Monthly:
- Verify service times are correct
- Update staff information
- Clean up events calendar
- Test all forms
- Refresh at least one photo
- Verify giving link works
- Check for broken links
- Update Google Business Profile
Quarterly:
- Review analytics
- Audit content accuracy
- Test mobile experience
- Review SEO basics
Annually:
- Full website audit
- Refresh all photography
- Review platform choice
- Security review
Frequently Asked Questions
How much time does church website maintenance actually take?
About 30-45 minutes per month for the monthly tasks, plus 1-2 hours quarterly and a half-day annually. On a weekly basis, updating the sermon and checking events takes about 15 minutes. The total annual time investment is roughly 20-30 hours — manageable for a dedicated volunteer or as part of a staff member’s responsibilities.
What happens if nobody maintains the website?
An unmaintained website does active harm. Wrong service times frustrate visitors. Past events make the church look inactive. Departed staff members create confusion. Broken giving links lose donations. Security vulnerabilities on WordPress sites can lead to your site being hacked and used for spam. A neglected website is worse than having no website at all — because it misrepresents your church.
Should we pay someone to maintain our church website?
If you can’t find a reliable volunteer and your staff is stretched thin, yes. Website maintenance services for churches typically run $50-200/month depending on the scope. Some web designers offer maintenance packages that include content updates, security monitoring, and regular backups. This is especially worthwhile for WordPress sites that require more technical maintenance.
How do I know if our website needs a redesign vs. just maintenance?
If the design looks dated (more than 3-5 years old), the site isn’t mobile-responsive, the platform is no longer supported, or the site structure doesn’t match your church’s current ministry, it’s time for a redesign. If the design still looks good but the content is outdated, maintenance is all you need. Most churches need a redesign every 3-5 years and continuous maintenance in between.
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