Begin with the action that brings you business
Our recommended first check is a complete enquiry from a phone. Open the main service page, follow its action, submit a clearly marked test and verify delivery and reply. If you use booking, check a suitable test appointment and remove it afterward. Review click-to-call links, email addresses and any third-party handoff at the same time.
Prioritise a broken form or wrong number over cosmetic edits. Record the receiving inbox and who monitors it. Check that staff changes have not left messages going to an unattended account. Keep a short entry for each monthly test: date, page, result and person responsible. This creates a usable history without turning maintenance into a large reporting exercise.
Review what changed in the business
Read the site for accuracy rather than rewriting it by habit. Check opening hours, holiday arrangements, service areas, staff biographies, current services and any displayed prices or offers. Expired promotions and outdated availability promises are especially easy to miss when the homepage itself has not changed.
Illustrative maintenance finding: the company stopped offering weekend site visits, but a service page and booking introduction still mention them. The repair is to update both locations and the calendar rules. Keep a list of repeated business facts so a future change can be made consistently. Add recent work only when it is useful and publication permission is in place.
Check alerts and investigate changes with the right tool
Search Console’s Security Issues report covers detected problems such as hacked content and potentially harmful behaviour. Review alerts promptly when they arise rather than waiting for the monthly session. A clear report is not a complete security assessment. Have an agreed route to the person who maintains hosting, software and account access.
Google’s URL Inspection tool provides information about a page’s indexed status and offers live testing. Use it to investigate a specific changed or missing page, keeping the indexed result distinct from the current live test. Our recommendation is to investigate a clear symptom or warning first, rather than repeatedly requesting indexing for every page without a reason.
Keep recovery and responsibilities current
Confirm who owns domain renewal, hosting, software updates and backups. Your provider should be able to explain what is backed up, how often and how restoration would work. Review access when people leave and use individual accounts where your platform supports them. Schedule platform-specific updates with an appropriate recovery plan, then retest the customer journey.
End the session with a small prioritised list: broken customer functions, inaccurate commitments, technical risks and optional improvements. Give each item an owner and target date. Review unresolved items at the next session. A monthly routine complements prompt responses to urgent alerts; it is not a reason to leave a failed enquiry form or security warning untouched until next month.
Your practical checklist
- Complete a test enquiry and verify delivery.
- Check current hours, services, areas and offers.
- Review relevant search and security alerts.
- Confirm domain, hosting, update and backup responsibilities.
- Check access after staff or supplier changes.
- Assign owners and dates to outstanding fixes.
Written with AI-assisted research and drafting, with source checks and editorial review for this guidebook. Platform facts link to official documentation. Examples and recommendations are our own; no client results are implied. Sources reviewed October 8, 2026. About Getting Found Local