Runbooks and checklists
What to do, in order, when a WordPress site is down, hacked or about to change, and checklists for the jobs that keep it well. Each one is here in full. There is nothing to sign up for.
- A sample WordPress maintenance report: what ours says, line by lineThe monthly report we send a care plan customer, shown as a sample with made-up figures for two sites. Every line is read from a record: the work entered, the time counted, what the uptime checks found, and a monthly check from outside. It carries no score.
- A WordPress update went wrong: a runbookWhat to do, in order, when an update to WordPress, a plugin or a theme leaves the site broken or stuck. Stop updating, copy down what the screen says, get back into the dashboard, then choose between going back one version and restoring a backup.
- Hacked WordPress site: a runbook for the first hourWhat to do in the first hour after you find your WordPress site has been hacked, in order. Write down what you see, protect visitors, keep a copy of the site as it is, lock the attacker out and tell the people who need to know. Cleaning comes after.
- Local SEO checklist for a WordPress site: the profile, the website, and what to leave outA local SEO checklist for a business with a WordPress site. Every item is something Google or WordPress documents, with how to check it, from the Business Profile to the site's details, indexing, markup, location pages and reviews. The last section lists what it leaves out, and why.
- Monthly WordPress maintenance report templateA report to copy and send a client each month. It covers what was updated, the backups, uptime, security, the changes they asked for, what needs their decision and what comes next. Every figure in it comes from a record you can point to.
- Taking over a client's WordPress site: a checklist to run before you change anythingBefore you change anything on a WordPress site someone else built, take a backup of your own, record the state the site is in, and send the client what you found in writing. This checklist gives the command or screen for each check and what to write down.
- Website migration checklist: before, during and after the moveA checklist for moving a website to another platform or another host. List every address first, build the new site in private, switch the DNS only once the redirects are in place, and keep the old hosting until the new site has settled.
- Website redesign SEO checklist: what to record, map and check on a rebuilt siteA redesign loses search traffic when addresses change without redirects, when pages that brought visitors are dropped or thinned, or when the new site goes live closed to search engines. This checklist covers each, in order, for a rebuild on the same domain.
- White label maintenance agreement: a checklist of what it has to settleA white label maintenance agreement has to settle five things before anyone logs in. Who talks to the client, what work is included, who has access and how it ends, what happens when something breaks, and how either side leaves. This checklist gives the question for each.
- WooCommerce checkout is down: a runbookWhat to do, in order, when customers cannot pay on a WooCommerce store. Go through the checkout yourself and read the latest orders, work out which of three faults you have, keep orders coming in with a second way to pay, then account for every payment made while it was broken.
- WooCommerce sale readiness checklist: Black Friday or any big saleA WooCommerce store fails on its busiest day for a short list of reasons, and each can be checked beforehand. This checklist runs from four weeks before a sale, such as Black Friday, to the day after, with the screen and the setting to check for each item.
- WordPress care plan proposal template for agenciesA proposal to copy and send a client when you offer a monthly WordPress care plan. It says what is done each month, what is not included, what it costs, how to ask for something and how either side ends it, with stand-ins for your own terms.
- WordPress launch checklist: what to check before a site goes liveA checklist for the days before a new or rebuilt WordPress site opens to the public. It covers content, settings, accounts, security, speed, search, forms and email, a store, and legal pages, in the order that catches the most with the least work.
- WordPress SEO audit checklist: what to check, in order, and how to check each itemA technical SEO audit of a WordPress site as a checklist, in the order that finds the costly faults first. Can Google reach the site, does each page have one address, what is in the sitemap, what should stay out, what each page says, and what Search Console reports.
- WordPress site down: a runbook for the first hourWhat to do, in order, when your WordPress site stops loading. Confirm it is down for everyone, write down what the screen says, find the layer at fault, and choose the smallest change that brings the site back.