Operating a site is a different job to building one

Building is a project. Operating is a practice. Confusing the two is why so many good sites quietly rot.

The monthly rhythm

Week one — read the numbers. Sessions, conversions, Core Web Vitals, search impressions, error rates.
Write down what changed and why you think it changed.

Week two — fix what the numbers told you. One thing, done properly.

Week three — content and SEO. Update what is decaying, publish what is missing.

Week four — maintenance. Dependencies, backups, a restore test you actually run.

The things nobody schedules

• Certificate renewals that are automated until the day they are not
• The dependency that quietly went unmaintained eighteen months ago
• The analytics property that stopped recording when someone rotated a key

The point

Operating well is unglamorous and compounding. It is also the entire difference between an asset and a
liability with a nice homepage.