Write one page before you leave today: what worked on the website this year, what is broken, what renews in the next three months, the one priority for the new year, and who to call about each part.

The last afternoon of the year

Today is the last working day of the year for most businesses. By mid-afternoon the office is quiet, the urgent jobs are done, and the website is the last thing on anyone's mind.

Next week it will be one of the first. Someone will remember that the contact form was acting up, that a renewal notice arrived, that the developer was going to be called about something. The details will have gone.

The first week back then goes on rediscovery: searching old emails, logging in to find what was wrong, working out who knew.

A one-page note written this afternoon, while it is all still fresh, turns that week into progress.

Five things on one page

The fourth is the hardest to write and the most useful. Six priorities make a wish list; one priority is a plan that can start on the first morning back.

What worked

Start with the good news, because it is the easiest part to forget. Note the pages enquiries came from, the campaign that brought calls worth having, and any habit that stuck, such as posting photographs of finished jobs.

If you looked at the year's figures earlier this month, copy those notes here. If not, a line from memory is still worth writing.

The point is protection. Things that earn their keep are easy to break by accident in a January redesign.

What is broken

Write down every fault you know about, however small, in a form someone else could act on: the page address, what happens, on which device, and when it was first noticed.

"The form is weird on phones" sends someone hunting. "The quote form on the contact page does not send from an iPhone; noticed December 12" gets fixed.

Include the things you have been working around: the page you never link to because it looks wrong, the gallery nobody updates any more.

What renews soon

List everything with a renewal date in the next three months: the domain, the hosting, the security certificate if it does not renew itself, plugin and theme licences, email accounts.

Beside each, note who pays, which card it is on and where the renewal emails go. A card expiring this month, or notices sent to someone who has left, is how a site goes dark in February.

Add dates that arrive whether you renew or not. A site still on PHP 5.6 loses its security fixes at the end of next year, and the planning for that starts well before.

The one priority

Choose one website job for the first three months: the one that would make the most difference to the business by spring.

Write it as an outcome, not a task. Update the careers page is a task; a hiring page with an application form that works on a phone, live before the March rush, is an outcome.

Everything else on the note waits its turn. One priority finished in February beats five started in January.

A worked example

A traffic control company with a few dozen certified flaggers and a small dispatch office does most of its hiring in late winter, before the construction season starts.

Last January its careers page still listed the previous spring's requirements, and the application form sent to a dispatcher who had left. Nobody knew until a candidate phoned in March to ask why no one had replied.

This year, on the last afternoon before the break, the operations manager wrote a one-page note. What worked: the page explaining traffic plans for event organisers, which brought steady enquiries.

What is broken: the application form on phones, and a crew photograph four years out of date. What renews: the domain in February, on a card that expires in January.

The one priority: a careers page and an application form that works on a phone, live by the end of February. Who to call: the web company, the registrar, and the person holding the hosting login.

The note went into the shared folder, and a copy went to the web company, so January's first conversation can start with the priority.

Who to call

For each part of the website, write down who looks after it: the web company, the host, the domain registrar, whoever runs the advertising and whoever posts on social media.

Add a phone number, an email address and any account number. Note where the logins are kept, such as the business's password manager, but never write the passwords on the note itself.

If nobody knows who looks after something, that goes on the list too. It is often the most important line on the page.

Where to leave it

Print it and leave it on the desk of whoever is back first. Save a copy in the shared folder with the date in its name.

Send it to your web company as well. A supplier who reads the priority in the first week of January can plan the work before your busy season rather than during it.

Then put a date in the calendar early in January to read it and start on the priority.

The counter-case

A business on a maintenance plan that reports on the site may find most of this in its supplier's last report. Its note then needs only the priority and the renewals.

A small site that rarely changes may fit the whole note in five lines, which is fine.

And a business closing for only a day or two loses less to rediscovery.

For everyone else, one page today, while the details are still in your head.

Before you leave today

  1. Note what worked this year.
  2. List every known fault with page and date.
  3. List renewals due before April.
  4. Check the card behind each renewal.
  5. Choose one priority and write it as an outcome.
  6. Write down who to call for each part.
  7. Send a copy to your web company.

Step five is what turns the note into a plan. Faults and renewals will always be waiting, but a priority chosen in December is the one most likely to be finished by spring.

The note becomes the first page of the plan in a website year planned around your busy season.

Frequently asked questions

What should the January note contain?

What worked this year, every known fault, what renews in the next three months, the one priority for the new year, and who to call about each part of the site.

Why write it before the holidays?

Because the details are fresh today and forgotten by January. Without the note, the first week back goes on searching emails and working out who knew what.

How should faults be written down?

So someone else could act on them: the page address, what happens, on which device, and when it was first noticed. Vague notes send people searching.

Which renewals belong on the note?

Anything due in the next three months: domain, hosting, certificates, licences and email accounts, with the card each is on and where renewal emails go.

Why choose only one priority?

Because one job can start on the first morning back and be finished by spring. Several priorities compete for the same time and usually all slip.

Should passwords go in the note?

No. Note where logins are kept, such as a password manager, and who holds them, but never write the passwords themselves on a printed page.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Not sure what renews before April?

Send us your site address. We will help you list the renewals, the known faults and who looks after each part.

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