Keep one record per site: the domain, who owns and renews it, where its inquiries go, what facts it states and when it was last checked. Review the whole network on a schedule and after any business change. A site that loads can still send inquiries nowhere. So we also ask whether you can run it, whether its claims still hold and why it stays in the network.
On our own networks, we watch town search data and rebuild or replace the town sites that stay quiet. Not sure who holds the keys to your sites? Ask us: the first strategy call is free, and during business hours we aim to reply within five minutes.
Give every site an accountable record
- Domain and website
- Document ownership and access.
- Analytics and records
- Define access and the handover.
Start with the domain, public purpose, target audience, business owner, technical operator, and last review date. Add the systems that keep it working and the business result it's intended to support. We'd never accept an entry that lists only a URL and a status color.
The network quality framework explains the role of purpose. A site that no longer has a clear audience or offer may need consolidation. Another routine content update won't fix that.
| Inventory area | Information to maintain |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Audience, offer, and reason for a separate destination |
| Control | Registrar, registration details, authorized accounts, recovery responsibility |
| Operation | Hosting, platform, release process, subscriptions, support contacts |
| Content | Approved facts, asset rights, factual owner, review triggers |
| Inquiries | Forms, numbers, destinations, assignments, failure handling |
| Measurement | Relevant properties, stage definitions, known limitations |
| Lifecycle | Retain, improve, consolidate, or retire decision |
Make renewals an owned responsibility
Record domain and subscription renewal dates, the responsible payer, and the contact receiving notices. A renewal setting can exist while the payment method or recovery contact is outdated. The business needs a person who checks the arrangement when circumstances change.
ICANN describes registrant responsibilities. The relevant registrar documentation and agreement should be available to the authorized business owner. We never treat a site that looks fine as proof its registration is under control.
Ownership of the domain doesn't automatically keep the hosting or other services paid. List those obligations separately so the business can continue the network if the operator changes. If you want the domains registered to you, see how you can own the local websites that bring customers to your business.
Review facts when the business changes
We tie fact updates to business changes instead of a content calendar. Adding or dropping a service, changing coverage, a staff departure, a lapsed qualification or a new contact process can each touch several sites at once.
Maintain an approved source of truth for shared business facts. Then record which sites use them and who updates those destinations. Rewriting facts differently across sites shouldn't make them inconsistent.
For local content, verify that any project or location claim remains accurate. An expansion plan shouldn't gradually turn into an implied local office merely because the wording has been copied through several revisions.
Test the inquiry path beyond the form
- Relevant visit
- A person reaches the page.
- Inquiry
- The person contacts the business.
- Qualified lead
- The inquiry meets the agreed rules.
- Booked job
- The customer chooses to proceed.
We send a labeled test through each important form. Then we confirm it reaches the right inbox, creates the record and gets an owner for the next step. A successful submission message doesn't establish that the office received or understood the inquiry.
Test phone routing separately. Identify numbers that appear in older campaigns or saved materials and review their ongoing use before retiring them. Keep test activity clearly labeled so it doesn't inflate lead reports.
An automation scope should document connected accounts and failure behavior. If a workflow depends on a departing user's authorization, the maintenance process needs to identify and resolve that dependency before it affects customer handling.
Keep links connected to their purpose
Review the destinations that explain the parent company, relevant services, project evidence, and contact steps. A link that still opens may no longer answer the question its anchor promises. Check content relevance as well as availability.
The link planning guide provides a map for those relationships. We don't add long repeated lists of domains just because the network has grown. Each important connection should help the visitor continue a reasonable decision.
Review usefulness alongside performance
Traffic alone doesn't decide whether a site is worth keeping. Consider the audience, content role, inquiry quality, cost, and maintenance burden. A specialist destination may have a legitimate low volume purpose, while a busy site may attract the wrong requests.
The separate site decision test remains useful after launch. Ask whether the site still provides something a main site section wouldn't handle as clearly. If the reason has disappeared, record that finding.
A hypothetical quarterly review
- Observe → review
- Check the page and its evidence.
- Update → recheck
- Publish the change and check the result.
A contractor reviews a small network and finds four different situations. One site is useful and current. A second has a broken notification route. A third repeats information already maintained on the main website. A fourth promotes a service the business no longer accepts.
The actions should differ: retain the first, repair and test the second, evaluate consolidation for the third, and update or retire the fourth through an appropriate plan. A single “all sites updated” task would hide those distinct needs.
The review record identifies the evidence, responsible person, deadline, and acceptance check for each action. That turns upkeep into decisions with owners and dates.
Plan consolidation and retirement deliberately
Before retiring a site, list its useful content, incoming links, contact numbers and reporting history. Decide what should be preserved and where visitors should go. Don't assume that removing the hosting is the complete task.
If public URLs change, Google's site move guidance can inform the technical plan. The business still needs to approve the content destination and inquiry continuity. Document changes so future reports can explain the new structure.
Make the handover testable
For a microsite project, the receiving operator should be able to open the inventory and access the correct accounts. The operator should also find the content sources and demonstrate a live inquiry route. Record unresolved exceptions instead of calling the transfer complete because a folder was delivered.
Assign the next review date and the events that trigger earlier attention. A maintained network is one the business can understand, operate, and adapt as its offer changes.
Request a free marketing audit to review the ownership, contact paths, and continued purpose of your microsites. The findings can define a practical maintenance or consolidation scope.
