Creating a Website Security & Maintenance Policy for Your Business

If you own or operate a website for your business or organisation, you need more than ad-hoc updates and reactive fixes. You need a formal policy around security and maintenance. Having a documented policy brings clarity, accountability and consistency — in short, it makes the difference between patching when things break and proactively protecting your asset. In this post we’ll walk through how to create a website security & maintenance policy tailored to your business.

Why a Formal Policy is Important

It defines who does what, when, and how.

Ensures everyone understands roles (developers, content editors, system admins).

Enables audits and compliance — you’ll be able to show “we follow the policy”.

Helps reduce risk by embedding regular security & maintenance into your workflow, rather than waiting for a crisis.

Key Components of the Policy

1. Scope & Objectives
Define what the policy covers: website(s), sub-domains, applications, hosting environment.
State objectives: to protect data, ensure uptime, optimise performance, ensure compliance.

2. Roles & Responsibilities

Website Owner / Business Owner: accountable for policy adherence.

Maintenance Lead / Sysadmin: responsible for updates, monitoring, backups.

Developer / Security Lead: responsible for code reviews, vulnerability scanning.

Content Editors: responsible for removing stale content, reporting anomalies.

Incident Response Team: defined role in case of breach/outage.

3. Schedule & Procedures

Maintenance schedule: monthly/quarterly/annual tasks (see earlier blog posts above).

Update procedure: how updates are applied, who approves, how backups are taken.

Backup policy: how often backups are taken, where they are stored, how restores are tested.

Security monitoring: how logs are reviewed, alerts handled.

Change control: how changes are documented, tested, rolled out.

Incident-response procedure: detection, containment, recovery, communication.

4. Access Management & Authentication

Policy for password management, MFA, user account review.

Principle of least privilege: define who gets what access.

Regular account review, removal of inactive users.

5. Hosting, Infrastructure & Physical Security

Define hosting requirements (secure provider, updated OS, firewall).

DNS and network security (DNSSEC, DDoS mitigation).

Data centre/hosting access controls (if applicable).

Backup storage – off-site, encrypted.

6. Compliance & Legal Requirements

Include data-protection laws, cookie/privacy notices, accessibility if required.

Policy for handling user data (collection, retention, deletion).

Audit process to verify compliance (at least annually). CookieYes

7. Documentation, Training & Review

Make sure staff/contractors are trained in policy awareness.

Document all incidents, maintenance logs, updates applied.

Review the policy annually (or when major changes occur).

Continuous improvement: the threat landscape changes — e.g., AI-driven threats. sisainfosec.com+1

8. Metrics & KPIs
Define metrics to measure policy effectiveness:

% of updates applied within 30 days.

Number of failed login attempts prevented.

Backup restore success rate.

Site uptime/downtime.

Page load times and Core Web Vitals.

SEO ranking trend.
Use these to review policy effectiveness and make improvements.

Implementation Tips

Start small: identify critical tasks (patching, backups), then expand.

Use automation tools (update management, backup systems, monitoring).

Make the policy accessible: share with your team, run orientation/training.

Integrate with your business continuity plan.

Keep documentation simple but clear — a long, unreadable policy won’t help.

Summary

By creating and enforcing a website security and maintenance policy you ensure a systematic, repeatable, accountable process that keeps your site safe and performing. It moves you from reactive to proactive. For businesses serious about their online presence — this is non-negotiable.
Make it part of your governance, review it regularly, and treat your website as the valuable asset it is.