The Santa Barbara Web Design and Marketing Blog

When it comes to running a successful business online, your website is at the very heart of everything you do. It serves not just as a digital business card but as an entry point for leads, sales, reputation-building, and much more. But unfortunately, one of the most overlooked aspects of website management is ongoing technical validation—actually checking that your site consistently works the way it should, week in and week out.

In my 30 years as a web development and marketing consultant supporting PC and Mac users from Santa Barbara to all points beyond, I’ve seen a constant pattern: business owners invest heavily in the launch of a new site, but over time, they assume everything is humming along smoothly—until a lead dries up, a customer calls, or I point out a problem that’s gone unnoticed for weeks, months, or even longer.

In this article, I’m diving deep into why rigorously checking your website’s technology and functionality is absolutely critical—whether you’re a one-person shop, a fast-growing local service business, or a corporate department juggling multiple web properties. I’ll walk you through essential practices like reviewing the JavaScript console for errors, validating key processes like booking links and lead forms, monitoring your analytics scripts, and how regular Proactive Testing can save your business from lost revenue, missed leads, and a declining search presence. If you “set it and forget it” with your site, you’re risking far more than you think.

Let’s get into the practical steps and lessons every website owner should embrace.

The Hidden Risks of “Set It and Forget It” Website Management

The internet is not a “launch it and leave it” environment. Technologies change. Browsers update. Plugins are patched, APIs are deprecated, and third-party widgets change their rules. The web is alive and, to a certain extent, unpredictable.

Yet the pattern I constantly see is that after the major investment of site development is finished, there’s a collective sigh of relief and the site is left to run—sometimes for months or years. If you’re lucky, things keep working; if you’re not, issues slowly accumulate in the background. When leads start dropping off, forms don’t get submitted, or booking engines break, it’s often only discovered by accident.

A real-world example: Just the other day, a client asked me to review why their leads had dropped. On reviewing their analytics, I discovered no tracking data had been recorded for months. Their analytics script had stopped working and, since no one checked, all their decision-making was based on guesswork and outdated assumptions.

Technical failures might include:

- A JavaScript error breaking your booking form or lead capture process

- A plugin update conflicting with your theme, causing parts of your site to disappear

- An expired code snippet (like Google Analytics) failing silently—killing your insight into visitor behavior

- A third-party booking widget (for a spa or restaurant) no longer loading, leading to abandoned bookings

- Security updates being missed, leaving your site exposed

- Social media feeds or testimonials not loading, making your site look stale or unfinished

Any of these can directly hit your bottom line. Worse, most visitors don’t write in to tell you: they just leave.

Why These Technical Issues Hurt Business

The impact of technical errors is broader than most business owners realize:

- Bad Customer Experience: If booking links or forms don’t work, you immediately lose credibility and customers.

- Lost Leads and Sales: Every broken form is a lost opportunity.

- Impact on Analytics and Tracking: Without analytics, you’re flying blind—unable to measure marketing ROI, optimize campaigns, or even justify your ad spend.

- SEO Penalties: Google’s bots notice broken links, slow pages, and incompatibilities. Over time, technical errors can sap your rankings.

- Brand Erosion: A broken social feed or outdated widget signals that your business isn’t keeping up.

Don’t Leave It to Chance: How to Proactively Test and Troubleshoot Your Website

1. Check the Basics Weekly

At the most fundamental level, every website owner (or their staff or consultant) should regularly check the basics. This means:

- Visit your site from multiple devices (PC, Mac, mobile phone, tablet)

- Navigate every main page, interact with all the primary calls to action (buttons, booking links, lead forms, etc.)

- Test downloads, PDF links, and embedded media

Make this a recurring calendar event, not an afterthought!

2. Dive Into the Browser Console

Most modern websites rely heavily on JavaScript for interactivity—contact forms, booking widgets, interactive galleries, popups, and more. Even if you aren’t a developer, you can (and should) open your browser’s JavaScript console to look for hidden errors that could impact function.

- How to open the console: On most browsers, right-click and select "Inspect," then click on "Console."

- Look for red alerts (errors) and orange ones (warnings). While not all warnings or errors are critical, recurring issues should be flagged for your developer or support person.

- Common errors to watch for: “Uncaught TypeError…”, “Failed to load resource…”, “Cannot read properties of undefined…”

- These errors can silently disable functionality that appears fine to the casual eye.

3. Validate All Forms and Workflows

Your forms are critical customer touchpoints: quote requests, newsletter signups, booking engines. Test each:

- Try submitting with valid, invalid, and blank data—do the correct error or confirmation messages appear?

- Check that you receive notification emails and that data is captured where it should be (CRM, database, spreadsheet, etc.)

- Disable ad blockers or try “private/incognito mode” to see if extensions or privacy settings break your forms

4. Check All Third-Party Integrations

Many modern websites use embedded third-party scripts or iframes for bookings, e-commerce, calendars, or reviews. These can fail for reasons outside your control:

- An API key expiring or being revoked

- The provider changing their embed code or backend policies

- A dependency on cookies or cross-site scripting policies

Manually try your integrations on a regular basis, and subscribe to status updates from your third-party providers. If a provider offers webhook or error notifications, enable them.

5. Monitor Your Analytics Tracking—Don’t Fly Blind

Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or other analytics trackers provide vital insights for marketing decisions. These can be accidentally disabled by:

- Changing your theme

- Removing the tracking code during an update

- Broken script loading caused by other plugin or JavaScript errors

- GDPR/cookie consent plugins incorrectly blocking all scripts

How to check:

- Use browser extensions like Google Tag Assistant or the Facebook Pixel Helper

- Visit the “Real Time” section of Google Analytics with your site open in another tab to see if your visit is registering

- Click through pages and verify events (like form submissions, clicks) are being tracked

Remember my earlier client example: their business had no idea their analytics was dead for months, causing huge marketing blind spots.

6. Test Across Browsers and Devices

Your customers are not all using the same device or browser as you are. Make it a point to:

- Test major browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge

- Check desktop, tablet, and mobile phone

- Use responsive testing tools (many browsers offer built-in simulators in their Inspect tools, or use services like BrowserStack)

7. Watch for Slowdowns, SSL Errors, and Mobile Problems

Site speed and mobile usability are direct ranking factors for Google and affect user retention. Regularly:

- Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights and follow recommendations, especially for mobile optimization

- Ensure your SSL certificate is always valid—expired SSL means users see scary warnings (and Google may stop indexing key pages)

- Check for excessive pop-ups, layout shifts, or other annoyances—especially on mobile

8. Audit Plugins, Themes, and Content Regularly

- Keep themes and plugins up-to-date and remove deprecated or unused items to minimize security risks

- After every update, re-test core functionality—some updates conflict and cause breakage

- Check that all public-facing content (pricing, contact info, hours) is accurate and current

9. Implement Monitoring Tools

There are tools that can automate some basic checks for you:

- Uptime monitoring: Get alerts if your site goes offline (using tools like UptimeRobot or Pingdom)

- Broken link checkers: Use tools (like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or free plugins) for regular scans

- Error logs and alerting: Web hosts often provide access to error logs; enable email notifications where available

10. Build a Checklist (And Use It)

Document a “whole site” checklist with all the above and schedule monthly or biweekly reviews. If you delegate this, ensure accountability and reporting are in place—don’t assume it’s being done unless you see evidence.

The Business Value of Diligent Technical Testing

Let’s summarize why these technical practices are not optional but essential:

- Protect your reputation: Every broken process is a chance to lose a customer forever.

- Preserve your income: Even small technical failures—like an unresponsive form or dead booking widget—can kill conversion rates.

- Make better decisions: You can only optimize your site and adjust your marketing if you can trust your data.

- Prevent bigger problems: Catching a small issue before it becomes a catastrophe is far less expensive.

- Stay ahead of your competition: A faster, more reliable, and user-friendly site gives you an undeniable edge.

- Improve SEO: Google rewards technically sound, regularly maintained sites.

Real World: Lessons Learned from Decades in Web Support

Nearly every week, I rescue a business owner from a silent catastrophe they didn’t know was happening. Here are just a few examples I’ve seen:

- A wedding photographer lost half a season of leads when her contact form broke after a WordPress update—no error message, just silence.

- A law firm’s SSL certificate expired, serving frightening security warnings to prospective clients for five days before anyone noticed.

- A busy Santa Barbara restaurant had their booking engine quietly stop working after a change by the vendor, resulting in dozens of lost reservations.

- A tradesperson using a third-party analytics tool changed their website template, accidentally removing tracking—and had no visibility into marketing ROI for three months.

What did all these clients have in common? They assumed everything was working—until it wasn’t. Proactive checking would have caught all of these early.

The Bottom Line: Don’t Set It and Forget It—Test and Protect Your Investment

Your website is a living, breathing extension of your business. You wouldn’t leave your physical storefront without regular cleaning, security checks, or customer service oversight—the digital world demands no less. In fact, because your website often makes the first impression, stakes are higher than ever.

Taking a few minutes on a scheduled basis—weekly, biweekly, or even monthly (the more often, the better)—to test and investigate your website, follow up on technical warnings, and validate all integrations and forms is one of the best insurance policies you can have.

Not only will you minimize lost opportunities and revenue leaks, you’ll gain confidence that your data is accurate, your brand is strong, and your business is always ready to serve customers—day or night, from any device.

So set up that recurring calendar alert, embrace the practice of diligent web maintenance, and commit to never letting your digital storefront go unchecked. It’s the foundation of modern business success.

I hope these insights are helpful and encourage you to take your website’s technical health seriously. If you need help with any aspect of checking, troubleshooting, or optimizing your site—from analytics audits to automation and beyond—reach out. I’m your Santa Barbara Web Guy, and I’m here to make sure your online business runs smoothly, profitably, and securely.

See you next time—and happy testing!