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Step one: list what the site must do
Start with the jobs the site performs, not its technology. For a small dental clinic these might be showing opening hours, letting patients request appointments, displaying the phone number and loading quickly on a phone. Write each job as a sentence a receptionist would recognize. Then attach the page or form that performs it. This list becomes the spine of the checkup, because every later test traces back to a job. Skipping this step leads to reviews that inspect plugin versions while ignoring that the booking form quietly stopped sending messages last month.
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Step two: define a test and a pass condition
For each job, write one action and one expected result. For the clinic: submit the appointment form with a test name and confirm the email arrives within five minutes; open the home page on a phone and confirm the phone number can be tapped; check that the security certificate is valid and no browser warning appears. Add routine items such as a recent backup restore date, pending software updates and a scan for unfamiliar files or redirects. Pass conditions should be observable by a non-technical person, so the owner can repeat the checks between professional visits and trust the result.
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Step three: record findings and schedule follow-up
Close the checkup with a short record: date, items checked, result, and who will fix anything that failed. In the clinic example, a slow image gallery and an outdated contact plugin are logged with a priority, an owner and a target date. Keep the record in one shared document so changes are visible over time and patterns emerge, such as the same form failing after each update. Decide the next checkup interval based on how much the site changes; a monthly review suits a site with bookings, while a quarterly one may fit a static brochure site.