Guide · Verification
The checklist to run after a WordPress update
A reusable list in three versions depending on what your site does. It takes a few minutes and catches almost everything.
Short answer
What should you check after a WordPress update?
At minimum: the home page, two or three critical pages, navigation on a phone, the contact form and the browser console. That takes five minutes.
Then whatever depends on your site: forms and where they deliver if you generate enquiries, the full purchase path and transactional emails if you sell. Checking what the site actually does matters more than checking many pages.
Check what the site does, not what is easy to open
The temptation is to look at the home page, find it fine, and move on. It is the easiest page to test and often the least revealing: it rarely contains the functions the business runs on.
The right list starts from the opposite question: what, if it broke without my knowing, would cost me money or customers? On most sites the answer is a form or a purchase path, not a presentation page.
Worth remembering
Some of the most expensive regressions are silent. A form that has stopped delivering can still show a thank-you message.
For every site, no exceptions
The baseline. Five minutes, whatever the type of site.
Baseline check
- Home page renders complete, with no empty area and no shifted block.
- Two or three critical pages the ones that matter to your business.
- Menu and navigation on desktop and on a phone: the mobile menu breaks first.
- A recent image if media has stopped loading, that is where you see it.
- Signing in to the admin log out and back in, once.
- Browser console no new red errors.
- A 404 page it should answer properly, not redirect to the home page.
Brochure site
Few functions, so little surface. The baseline nearly covers it, with two additions.
On top of the baseline
- Contact form send a real one and confirm it arrives.
- Contact details and hours reused content blocks often break silently during a theme update.
Lead generation site
Here the form is the most expensive function to lose, and the quietest when it goes.
On top of the baseline
- Every form on the site not just the one on the contact page.
- Where it actually lands does the message reach the right mailbox, and not the spam folder?
- The stored entry if enquiries are also saved in the site, confirm the new one is there.
- The thank-you page it displays, and it still fires your follow-ups if you have any.
- Required fields a form that accepts an empty submission has just lost its validation.
- The anti-bot filter if it is broken you will find out from the spam volume, usually too late.
Careful
Test with a real address you actually check, not a made-up one. A form can show “message sent” while the delivery failed in the background.
Store
The widest and most expensive surface. Test the whole path, with a real order.
On top of the baseline
- Product page price, variants, stock, images.
- Add to cart and changing quantities.
- Checkout all the way to payment, in test mode if your platform allows it.
- Shipping and taxes they recalculate correctly.
- Promo codes if any are running right now.
- Confirmation email to the customer and to you.
- The order in the admin it appears with the right status.
- Customer account login and order history, if you offer one.
Careful
Place a real test order rather than assuming. If your payment platform offers a test mode, switch it on for the check and remember to switch it off afterwards.
Reading the console without being a developer
This is the check that looks technical and is not. On most browsers the console opens with F12, under the “Console” tab.
You are not trying to understand the messages. You are looking for red lines that were not there before. A red error means code that stopped, and therefore a function that no longer works, even if the page looks normal.
Technical detail
Yellow warnings are common and rarely serious. It is the red errors that matter, particularly ones naming a file from your theme or a plugin.
An error mentioning an external service, a font or an analytics tool usually has no effect on how the site works.
If something is wrong, the procedure is set out here: an update broke the site.
Common questions
How long does this check take?
Five minutes for the baseline, ten to fifteen more for a store. It is the best ratio of time spent to incidents avoided in the whole of maintenance.
Can this list be automated?
Partly: page availability and response codes can be monitored. The rest, in particular whether a form actually lands in a mailbox, still needs a human check at Repère today.
Do I have to check everything after every update?
The baseline, yes. The full purchase path, every time a plugin touching the store, payment or the theme has moved.
What if I find a problem?
Change nothing else, write down what was just updated, and follow the troubleshooting guide. The cause is almost always in the last batch.
Have your site looked at
This list can be run by someone else, after every update, with a record of what was checked.
Have my site checked View the free checklist