diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 69f85eb50d..20691ff76b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -17,12 +17,15 @@ CCEND=\033[0m
 help: ## Show this help.
 	@awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*?## "} /^[a-zA-Z_-]+:.*?## / {sub("\\\\n",sprintf("\n%22c"," "), $$2);printf "\033[36m%-20s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2}' $(MAKEFILE_LIST)
 
+module-check:
+	@git submodule status --recursive | awk '/^[+-]/ {printf "\033[31mWARNING\033[0m Submodule not initialized: \033[34m%s\033[0m\n",$$2}' 1>&2
+
 all: build ## Build site with production settings and put deliverables in ./public
 
-build: ## Build site with production settings and put deliverables in ./public
+build: module-check ## Build site with production settings and put deliverables in ./public
 	hugo --minify
 
-build-preview: ## Build site with drafts and future posts enabled
+build-preview: module-check ## Build site with drafts and future posts enabled
 	hugo --buildDrafts --buildFuture
 
 deploy-preview: ## Deploy preview site via netlify
@@ -39,7 +42,7 @@ production-build: build check-headers-file ## Build the production site and ensu
 non-production-build: ## Build the non-production site, which adds noindex headers to prevent indexing
 	hugo --enableGitInfo
 
-serve: ## Boot the development server.
+serve: module-check ## Boot the development server.
 	hugo server --buildFuture
 
 docker-image:
@@ -60,10 +63,10 @@ container-image:
 		--tag $(CONTAINER_IMAGE) \
 		--build-arg HUGO_VERSION=$(HUGO_VERSION)
 
-container-build:
+container-build: module-check
 	$(CONTAINER_RUN) $(CONTAINER_IMAGE) hugo
 
-container-serve:
+container-serve: module-check
 	$(CONTAINER_RUN) --mount type=tmpfs,destination=/src/resources,tmpfs-mode=0755 -p 1313:1313 $(CONTAINER_IMAGE) hugo server --buildFuture --bind 0.0.0.0
 
 test-examples:
@@ -81,4 +84,3 @@ docker-internal-linkcheck:
 container-internal-linkcheck: link-checker-image-pull
 	$(CONTAINER_RUN) $(CONTAINER_IMAGE) hugo --config config.toml,linkcheck-config.toml --buildFuture
 	$(CONTAINER_ENGINE) run --mount type=bind,source=$(CURDIR),target=/test --rm wjdp/htmltest htmltest
-