How Often Should You Update Your Website?
Date: 5/31/2019

In the digital era, your business website provides users and customers with 24/7 access to your brand.

One of the first places customers and potential customers will make a beeline for when researching you, is your business website.

Which is why it’s paramount for businesses to ensure that their website is up-to-date, mobile-friendly, and easy to use. However, a common query among business website owners is this – how often should I update my website?

Regardless of whether you are introducing new products or services, adding a new page, uploading a new blog post, or you are going in for a complete rebranding, updating your website is critical to your business performance.

Did you know that 23% of small business update their websites less than once a year? But here’s the thing – a business website simply cannot afford to remain stagnant even in the age of 3% GDP growth and lower taxes.

In a competitive market space, businesses need to constantly ensure they are visible and in the line-of-sight of their target audiences. And one of the most effective ways of achieving this goal is by constantly updating your website.

Regular Updates

Content-based updates should happen regularly. So, you might want to add new blog pots or articles on a weekly basis and also focus on including new content formats to keep those search engine crawlers busy on your website.

Necessary Updates

Certain updates should be done as and when they happen. These include the following:

• If you are making changes to your office/storefront hours.
• Any changes to your address, social pages, phone or email.
• Inclusion of new employees to staff pages.
• Deleting any content or reference to services and products you don't offer anymore.
• Any changes or additions to portfolio or inventory as and when necessary.

Update Your Website to Attract New Traffic

If you are looking to increase your traffic, you need to focus on updating or pushing out new content on a regular basis.

So, make sure you put out new content every week and share it over social at least once a month. When it comes to your website pages, make sure you update the pages every 3 – 6 months. If a page is not brining in the desired traffic, consider rebranding it.

Clear Brand Messaging

Another fantastic reason to update your website is when you want to improve your brand messaging. A brand might want to reconsider rebranding for several reasons including:

• To connect with a brand new audience base.
• All research and feedback as well as other critical website metrics such as traffic and conversion rate show no improvement in business performance.
• Product and services have shifted or don’t align with the current brand name and values.

In which case, it might be necessary to enhance/change the graphics, tighten the copy, introduce design updates for the headline and header image, etc.

Beating the Competition

The best way to beat the competition is to stand apart from it! Rebranding could include updating your logo, changing the design layout and the general feel of your website, or introducing new services or products.

Either way, these changes need to be visible on your website for regular and potential customers.

The Fundamentals

A stagnant website can severely damage your brand and impact business performance. The only way to stay relevant and visible to target audiences is by constantly updating your website with new content and vital information.