Why and how often should you update your website?

All websites need to be updated. Updates keep your site relevant and effective. They ensure that your website continues to produce the leads and conversions that drive your business.

There are three different ways you can update your website:

Updating content – the written words and images you include on your site
Updating infrastructure – the tech and architecture that affect how your site works
Updating design – the overall look and functionality of your website

But how often should you update your website? Here we look at timescales and considerations, plus the risks associated with doing nothing at all.

Contents

• What happens if you don’t update your website?
• Things to consider when deciding how often to update your website
• How often should you update website content?
• How often should you update website infrastructure?
• How often should you update website design?

What happens if you don’t update your website?

When you don’t update your website, you might not see much effect at first. But over time, both your site and your business suffer. That’s because you risk harming all of the following:

• User experience (UX)
• Security
• Your position in search results
• Volume of leads and conversions
• Your ability to keep pace with competitors

Let’s look at each of these points in a little more detail.

User experience (UX)

If the information on your site starts to feel outdated – or functionality feels clunky – it hurts the user experience. Customers today have high expectations for their digital experiences. An up-to-date website with cutting-edge tech is much more likely to meet them.

Security

Regular updates keep your website and your software safe. Hackers find vulnerabilities they can exploit. But software providers try to stay one step ahead with updates that protect against security risks.

Your position in search results

A website with poor UX and security – and no new content – starts to fall down search engine result pages (SERPs). That’s because search engines, like Google, prioritise fresh sites that give users the experience and the information they’re looking for.

Volume of leads and conversions

If you’re not getting seen in SERPs, you’re going to get less website traffic and fewer leads. And if the experience on your website is sub-par you’ll find it harder to convert customers, too.

Your ability to keep pace with competitors

When you first launched your website, you may have had the edge over your competitors. But if they’re staying on top of updates – and you’re not – they may race into the lead. Keeping your site updated helps keep your site (and your business) competitive.

Things to consider when deciding how often to update your website

Different websites and different businesses have different update needs. Here are the things you need to consider when deciding how often you should update your website.

Type of website/business

If you have an ecommerce website, you may need to update it daily with new products and stock availability. However, if you have a simple, static brochure site, you’ll get away with far fewer changes.

The purpose of your website also comes into play. If you want to become a respected industry resource, aim to add new content every week. If you focus on trending topics, daily updates are a better bet.

The competition

In some industries, the online competition is weak. You may find that your competitors have old-fashioned websites and never upload new content. In this case, it’s easier for you to attract and convert customers. Website updates don’t need to be a big part of your strategy.

But keep an eye on the market. Imagine a competitor gets a shiny new website. Or they start to upload lots of valuable content. Your website traffic is likely to dip.

That’s why some business owners like to stay on top of updates no matter what their competitors are doing. They consistently raise the bar and keep ahead of the competition.

Site performance

Website analytics can help you decide when to update your site, too. You can track site performance – and spot anything that isn’t working as well as it should.

Look at page load speeds, conversion rates, page views and other metrics to see how individual pages perform. Also, examine the customer journey so you know where people are leaving your site.

With insight into how customers behave on your website, you can make timely updates to content, pages and features.

How often should you update your website content?

You should aim to update your website content once a month, at the minimum.

Search engines consider an array of factors when deciding where to rank your website in SERPs. One of those factors is the quality and freshness of website content.

Website content includes blogs, category and product pages, FAQs and any other resources. And you can keep this content fresh by adding new pages or updating old pages with the latest insights.

New content shows search engines (and customers) that your site is relevant and up-to-date. But it also has another SEO benefit. Add extra content related to the topics and search terms that interest your customers and your website is more likely to show up in search results.

We’ll be honest. Refreshing your content isn’t a silver bullet. It can’t guarantee SEO benefits on its own. But paired with other SEO techniques, it’ll give your site the best chance to rank and perform well.

How often should you update your website infrastructure?

Try to update your website infrastructure once a year. But always take action if you notice that your website performs worse than it used to. It may be that an easy infrastructure update could get your website back on track.

Examples of website infrastructure updates include:

• Switching hosting plan
• Updating security features
• Adding new functionality
• Updating software

Perhaps you use shared servers to host your site. As visitor numbers grow, you might notice your site slowing down. Updating to a dedicated server will improve capacity and ensure a great site experience for a higher volume of users.

Or perhaps a competitor’s cutting-edge website is making your site look old hat. Updating your site with extra functionality will help you maintain your position in your industry (and SERPs).

Got a user-friendly content management system (CMS)? Then updating content is pretty straightforward. But updating infrastructure? That’s a little more technical. It can be hard working out which parts of your website to update – and which to leave as they are.

We always recommend leaving website infrastructure updates to the professionals. Automatic or badly planned updates can negatively affect site performance and conversion rates. So if you’re not confident with web development, ask for help.

How often should you update website design?

Website trends come and go. And website tech evolves at an incredible rate.

If you compare today’s sites to the sites of five years ago, you may be surprised at how big a difference there is. Something that recently appeared trailblazing now feels old and clunky.

To keep pace with the competition, realign your website with business goals and ensure your site offers the best user experience (UX), you need to update your whole website relatively regularly. We’re talking once every two to five years.

Of course, there are a couple of clear-cut signs it’s time to redesign your website. You should redesign your website sooner rather than later if any of the following ring true:

• You’re rebranding your business. Customers should find the same brand identity across all touchpoints. This helps them to recognise and connect with your brand. If you’ve undergone a rebrand, a new website design is essential.
• Your site isn’t responsive. 54% of consumers prefer to use their phones when searching online. This figure gets even bigger for younger age groups. Responsive design is, then, a website must-have. This is where your website automatically adapts to fit different screen sizes.
• Your site performs poorly despite content and infrastructure updates. If your site is slow, has a high bounce rate or isn’t getting leads and conversions, it’s worth speaking with a web design and development agency. They can provide insight into what’s going wrong – and what needs to be improved.
• You can’t update your website yourself. As we’ve just seen, regular updates are central to the success of your website. If you can’t add a blog post or update a product description easily, you need a new design with a user-friendly content management system (CMS).

Time to refresh your website?

Regular website updates are essential. They keep your site fresh and relevant for users. They support your SEO efforts. And they help you maintain the traffic, leads and conversions your business relies on.

When deciding how often to update your website, look at the competition and your website analytics. Consider your website and business goals. And bear in mind the following benchmarks:

• Content updates: at least once a month
• Infrastructure updates: at least once a year
• Website design updates: every two to five years

Here at Radical, we offer a content writing service and a web maintenance and support service. Our design and development pros also build and redesign beautiful, functional websites. So whatever kind of update your website needs, our team can help.

Get a website that works harder for your business. Get in touch with the Radical team today.