How Often Should You Update Your Website?

For some business owners, one shining moment of inspired insight leads to decades of discovery and innovation. Henry Ford is a good example. He figured out a way to make cars quickly while maintaining a certain quality. His inspiration for the assembly line continues to influence manufacturing today, although modern-day assembly lines rely more on robots than people, making the costs of goods even more affordable.

When you came upon the grand ideas that launched your company, you too most likely relied on less efficient means initially to produce your service or product. So like the introduction of robotics to the assembly line, there comes a time when you need to elevate your approach and update your website to make your company more efficient and profitable.

Age-Old Questions

Entrepreneurs like you or agencies like yours tend to be industry leaders. But you can’t be an expert in all things. If you’re a web designer, you may leave hosting for someone else. If you’re an SEO consultant, you may want to contract out the content you need. The same is true of your website.

Even if you’re the head of an agency that offers website development, you may not schedule time to work on your own site. So you may wonder if you should update it when you think of it or when industry experts recommend. It’s an investment to update your website, but one that can provide a good return if you time it right and do it properly.

Some decisions are best left to professionals who get big bucks for keeping up with the trends. Unless that’s your role, you need to focus on running your business. Call on an expert to let you know when it’s time to make a change and update your website.

Trend-Setting Web Developers

A website that looks old and outdated reveals a lot about your business — very much like what the state of your living room says about you when you’re trying to sell your house. If it’s dirty and cluttered, for example, buyers may assume you don’t take care of anything else in your home either. By the same token, if your website is old, potential clients may believe your product or service is out-of-date too.

If you haven’t taken the time to update your website in the last five years, stop now — because it’s long past due. Other clues that signal a need to update your site include:

• Old technology. You don’t have to know back-end coding or web development to recognize outmoded protocols. If your pages are loading from a PDF or are relying on Flash, you need to throw out your fax machine and update your website already.
• Confusing navigation. If visitors have difficulty finding what they’re looking for on your site, you’re losing sales. Frustrated visitors will leave for a site that’s easier to get the answers they seek with just a click.
• Not SEO-optimized. Take advantage of search engine optimization strategies at every turn to keep your site updated and to help potential customers find you in their searches. Make sure your keywords are in your page titles and file names.
• Slow loading times. Consider loading speed when updating your site. Visitors won’t wait more than three seconds for your page to load, especially when your competition is just a click away.
• Not mobile-friendly. Every website today needs to display well on every device, from the largest computer screen to the smallest mobile phone. A site that doesn’t easily convert to mobile devices will chase away more then 50 percent of your potential customers.
• Sloppy and unprofessional content. Your content can’t have errors. And your site needs to provide the right prices, correct store hours and the correct email and phone numbers. Your About page should represent the real you, as your company is today.
• Old photos. Use recent photos and graphics of your team and your business location, if it’s important to you. Understand that flashy photos don’t sell what you do — they’re merely vehicles to guide visitors to your content. It’s your content that carries your message and calls to action.
• No manageability. When you ask your web developer to update your website, make sure you can tweak it much as you desire. With today’s technology, don’t let a developer hold your site hostage; it’s just not necessary anymore.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.