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How Often Should You Update Your Website in 2020

By: Team WTI | Date: March 25, 2020

Categories: Digital Marketing, Web Development, Web Maintenance, Website Design Articles,

Tags: Website Development,

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If you are reading this, odds are, you are probably thinking about getting a new website or perhaps you may want to update your website. Think about your current website and while you are doing that, let me ask you a few questions. If your answer to the question is one that I mention, it’s time for a new or updated site.

  • Is your website more embarrassing than the baby photos your mom likes to pull out when your friends come over? Uhm, yea… let’s not talk about that.
  • Are you constantly running into issues on your site? Yes? Well, kind of. I’m not sure, I never get on it.
  • Do you know when and how to update your website’s plugins and software so it stays up-to-date? No? Maybe? Wait, what’s a plugin?
  • Have you updated your site since you got it? Not really? Wait, I just got it 6 years ago… why would I need to update it?
  • Are you consistently updating content on your website? No? Why would I need to do that, facts don’t change. 

The Quick Answer: How Often Should You Update Your Site?

The typical lifespan of a website is 2.5 to 4 years. Now, this isn’t a hard-fast rule. You should be regularly updating your website’s plugins and other software and making sure your pages are up-to-date with fresh content. Keeping up with maintenance on your website will make it last longer.

Website Denial

Sometimes, we get stuck on our original site because it is great! While that may be true, you need to make sure that your site is staying updated on the front end and the back end. No matter how great your site is, you need to make sure that you are doing the necessary things for it to not become outdated.

Trends change every year. Websites and search engines are used differently as technology grows. When you think about your website, you should be confident in how it runs and how it looks.

YOUR WEBSITE IS LIKE A CAR

I know what you are thinking but just think of your website like a car. You need to clean your car from time to time. When you use your car, you get gas when the tank starts to run low. You get your oil changed after so many miles. You get (well, you’re supposed to get) regular maintenance checks. Sometimes, things break for no reason.

There are so many things that we have to do to our cars to keep them running. Think about your website this way. You need to regularly do things to keep your website running. Would you try and rebuild an engine yourself with no training or knowledge on the matter at hand? Or would you take it to a professional? The better care you give your site, the longer it will last before it needs to be replaced with a new one.

laptop with numerous applications

Refresh: Updating Content and Images

When talking about a website refresh, you are typically not changing the way your site functions. Instead, you are changing the basics to keep your site up-to-date. Website refreshing or updating is something you should be doing on a regular basis. Refreshing a website includes: updating plugins, updating your site’s WordPress version, regularly keeping your content up-to-date, and adding fresh content. 

What Is Fresh Content?

Fresh content is simply a phrase that is used to describe new and to-date topics. Adding fresh content is actually quite simple. One of the main ways to add fresh content is through blogs. When you regularly write new blogs you are doing a lot of different things to help your site. Blogs help establish your site’s domain authority and show you are a thought leader in your industry. 

Redesign: Let’s Address Some Major Things

A website redesign goes a little further than refreshing your site. Examples of this could be adding additional usability, fixing user experience issues, changing the site color scheme and logos, or maybe changing a menu layout. Most activities that involve needing to update minor coding or CMS issues fall within the category. For Team WTI, our web maintenance package covers the basics of redesign elements.

Rebuild: A Complete Overhaul

A website rebuild changes both how your site looks and functions on a large scale. This is when your website needs a full overhaul. You will be getting a brand new site, inside and out. A big reason to update your website is to make it responsive. Making a site responsive will ensure its ability to perform well on all devices. Google will soon be switching to mobile-first indexing, so it is very important to make sure your website is responsive. The most dramatic version of a rebuild is literally starting from scratch. This option can be the best for a lot of sites that are having a lot of issues. 

Why Having An Updated Site Is So Important

As the digital world continues to thrive, your website has the potential to help grow or slow your business. If you don’t keep up with your content, you become irrelevant. If you don’t update your plugins and software, your site will crash. If you don’t stay up-to-date with design elements and user functionality, your site will get buried in Google. 

Google (and other search engines) provide users with sites that match their query to the best of its ability. How does Google do this? Well, Google has its own search engine algorithm that pulls a lot of different ranking signals that include a website’s keyword focus, the quality and freshness of content, domain authority, and hundreds of other things.  

If you have any questions concerning what needs to be updated on your site, please contact us.

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