How Often Should You Update Your Website?

How Often Should You Update Your Website?

Curating a website is one of the most helpful ways to grow your business. A website is the perfect place for people to find information on your services, and answer questions about your business. However, once the website is built and set free online, many businesses often neglect to update the website as often as they should.

A good rule of thumb is to do a full website review once a year, and general updates once a month. 

Updating your website tells search engines that your website is “active.” Active websites get pushed to the top of search inquiries, while “inactive” websites will fall towards the bottom of search inquiries, even if the content of your website is relevant.

Here, we’ll go over the importance of updating your website regularly and how it helps search engines to push your website to the top of search results. 

How Does Updating My Website Help People Find Me?

A simple search inquiry can push potential clients to your metaphorical doorstep if your content is relevant to the search, but there are many reasons why your foot traffic can lessen over time. The biggest reason people find traffic slows down is because their website becomes inactive.



One might think that any live website is always considered “active”, but the unfortunate truth is that is not how search engines view this.

What is the Difference Between an Active Site and an Inactive Site?

Active Websites 

An Active website is a website that is updated often, at least once a month.

Updates may include publishing blogs, editing text, adding or removing pages to reflect your services, adding or removing images, and any other small adjustments to your content.

Keeping your website updated often tells search engines that your website is active and should be pushed to the top of search inquiries. 

Search engines are constantly indexing your website's data. That new indexed data will then be applied to relevant search inquiries.   

Inactive Websites

Inactive websites are ones that are not updated regularly. Search engines like Google and Bing consider a site inactive if there is no new or changed content in a 30-60 day window. 

If a site is inactive, search engines will label them as a “Dead Website.” A Dead Website is pushed to the bottom of the rankings of search inquiries by search engines.

Think Your Content is Perfect? There May Be More You Can Do.

While you may think your website is perfect and there can't possibly be anything to update, there is! 

Here is a  list of some basic things you can update on your website. 

• Office Hours
• Location/Addresses
• Events 
• Internal and External Links 
• Stylistic Website Adjustments
• Contact Information 
• Staff Biographies
• New Product or Pictures
• Changes to Services or Pricing
  

If You've Done All Those Updates, You Might Benefit From Implementing New Tools

We can find ourselves in a situation where everything on our website is polished, perfect, and aligned with our business objectives. If that’s the case, great job on keeping your website information up to date! So what else can you do to keep updating your website often?

A good solution is to implement something to update on your website regularly. 

That might include:

A recurring newsletter or blog

This can be about your services whether new or old, business/life updates, FAQs or anything to amplify your voice.

Client Reviews 

Putting current positive client reviews on your website is not only good for your business, it is also a good way to keep your website updated. Whenever a good review pops up, throw that on your website! 

Did you know there are tools that can link to your Google Reviews and update new reviews on your site automatically?

Media Coverage 

When news outlets cover your business or social media makes a post on your business, putting those highlights on your website is another good way to keep your website updated. 

So, How Often Should You Update Your Website? Every Month At Least.

The more you update your website, the more it gets indexed in search engines, and the more you are appearing in search results, helping people find you. 

You do not have to completely overhaul your website once a month. Instead, find little ways to update your website is a good way to keep search engines eyes on your website. 

Search engines are constantly looking for new data to index. Updating your website often keeps your website at the top of the ranking when people search for information relevant to your business. 

Still Unsure on How to Keep Your Website Updated Often?

While these options can be a great starting point, you may still find yourself lost on next steps. Or maybe you simply do not have the time or energy to constantly be updating your website. 

You are not alone, and we are here to help! 

If you’re not sure where to start, you may want to schedule a website audit. We’ll do an in-depth review of your site and help you identify the things that could benefit from updates.

Alternatively, you may benefit from our Full Service Management service.

Our Full Service Management service is designed to take the weight of website updates off your plate.

 

If you have specific questions, feel free to reach out to us any time.