How Often Should I Refresh the Content on My Website? [And Why Is It Important?]

If it's been a while since you made updates to your website...it might be time.

Change is constant. It’s true in life, and it’s true in business.

When you run a business, there’s always something new on the horizon, whether it’s new products or services, new staff, procedural changes, or new product use tips or industry-wide news to share. 

Ideally, when these things happen, you should update them on your website. But, unless you have a web developer on staff, finding the time and resources to keep up with website updates can be a struggle.

So…how often do you really need to refresh the content on your website? 

We’re glad you asked! There’s no simple answer to that, but there are a few guidelines you can follow. Let’s dive into those guidelines as well as why it’s so important to keep your website up to date.

Why Refresh the Content on My Website?

Before we talk about how often you should update your website, let’s look at a few reasons why it’s so important to keep your site updated.

Show Customers Your Company Is Alive and Well

Your website is like a virtual storefront for your business. If your website visitors don’t see any recent activity on your site (or if it looks like it was last updated 20 years ago), they may wonder if your doors are still open. 

Updating your website regularly assures potential clients that if they reach out, they’ll actually be able to connect with you.

Higher SERP Ranking (and More Site Traffic)

Stale content is about as appetizing as stale bread. No one likes outdated content…and Google knows this. When people search for something online, they want the most up-to-date information they can get.

That’s why Google and other search engines prioritize new content. Websites that feature more frequently updated content (that is SEO optimized) are ranked more highly on the search engine results page (SERP). SERP ranking is one of the biggest indications your website is performing well. If you show up within the top searches on the SERP, you’re doing something right!

More updates = more pages to rank = a better chance to improve your SERP rankings

With better ranking comes more domain and page authority, which, in turn, helps you continue to rank higher in search results. This makes you more likely to be back-linked to other websites, increasing your authority further.

And the higher you rank in search results for the topics relevant to your industry, the more likely new customers will be to find your website, increasing your website traffic.

Be Known as an Expert In Your Field

Regularly refreshing the content on your website gives you the chance to provide helpful, relevant information to your audience and earn a reputation as an expert in your field. 

Use your website to keep your audience up to date on changes in your industry. Once people know they can get updates on your site, they’ll begin to see you as a go-to resource in your field.

Updates to your website content — including blog posts, new website copy, and more — should ultimately provide more value to your website’s visitors. This gives them a reason to come back to your site, and return visits are a great way to convert potential customers into loyal supporters.

In other words, if visitors find the information on your website valuable, they’ll be more likely to not only return to your website, but also share your content, subscribe to your email list, buy your products or services, and recommend your business to others. 

Social Media Fuel

Website content updates give you more content to share on your social media platforms and your followers more reasons to visit your site. 

The ultimate goal of social media content is to drive traffic back to your website. Making regular updates to your website gives you more opportunities to highlight your site on social media and draw people to it.

Fresh website content also makes for a more effective social media strategy. Regularly sharing something new keeps your social media feed from being clogged with old, stale content, which makes it more engaging for your followers.

Close More Sales

Providing useful, updated information is the best way to draw people to your website and keep them coming back. The more website traffic you get, the higher your potential to close sales. 

In addition, an up-to-date website is more likely to convert potential clients. Keeping your site updated with helpful information that answers potential clients’ questions and addresses their pain points will make them more likely to connect with you and, ultimately, convert.

How Often Should You Update Your Website?

So, how often should you update your website? The answer is…it depends. 

Super helpful, right?

Ok, jokes aside, while there’s not a hard and fast rule for how often you should make updates to your website, there are some pretty solid guidelines you can follow. 

Essentially, how often you should make updates depends on the type of content. Some pages on your website will be pretty static (like your contact page), but others will need to be updated more often (like your blog). 

Here’s a quick overview of how often you should be updating certain types of website content.

Website Copy

Review all your website copy once a year, making updates as needed. 

As you do this, make sure all vital information is accurate (general details about your company, your products and services, your employees, etc) and that the copy still fits your brand personality. You’ll also want to tweak your copy after a rebrand or other major changes in your company or industry.

In addition, the following details should be updated more often:

Company Information

Your About Us page, employee bios, and contact information should be updated ASAP when changes happen. (Site note: When your contact info changes, don’t forget to update it on Google My Business too!)

Product Availability and Pricing

When you launch new products or services or change your pricing, make sure to update your website accordingly. Your site should always accurately reflect your current availability and pricing.

In addition, review product descriptions 3-4 times a year to ensure they accurately reflect your products and are consistent with your brand and company culture. Giving potential customers accurate information makes your business and your brand more trustworthy. 

Finally, when you update your website copy, make sure it follows your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, and don’t forget to incorporate any keywords you've found that make sense for your business.

Learn to use the StoryBrand framework to create website copy your prospects easily understand in our recent blog!

Client Testimonials/Reviews

Make sure to keep client testimonials or reviews as up-to-date as possible. Recent reviews or testimonials show that your company is active and recent customers are happy with their experience.

How often you get new reviews will depend on your business, how many clients you work with, and how consistent you are with requesting reviews, so it’s hard to give a set time limit for this one. But keep in mind that reviews that are more than a year or two old won’t be nearly as effective as more recent ones.

Blogs

Blogs serve a number of functions on your website. They help you: display the value of your products, services, and expertise; establish credibility with your audience; drive traffic to your site; and convert traffic to sales. 

But they can only do this if you post new blogs consistently.

How often you should post depends on your industry, products/services, and your marketing strategy. 

You should post blogs more often if:

• You have a large or international business
• Your web presence is vital to your sales
• You sell your product or service online
• Your marketing strategy places a large emphasis on digital marketing

You can get away with posting less often if: 

• You’re a smaller, local, or regional business
• You sell your product in person
• Your marketing strategy has less of a focus on digital marketing.

Regardless of your business size, marketing strategy, or what you sell, you don’t have to blog every day to see results. In fact, if you’re not currently blogging at all, even 1-2 blogs per month can make a big impact over time. Start small and increase as you’re able to. 

But whatever you do, don’t let more than 6 months go by between blogs. As we mentioned above, a lack of recent content makes it look like your company isn’t active.

Don’t have time to write blogs, or not sure your writing skills are up to par? Outsourcing that job can give you the blogs you need while also freeing up your time to focus on other aspects of your business. (Hint: we may know someone who can do that for you 😉)

Lead Magnets

Occasionally create and post a new lead magnet like a white paper, guide, or eBook. These resources not only help establish you as an expert in your field, but they also give you an opportunity to fill your sales funnel with new leads.

Lead magnets like these offer prospects helpful information in exchange for their contact information (typically an email address). Focus on creating longer pieces that have a research focus and/or delve deeply into a topic.

If the content included in your lead magnet isn’t evergreen, make sure to update it regularly (once a year is sufficient in most cases) to ensure the information you’re providing is timely. 

Website Redesign

If your website looks like it was designed decades ago, anyone who visits it will wonder if your company is actually still in business — or if what you have to offer is still relevant.

In fact, if your website is more than five years old, it’s time for a refresh. Technology and design trends are ever-changing, so an old site won’t provide the user experience a newer site will. 

Consumers tend to see a company’s website as a reflection of the company itself, so if the site is outdated, they assume the company is as well. To stay competitive and relevant to today’s consumer, you need to keep your website design fresh.

Similarly, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you need to make updates NOW. More consumers surf the web on their smartphones these days than on computers, so if your site doesn’t display properly on mobile, you’ll lose visitors (and customers).

By “display properly” we mean it has: 

• A mobile menu
• Buttons that are easy to click
• Text that is easy to read without zooming in
• A design that automatically adjusts so that it’s easy to see your entire website on a mobile screen

Here’s a test: if someone who isn’t tech-savvy can navigate your site on mobile, great! If not, you need to make changes…and fast. 

In between major redesigns, you should also routinely consider making smaller design updates. 

Once or twice a year, consider adopting new features available on your website platform that might be useful or incorporating new design elements that could help your current design pop (such as adding a new banner to your homepage). 

Getting Started: Tips for Keeping Your Website Content Updated

Keeping your website content updated is an important part of your digital marketing strategy. But if you’re thinking, “That’s great, I’d love to refresh the content on my website on a regular basis, but who has the time?” we get it! It’s a lot to think about.

You might find it helpful to schedule time on your calendar for website updates on a regular basis. For example, try setting aside a couple of hours monthly or quarterly to dig through your website to determine what updates are needed. Then set aside the necessary time for those updates (or outsource them!) once you know what work needs to be done.

Wild Fig Marketing can help you keep your website content up to date by writing blogs and website copy, writing and designing lead magnets, and refreshing your website design. If you’d like to explore outsourcing those tasks to us, schedule an exploratory call to get started!