It is vital to have a fresh website because it can change the way you do business, if done correctly. If a website isn’t appealing to different levels, consumers will not stick around your site. Updating your website allows you to do awesome stuff like build awareness, rank on search engines, and generate new customers. For the amount of benefits, there’s an equal, sometimes higher quantity of work. There are many factors to consider for an effective website.

Luckily, here at FruitStand, our objective is to make owning, and or running a website, less of a headache.

So, in this article, we’ll cover the definition of a fresh website, reasons why you should refresh your website, and when to do so.

We’re going to discuss:

1. What a website update is
2. Why you need to update your website
3. When you should update your website

1. Website Update: What is it?

A website update is a process of refreshing every aspect of a website. From the back end coding, to the graphic design on the front end.

It is inevitable and hard to ignore one fact: After a while, your website will need to be updated. Not to worry though. Some of the updates you’ll need to make are fairly easy.

Listed are some of the functions involved in the process for you to address on your own:

• Website Design

Website design involves the graphic designs, content creation, and layout. Updating your web design lets your returning or potential customers know that you care. You’re “on-the-ball”, up-to-date, and modern, opposed to the opposite.

• Website Security

You can keep confidential information classified with website security. When your website security policy is updated, you’re enforcing a safety that your clients, as well as your business, will find comfort in. Knowing that information is protected is key for any business.

• SEO

SEO is a strategic technique to increase your website’s amount of traffic by ranking on a SERP (Search Engine Result Page), like Google or Bing.

Your website content can gain you some new website visitors, only if it has been optimized for the search engines though. This is key if your website contains product or blog articles.

• Website Content

The content your website presents is what visitors are going to experience. This can include: music, videos, text, images, or goods. 

Keeping up a strategy for your website content is important. Although, repurposing your old content can be just as effective. As long as your website content is regularly uploaded, you’ll drive people to your site.

• Website Effectiveness

The effectiveness of your website depends on how well it’s designed to do what you want. Whether that’s providing information, supplying a control panel for clients, or enabling a stressless purchasing process.

Visitors coming to your website will access from an array of different devices. According to CIO DIVE, 70% of internet traffic is coming from mobile phones. Meaning that your website design will have to be desktop, mobile, and tablet friendly.

• UX Design & UI Design

UX Design (User Experience), is a more complex version of website design. UI Design (User Interface), is the cosmetic sensations and reactions of a website.

These two aspects work hand in hand, giving online visitors either an easy or hard time navigating your website. When updating your website, this is a high priority.

Refreshing your website takes a lot of planning and thinking for you to do it correctly. So much so, that it’s possible for you to get discouraged. Often we need to see the ‘proof in the pudding’ before we exert any effort. I don’t blame you! There are many reasons to not do anything and leave your website the way it is. However, that shouldn’t be the case when the pros outweigh the cons.

2. You Need to Update your Website: Here’s Why

It’s key to keep a website updated because it can help you build trust and confidence with your users. When your content is not current, it can make the page, website, and business as a whole, seem unreliable. Users access website content online, constantly. So a fresh website is a very important aspect of the reliability of a website.

Updated Keywords

Search engines save a site’s content and then determines if an article will be able to rank based on the keywords. Keywords change quickly as people research more about your topic so staying on top of your keywords and researching new ones often will increase the relevancy of your article. There may be new information needing to be addressed that would benefit the article and the readers. Make sure you use SEO to your advantage; this is a process to improve a site's rankings in google’s search engine. No matter how you find your keywords, the more you update them will determine how popular your site becomes.

Direct Feedback

Regular users opinions are a very important aspect of how successful a website becomes. You may not notice the things you are doing until another source points it out, so use outside opinions to your advantage. Readers decide what makes a website popular or not and it's up to you to listen to their feedback. Use these techniques to contact and get the opinions of your site’s readers

1. Create polls
2. Comment threads
3. Feedback forms
4. A contact page

These methods will give your viewers multiple opportunities to contact the website owner and inform you of what your website needs to improve or continue doing to stay relevant with the times.

You’re Ahead of the Competition

Your competition will give you lots of insight into what is becoming popular and what techniques to use. When updating a website, check what new ideas these companies are using that are becoming popular with viewers and stay ahead of them by including them in your website. When looking at other high ranking websites, focus on their

1. Language
2. Writing styles
3. Formation
4. Content

Make sure you do not copy or steal information. Use these ideas to guide your website and update it along with new website trends. This will allow you to easily update your website from your unique perspective, affecting your current and future clientele.

3. When Should you Update your Website?

Your website should be updated every two to three years. The reason being is because website development is continually changing. So the probability that your site has some unnecessary HTML coding is high. This causes low loading speeds on desktops. Mobile devices require constant CSS updates to ensure mobile-friendly users’ accessibility. This results in visitors staying and experience your new content.

New content can help search engines direct more people towards your site. When search engines like Google rank websites, they base it off of many factors, but one of the most important is how often a website is updated. That being said, it is important to update your content and to refresh your website regularly.

Conclusion

Your website is a tool that can be used for a variety of different reasons, ranging from simply telling people who you are and what you do (a “brochure” website), to a resource for generating new clients, selling products, or providing an online service. If the goals and intention for your site are anything beyond a simple brochure site, then a more frequent update strategy is very important.

At FruitStand Technology, we offer website refreshes every two to three years. Ensuring peace of mind when it comes to our clients’ website. We allow anyone to own a website and put needed website updates on a subscription. All of our clientele receive refreshed and modern websites.