Your website is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to market your business. That’s why it’s so important to refresh your website every few years to keep it relevant, fast and safe.
Keeping up with web trends
Web design trends change quickly, and keeping up can actually save you money. It’s not about keeping up with the Joneses. It’s about keeping up with web standards, so your site works the way visitors expect, especially visitors who aren’t especially tech-savvy.
Search engines like Google also update how they rank websites all the time. A refresh is a chance to make sure your site still meets their standards.
Here are the top 9 reasons to refresh your website every few years:
#1: Visual appeal
Your website is a direct reflection of your business. First impressions matter, and you want visitors to see you as an authority in your field.
If your site looks outdated or poorly organized, visitors may assume your business is too. Your website should show off your products and services in a way that makes people want to learn more, and eventually hire you or buy from you.
It also needs to look good and work well on every device, from desktop computers to phones. A responsive, mobile-friendly design makes sure you don’t turn anyone away.
#2: Security
You hear stories all the time about websites getting hacked. Some hacks are obvious, like a defaced homepage. Others are sneaky. Hackers may quietly use your website to send spam, which can slow it to a crawl and get your domain name blacklisted. Once that happens, servers around the world may block visitors from reaching your site and block your emails too.
One of the most important things you can do is keep your website’s software updated, whether it runs on WordPress, another platform or hand-coded files. It also matters who hosts your site, so choose a reputable company that takes security seriously.
#3: Stability
What happens when a plugin or tool on your site stops getting updates from its developer? It becomes a security risk, and over time it can make your website unstable.
Old code can start conflicting with other software, including WordPress itself, and may show strange errors to your visitors. That can confuse people and drive them away. A refresh is a great opportunity to find and replace outdated pieces, and you’ll usually gain better features, security and speed along the way.
#4: Legal standards
Privacy and accessibility laws keep changing. A growing number of states have passed privacy laws, accessibility expectations keep rising, and more rules are on the way. (Here’s why your website needs a privacy policy, terms of service and disclaimer.)
A regular refresh helps you keep up as your obligations change. Make sure you work with a web designer who understands these standards and can build them into your website.
#5: Content
Design creates the first impression, but that’s only the beginning. Once you have a visitor’s attention, you need great content to keep it. Your words should be interesting while clearly explaining what you offer.
A refresh is the perfect time to fine-tune your content. Keep it simple, on target and easy to scan. You only have a few seconds to engage visitors, so use the words and phrases your customers are actually looking for.
#6: Effectiveness
Your website should bring in business, so it’s worth checking how well it’s working. Look at your statistics to see which pages people visit, what they click and how long they stay. Tools like heat maps, conversion tracking and session recordings can show you even more about how visitors use your site.
Clear calls to action (CTAs) also make a big difference. A CTA is a button or link that invites visitors to take the next step, like calling you or requesting a quote. Make your CTAs easy to find and give people a good reason to click.
#7: Search engine optimization
A beautiful design and great content won’t help if people can’t find you. Search engines update how they rank websites regularly, and every update can affect your site. The longer you wait to keep up, the further behind you fall.
A refresh is a perfect time to revisit your search engine optimization (SEO), from your content to the code behind the design. Make sure your web designer has SEO in mind while rebuilding your site.
#8: Usability
How people use websites keeps changing. Not long ago, designers worked hard to fit the most important information “above the fold,” so visitors wouldn’t have to scroll. Today, most visits happen on phones, where scrolling with your thumb is second nature.
Navigation has changed too. Wide horizontal menus work well on big screens, but on phones they need to collapse into a “hamburger” menu (the icon with three horizontal lines) that opens a vertical list with plenty of room between items for tapping.
#9: Load times
Visitors don’t like waiting. If your site is slow, many will give up and leave. Speed also matters to Google, which measures page experience with its Core Web Vitals and considers it as one of many factors when ranking pages. (Here’s more on how to make your website load faster.)
Many things affect load times, including image sizes, how your site’s files are optimized, page caching and your web hosting. If your site gets a lot of traffic, cheap shared hosting can slow it down. Talk with your web designer or developer about ways to speed things up.
How often should you refresh your website?
Different parts of your website need attention on different schedules:
- Every month: security updates, software updates and content changes
- Every year: a checkup of how your site looks, works and performs
- Every 1 to 3 years: a refresh with new photos, updated wording and a cleaner look
- Every 3 to 4 years: a full rebuild, or sooner if the technology underneath is holding you back
For more detail, see How often should you redesign your website?
Conclusion
These nine reasons are just some of the ways a refresh keeps your website fresh, safe and appealing to visitors. Five Point Web Solutions builds all of this into our web design services, and our Website Management Plans handle ongoing updates and improvements, so you can spend your time running your business instead of maintaining your website.
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