How Often Should a Website be Updated?

For your website to remain competitive it needs to keep up with the times in terms of both looks and functionality. This article will explain what needs to be updated and when it should be done.

Types of Website Update

There are three basic types of website update that you will need to do periodically:-

• Content Updates
• Software Updates
• A Major Update or Upgrade

Content Updates

Creating content and updating your existing website content is the most basic of the three update types. This usually involves writing blog posts or adding new products to your e-commerce site.  This is important to provide Google with new pages to add to it’s index and improve your SEO.

You should also ensure that your contact details are always up to date and make any changes necessary to your staff and team member details.  

Updating and creating new content on your website is fairly simple with a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress and you should be able to do it yourself. There is no fixed rule as to how often you should update the content of your website. The important thing is to regularly provide search engines with fresh content to index.

Fresh, unique content is the most important factor in encouraging people to visit your site more often.

Software Updates

You should do regular software updates if you’re using a CMS. With WordPress this means updating your theme and plugins. Theme and plugin developers regularly release updates and patches to address security concerns. There will also be updates available every now and again for WordPress itself. Depending on your hosting account, you may also need to check if your website is using the latest server side software like the PHP version.

Software updates should be carried out weekly or monthly. You will always see a notice in WordPress when there are new updates available. You can reach out to the developers if your theme or any plugins haven’t received updates for some time. If an update is not available, it may be time find a replacement for the theme or plugin.

Major Updates

Outdated websites can seem unsafe to use or purchase from. A major update or website upgrade means going through every aspect of your website to modernise it. Your website should undergo a major update or upgrade every three to five years.

There are several reasons why your website may require a major update. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

1. Outdated Website Design

Design trends change over time, so if your website is looking a little outdated, it’s time for an upgrade.

If you’re using WordPress, this could be as simple as choosing a newer more modern theme. If you have a custom theme however, it becomes a bit more complicated if it has custom functionality built in. In this case you will probably have to get the theme developer to update and implement the design changes.

2. Responsive and Mobile Friendly

If your website is more than five years old, there’s a good chance that it’s not responsive and mobile friendly. Responsive web design allows a website to adapt to the size of the screen it is being viewed on.

Google uses mobile friendliness as a major ranking factor. This means that it will adversely affect your ranking in search results if your website isn’t mobile friendly.

3. Changes in Technology

Internet technology is a rapidly developing and constantly changing field. It’s important for your website to take these developments into account and remain compatible with the ongoing changes and improvements.

An example of this is the default WordPress editor that was changed from the classic TinyMCE Editor to the more modern and user friendly Block Editor. If you are changing your WordPress theme it’s advisable to check that it is compatible with the Block Editor in order to take advantage of the new features it offers.

The core website programing languages like CSS and JavaScript are also being updated and improved all the time with new features added and others deprecated. It is important to ensure that your website’s code meets modern coding standards and is compatible with all the modern web browsers.

Wrapping Up

Keeping your content and software up to date is an ongoing process but you should be able to do most of this yourself with a CMS like WordPress.

If your website is more than three years old, it’s time to consider a major website update. You may need a professional to assist you with this to ensure that your website conforms to modern trends and standards.

Need Help With Your Website Updates?

Please feel free to contact us at Tamay Creative if you need help or advice updating your website. Visit our home and services pages for more information about us and what we do.

The featured image “Wireframes” by INPIVIC is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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