How often should you update your website?

One question we often get asked by our clients and people overall is how often you should update your website. We always answer with a question: What part of your website are you wanting to update, or are you talking about redoing your entire website? Today we are going to help you understand what parts of your website need to be updated more frequently and what parts can be put on hold for a bit longer!

Step 1 - Ask yourself first

A really good way to decide if your website needs updating is to ask yourself! Visit your own company website and just browse around it. Do you yourself feel pleased with the site and the functionality and look, or do you get this almost bad feeling and feel a bit ashamed? If the answer to the previous question is yes, then it is probably time to update your website!

But hey, don't beat yourself up about having a bad website right now; there is only one way from here, and that is improvement, so if you decide to take action, you could soon look at your website and be damn proud of it!

Here you have some references:

If your website looks like this, then you are fine and don't need to redo your entire site! Visit the website

Alright, listen, we have huge amounts of respect for Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway, but their website... yeah, as web/design nerds, this hurts our soul. Visit their website

Step 2 - Ask others... they might have something good to say

Sometimes you might have some bias towards your own website and have a feeling of "how could my own website be bad". So we recommend you do the following: Everybody has a friend who is almost annoyingly bold and honest. Ask that person how they feel about your website; you might not get the answer you are hoping for. But hey, at least you know that you got an honest answer, and those are often the most useful!

Step 3 - Get someone to do a free website audit

If you want a professional opinion on whether or not you should update your website, there are often companies that offer a free website audit where they can point out hurtful points and ways to improve your website without an upfront cost!

If you want an audit, contact us, and we will do exactly that for free! We also recommend redoing your website every 3–5 years!

Step 4 - What to do if you are redoing your website

So, what do you do when you have decided that, yes, my website might need some fresh paint to make it more user-friendly and compelling overall? To keep it short and easy, there are really two options here. Redo the website yourself, or hire someone to do it for you! So how do you know which one is better for you? Let's go over some key notes to take away to make your decision easier!

Redoing your website yourself

If you are going to redo the website yourself, we highly recommend you have some previous experience in design and development. Because if you are doing this task with a totally blank canvas, the time it will take you to build a really good website will take a good while. And don't forget, the time you will spend on building your website could be spent on generating new business for your company or just doing the things you are already good at!

Pros of doing it yourself:

• No large economic budget is needed.
• You get to learn a new skill.
• A better understanding of how websites actually work.
• It could be a cool adventure.

Cons of doing it yourself:

• Will require a lot of time and determination.
• The result will not be as good as if a professional did it.
• It takes time to do the things you are good at.
• The end result might take a hit.

Hiring someone to do the website for you

If you want to achieve the best possible end result, we highly recommend you hire someone who is an expert at building websites. Yes, it will cost more, but it might be cheaper in some ways than doing it yourself! How can it be cheaper, you might ask? Well, think about it like this: if you buy a website from a really well-practiced professional, it is like buying a quality car. It will be well built and not break from time to time, saving you the headache of having a half-done website!

Pros of hiring someone:

• Guaranteed good end result.
• Ideas that you might not have thought of.
• Expertise and advice on how to execute the correct way.
• Less to no time is required from you.

Cons of hiring someone:

• Higher economic costs.
• You need to do research to see if they are actually good partners.

Step 6 - Difference between maintenance and redoing

Now that you have established if you are going to redo your website or not and how you are going to do it, let's give you some insight on the difference between redoing your entire website and doing maintenance.

Whether or not you have redone your website recently or a while ago, the chance that the website has looked the same since launch is quite high. So is this good or bad? Well, we say generically that after a while, something should be updated on your website to get the best possible result from a purely SEO perspective and user experience. Try to keep your pictures and texts fresh and up-to-date, but don't just update for the sake of updating. We recommend you have a deeper purpose for the update!

If you are working actively with SEO and keyword optimization, we recommend you update texts and other elements of your website. While doing this, we recommend you use tools like Semrush or other keyword tools. Or if you have an agency, let them do the job for you!

Visit their website

Sections that is frequently updated

Some features of a website are more frequently updated than others. Some of these are, for example, blogs, portfolios, and case studies, to name a few. To keep these maintained and fresh could really benefit your website's organic performance!

Summary

We hope you can take something from this post and use it to guide your decision or understanding of how often you should redo your website, what parts to keep freshly updated, and the overall maintenance of your website.

If you still feel you have some questions regarding this topic or how much it costs to redo the website with us at Phent {Studio}, get in touch with us, and we will give you that free audit and explore our opportunities together!