Four reasons why you need to keep your website updated

1/26/2014
Views: 5,370
2 Minutes, 32 Second
Written By John Marx

Tags: Website

One of the key items we notice about existing websites is that they are built, put into place, and just sit there in the hopes that they do something for them. We continually find text content with old dates and mentioning things that are surely in the past. For example, old news pages, mentioning items from years past, copyright notices that are from a year or more ago, and even no new dates being shown are a sign that your information is outdated, not kept up-to-date, and that it is an afterthought to your business.

It's incredibly easy to fall into this type of situation if you maintain your website yourself or you don't have an agreement with a professional web designer to keep information updated as the Internet is most likely not your primary business. You may be sales oriented by using older methods like phones (cold calls), walk-ins, or door-to-door sales. However, it is extremely important that you regular update your website for the following reasons:

Website content that is obviously out of date is not the best way to impress your website visitors (to say the least). People are less likely to buy your products or services if they see old stuff on your site. This is especially true if they've also gone to your competitors and their information is kept updated.

Google wants to list the most relevant websites in its organic (free) search results. It doesn't want to list old content if newer, and more relevant, content is available on other sites. Over time, if you do not update your website, it will slowly fall down the rankings. This will prevent you from being on the first pages of the search engines for the criteria you would like to be found under.

A website should evolve just like your business evolves on a daily basis. If you're doing things differently now, for example selling to a different and wider customer base, you need to review your website to see if it meets the demands of your customers today - not two years ago! New pages can be added or new functionality might be important. For example, perhaps you need to add a search function and/or organize the site content better so that the information is more easily found.

The web is a rapidly changing environment and website design and development methods are also changing and improving every year. It's easy to fall behind and, whilst this might not affect how your site is viewed in aesthetic terms, you won't be able to use the latest methods if you're not using modern code. Your website may work for desktop browsers but does it also work for tablets and mobile (e.g. phones) devices as well?

With the above thoughts in mind how is your website fairing? Is your website promoting your business or hindering your business? If you, like many others, need help with your website JM2 Webdesigners is here to help.

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