How often should you update the content and design of your web site ?

Is it OK once having setup your site to leave it as it is, particularly if the nature of your business and its products/services do not change ?

Think of your web site as a branch office or showroom. How often would you update a display ?
By contrast, what is your impression of a shop window display that hasn’t been changed in ages and is faded and even dirty ?

Certain things can give the vintage of your web site away and may even detract from its credibility. For example: I came across a web site recently promoting a paid subscription Newsletter. There was an ‘offer’: if you subscribe before 31 January 1999 you will receive a 25% discount !

This is one of the unforgivable sins on the Internet. There is a big danger in putting anything on your web site that will date pages, be it the information or actual dates if you are not prepared to regularly maintain the site. The issue then becomes: how do you manage this ?

This can even apply to the small business that has what is known as a ‘brochure site’. They may consider that the site is only there to showcase their products/services – but that will result in the site being visited once and then probably forgotten. This, I’m sure, is not the aim.
Fresh content relating to, say, the businesses industry can make even a small site useful to customers and potential customers.

However, if your business deals with constantly changing information you may need to utilise a data base based site that allows for easier updating of information compared with ordinary (known as static) web pages. To what extent this is necessary will depend on the size of your site.

One approach can be to use Content Management services, enabling you to add/change content on your site using your web browser. With this method there can be an initial setup cost, but you can make your own changes without the need to go back to your site designers. Check out a number of options listed in the Google Directory -
http://www.google.com.au/Top/Computers/Software/Internet/Site_Management/Content_Management/

Alternatively, you can subscribe to a syndication system that automatically provides regular updated content for your site. These are often free and can be easily implemented with a single line of code in an ordinary web page.

Either way, and technical issues aside, it comes down to a management issue. In the one-person business your are the Web Site Manager (or Webmaster, if you want its pretentious title) and in a larger business someone will need to take on this responsibility. You will need to periodically review your site to ensure what revisions need to be made. The frequency of this will depend on your business – but don’t leave it for years like in the Newsletter example above.

Monitoring your web site’s statistics can also give you clues as to which pages may need revamping, if few people are accessing them. These statistics will show you a pattern of usage for your site and this will reveal what is interesting to your visitors and what is not so interesting. After consideration of these statistics, you may have the clues as to what changes are needed to your site. You don’t need access to these statistics services directly from your ISP.

Here is a checklist of some of the issues you need to plan (preferably in writing, as part of your Business Plan)

How often your sites content need updating Who will do this Time allocation for these revisions Will this be done by you, or an outsider If by you, what software – and can you use it effectively Monitoring competitors web sites Regularly checking your site’s statistics Deciding when and planning for a major revision (e.g. updating the design) Checking any external links, to ensure they are still valid