How Often Should You Update Your Website?

To keep up with current trends or near-current trends, it’s important to write “update website” on your marketing plan every year.  That doesn’t mean you need to budge $4K to update it!  Instead, look at polishing or tweaking the text or photos a bit every year.

Small changes
Sometimes, updates are small.  In 2001, I removed music from my home page that was popular in 1999 but had become annoying.  In 2003, I added a logo created by a pro and removed pop-ups.

Maybe there’s a plug-in feature you want your website to have, like an online events calendar, because you’re hosting webinars or seminars.

It’s important to update your website yearly.  For sure, you want to update the copyright date every December or January of each year to match the new year.  If your site reads (c) 2014 name of company, people “may think” your site is 4 years old and you may be out of business.  So, keep the date current with this year’s date.

Mid-level changes
Mid-size changes might look like adjusting the dimensions of a website to reach across the entire screen, creating a border around the pages, or updating the font.  In 2005, I started reducing text, since the general trend was to say less on each page.

Every two years, ask your marketing consultant to give your site an hour once-over.  They’ll look at things such as:

• Are the code, theme, and plugins current?
• Do the photos reflect your ideal clients and are their clothing or hair styles current?
• Do the words need to be updated?
• Are the fonts or formats out-of-date?
• Are there things on your site that were big trends, but they are no longer seen that way?
• Are the pages too long or too short for current styling?
• Are all the links working?
• And so much more…

Huge changes
Every 3-5 years (and no more then 5), your site will seem outdated and need an overhaul.   Maybe you’ll find a better hosting service.  Maybe you’ll change your niche.

Even with with the small changes you’ve made, if you haven’t changed the overall look of your site in 3 years, it may seem old.

For example, in 2008, when I looked at my website statistics, the visitors using smartphones to view my site passed the 50% mark.  That meant they were missing much of my site because my site wasn’t responsive.  I’m sure you’ve been to one of those sites, even now.

Budgeting For Change

Realizing the work and cost of keeping your site fresh will help you budget for changes.   Choose a date to call your marketing consultant and to ask for a website review consultation.

I recommend that advisors budget 2-3 thousand dollars each year to update their site.  In the years you make just a handful of changes, roll over the marketing funds to the following year’s budget.  The time will come when you’ll need all those funds to keep your site as professional looking as you and your services are!

Remember, your website IS your online brochure, your sales page(s), your events calendar, the place you capture visitor’s email addresses, a place for clients to go to view their portal, and so much more.

And yes, it’s a pain to go through the website review process yearly.   But you want to attract your ideal clients to your firm?  Right?

It’s worth keeping current.

(c) 2015, Updated 2018 Elevating Your Business