May 30, 2024
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5 min read
We know why you’re here… you Googled ‘How Often Should You Update Your Website?’ and found this blog post. You have come to the right place!
Your website is one of the most important investments you can make as a business, with more than 50% of people saying they use Google to discover or find a new brand. How can your customers find you on Google without a website? More importantly, once they find your website, has it been designed to create a seamless and enjoyable experience for them?
While you may already have a website, how it works for you and your customers is what matters most. We call this ‘user experience’, which refers to a person's overall experience when engaging with a website. It includes everything from visual design to functionality, ease of use, and accessibility. A website with a great user experience is easy to navigate and visually appealing. It also provides users with the information they are looking for right away.
Design trends are cyclical, and if you want your business’ website to look and stay relevant longer, your best bet is utilizing forward-thinking design and best web design practices. While you might already have a website, if the user experience is lacking, you could be losing potential clients and customers daily.
Google actually looks at user experience as a factor in page ranking, too! A strong up-to-date website that is optimized for search, employs good design practices, is easy for people to navigate, and has great privacy and cyber-security tells Google you know what you are doing. Google will be more likely to serve your website to someone online than one of your competitors.
So how do you know when you have outgrown your website? And how do you know when to level up?
We’re here to answer your questions as your friends and guides in the web design space. We are Spark & Pony Creative, a web design agency specializing in helping purpose-driven businesses and non-profits create meaningful brands through forward-thinking website design.
Let’s dip into the pool of good web design and the best design practices that make your website last. These are important benchmarks for your brand, your marketing, and your growth as a business!
Best Design Practices and Trends
Why Should You Update Your Website?
The Difference Between a Big Overhaul and Regular Updates
How Often Should You Update Your Website?
Your Forward-Thinking Web Design Agency
What are ‘best design practices‘ for websites? These are shared practices across the web design industry and are widely accepted as markers of good design. A whopping 75% of consumers admit to making judgments on a company’s credibility based on its website design. A well-designed website enhances your consumers’ trust in you!
So what makes a website ‘great’ in 2024?
Let’s run through the alphabet of good web design.
Accessible web design is on the rise. Everyone deserves access to the Internet and ensuring your website is accessible to ALL is crucial. You can use tools like AccessiBe to audit your website for modern accessibility standards.
Want to learn more about accessible web design and our partner, AccessiBe?
Read: ‘Web Accessibility: Why it Matters in Canada in 2024’
A strong brand that ties into your website design sets you up for success! That means ensuring your website reflects your colours, tone, and style and feels like a cohesive part of your brand identity. More than 68% of businesses say brand consistency has contributed to revenue growths of 10 percent or more. (Lucidpress, 2021)
Does your website have strong calls to action? If not, you are leaving money on the table! Think of them as a good hook, leading people to their next action. People should know what steps come next, what to click, and how to contact you!
Calls to action are SO important! Studies have shown that visually appealing CTAs can increase click-through rates by up to 42%, and that generating urgency through your CTAs can reach 32% higher conversion rates.
Good forward-thinking design ensures your website doesn’t age too quickly as design trends shift. A beautiful, aesthetically pleasing website draws users in and keeps them on your site longer.
So while we love trendy graphics, typography, and style choices, be sure to include some evergreen design choices that stand the test of time. You don’t want your website to look outdated 6 months down the road!
Also Read: 7 Emerging Web Design Trends For 2024 and Beyond
While most small business owners may not be paying attention to the back end of their website, it’s important to know if your website is scalable.
What does this mean?
Your non-coding labeling and CSS coding are sound, and your website can adapt to increased traffic without its performance suffering. Professional web design agencies like ours can do an audit for you! This entails ensuring your website is organized and secure on the back end and is prepared for growth.
Think of your website as a highway. When traffic increases, vehicles slow down in the lanes, and people don’t reach their destinations on time. Sometimes there can even be a crash due to too many cars on the road. Designing your website to ensure it can handle growth will help you avoid headaches (and crashes) down the road.
Ask yourself, ‘What do I want from my website in 1 year?’, and ‘Where do I see my business and website in 5 years?’. If you can plan and anticipate future goals, your website will be built better and last longer. This goes hand-in-hand with scalability and ensuring your website handles future growth easily.
If your website doesn’t utilize the best web design practices listed above, it’s time to update! Let’s cover some signs that your website needs a refresh.
Your website should reflect your business and current branding, including your logo, language, tone, colours, and goals. If your brand has recently evolved, it is important to ensure the content and visuals match your new direction.
One of the main purposes of your website is to generate leads and sales for your business, whether by appearing on search engines or through direct bookings and sales. What can you do if you notice your leads and sales have decreased?
If your leads have decreased, have you made sure your website has options for your end users to contact you? Examples may include a contact form or a live chat function. Do your social media channels point towards your website? Problems with website performance, slow loading times, or errors can frustrate people and drive them away, reducing lead generation.
If your sales have decreased, is your site and purchasing process easy to navigate? Does your website load too slowly for your end users to complete a purchase? Do you need to update your content? A poorly designed website layout, confusing navigation, or lack of mobile responsiveness can deter customers from completing purchases.
As of 2024, 92.3% of internet users consider accessing the internet through mobile devices and smartphones compared to other methods, and approximately 60.67% of modern website traffic comes from mobile devices. Therefore, it’s crucial to have an easily accessible mobile-friendly website.
Have you ever received an error message when visiting a website? Or have you seen a dated website that looks like it was made around the same time as the invention of the Internet? Did that instill great amounts of confidence in you about their brand?
Probably not.
Old images, outdated text and language, irrelevant elements, and broken plugins can easily date your website. With 75% of people evaluating your business’ credibility based on your website, it needs to look and feel current.
User-centric design is essential for effective web design in 2024! If your website takes too long to load, is difficult to use and navigate, or is inaccessible, you lose customers. Creating accessible content and easy navigation on your website can be the brand refresh your website needs!
Now more than ever, your website should be secure and protect your user’s personal information. Older websites may not be protected or encrypted properly, and you don’t want your business in the news for the next data leak.
So, why is cyber-security so important?
Hackers can vandalize your website and take over control. Customer data breaches and leaks can lead to a loss of public trust and lawsuits. You can lose customers and revenue due to personal information being misused.
Cyber security matters because you don’t want your business to go bankrupt through lawsuits if someone’s data is breached, and you don’t want to lose your website to vandalism.
An easy way of testing if your website is secure is by checking your URL link! Does your URL begin with ‘https’ or ‘http’? The ‘S’ in ‘https’ stands for secure, and shows that your website uses a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. If your website URL begins with ‘http’, it’s time for an immediate change.
How do you know if your website needs a complete overhaul or if it just needs a refresh or regular content updates? We explain below.
The consensus from web designers and marketing experts worldwide is that you should redesign your website every two to three years. However, we understand that not every business has the budget or logistical tools to accomplish this. Our website design agency typically recommends refreshing your website every four to five years.
However, if any of the points we listed above were relatable to your business (i.e. outdated content, no security measures in place, poor branding, confusing navigation, etc.) and you want to implement our recommended design practices, then now is the right time to redesign your website — regardless of how long it has been since you built your original website.
Redesigning your website from scratch comes with benefits:
A website redesign can include everything from new branding, a different website provider, new features, new images, new forms, modern integrations that will make your business more efficient, accessible design, and a new user experience that will have customers coming back time and time again.
If your website performs relatively well, you have consistent web traffic, and you only need help keeping your website current, then regularly posting content can be an effective solution.
What does this entail?
All of this tells Google that your site is active.
But let’s be honest, every website needs regular updates to avoid being left behind.
Keep reading to learn how often you should update your website depending on your business type.
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Do you need blog posts that are search-engine optimized? Need visual design and branding services for a fresh look? Spark & Pony is here to help.
Here are some basic guidelines for how often your website should be updated for Google to register that it's active.
The best way to update and add regular content to your website is by blogging. This shows Google that your website is active, you are regularly updating the site, and you have new content and professional advice to offer to your community.
The Internet has some conflicting answers, ranging from multiple times a day to multiple times per week. We’ve found that popular blogging sites have been posting less in 2024, and still having quality results.
How is this possible? Quality over quantity. Blog posts used to be between 500 to 1000 words and are now encouraged to be around the 1000-1500 mark. We recommend a minimum of 1-2 quality blog posts per month for your website. This helps your website rank on Google and can help your customers get answers to their questions.
Other recommendations for small business owners: make clear CTAs visible on your website, update any outdated photos and imagery, and regularly update any running specials or sales.
Hey, small business owner! Are you struggling with your marketing? We can help you make regular updates to your website. Get in touch with us!
Online stores and e-commerce websites require regular updates, especially as new products drop. We recommend updates at least once a week, and more if you have the resources.
This can include adding new products, updating reviews, adding new photos or user-generated content, and uploading blog posts and FAQs. This will let your customers AND search engines know you are active.
If you have a large, static corporate website, you may not need to update your website as often as a blogger or e-commerce site. However, we recommend updates to ensure your content is current and things run smoothly.
While marketing experts say that updates 1-2 times a year are sufficient, we always opt for more. At the very minimum, we recommend updating your website once a quarter! This can be through adding new team members, posting news and exciting announcements, optimizing blog posts, etc.
In summary, we recommend all businesses update their website at least once a month, and the easiest way to do that is to blog. If you have the time or resources to do more, then do! More quality content updated on your website is always best.
We're Michelle & Kass! Spark and Pony Creative is your web design, branding, and social media expert. If you are a purpose-driven brand, entrepreneur, or non-profit looking to build or redesign your website, we would love to meet you! Get in touch with us here.
View our portfolio here, or follow along on our Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Dribbble.
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