Launching a new website is hugely exciting, but the truth is it’s really only the beginning of the journey. In order to maximise the effectiveness of your site and ensure it runs smoothly over the long-term, keeping it up to date is absolutely essential. 

Don’t make the mistake of launching your website in a blaze of glory and then leaving it to slowly die. Here are 8 great reasons to update your site on a regular basis.

1. Protect your website from security threats

If you use a CMS like WordPress or Magento, the single most important thing you can do to keep your website secure and minimise the risk of getting hacked is to regularly update your core installation, themes and plugins. New versions are released on an almost daily basis and often include important security and stability fixes that will help to keep your website running smoothly.

2. Boost your search engine ranking

When it comes to ranking well in search engine results, content really is king. Google loves websites that are updated frequently because it signals that the site is active, and as such it often ranks these sites more highly. In short, keeping your website updated with fresh SEO-optimised content like blog posts, news items and product updates can help to improve your rankings and make you more visible in search results.   

3. Provide your audience with useful content

There’s another key benefit of blogging: It helps to establish your business as an industry leader and enables you to build better relationships with both new and existing customers. By regularly making new blog posts that provide genuinely useful information and insights to your audience, you’ll start to become the go-to resource in your industry.   

4. Give a great first impression

Nothing looks worse than landing on a website and noticing that it was last updated over three years ago. At best, the visitor will probably think you’re lazy, and at worst they might even think you’ve gone out of business! As well as boosting your search engine ranking and establishing your business as an authority source, fresh content provides your visitors with a positive first impression and helps build trust. 

5. Keep your website feeling fresh

Design is constantly evolving, meaning that what looked sharp and modern four years ago might now look incredibly dated. If you want to create the right impression and ensure that your website represents your business in the best possible way, it’s a good idea to monitor design trends and consider refreshing your site at least once every few years.

6. Improve conversions and overall effectiveness

Tools like Google Analytics provide important information about visitors to your website, including things like what they clicked on, which pages they visited, and how long they stayed on a particular page. This information can be monitored over time and used to tweak your website with the goal of improving conversions and boosting overall effectiveness.

7. Provide a better user experience

The technology we use is constantly changing. For this reason, it’s important to keep up with trends so that you can ensure your website continues to offer the best possible user experience. For example, a non-mobile responsive website is extremely frustrating to use on a smartphone and will almost certainly damage your brand since most people now browse the internet in this way.

8. Beat the competition

Ultimately, keeping your website up to date will help you beat the competition. By regularly updating both the design and content, you’ll be able to ensure that your online presence reflects your business in a positive light and continues to draw in a steady stream of new leads and sales long into the future.