How Often Should You Update Your Website?

Your website—like your branding in general—plays a key role in how clients perceive your organization. According to a team of researchers at Stanford, small design choices such as font, images, and layout can actually determine whether someone trusts your business. There’s no rule about how often you should change your website, but there are certain occasions that call for an update. Here are some tips on how to make sure your online presence is always fresh.

Update as Soon As There’s an Update

This may seem obvious, but sometimes during big transitions at your organization, the website gets put on the back burner. It’s important that as soon as there’s a change of any kind, you put it up online. This includes your contact information, a change in the schedule, etc. At the same time that you’re updating your website, make sure your business listing is refreshed on Yelp, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other online directories.

Most importantly, if you’re updating pricing, you’ll want to update your website as soon as possible to make sure the change is reflected (beyond announcing it in a dedicated email to clients and posting some additional signage around your studio). For clarity’s sake, considering adding a temporary note or comment to your pricing page addressing the change. This avoids any issues with clients who would have otherwise been disgruntled or confused, having noticed a discrepancy between your website and actual pricing.

You also should update your website when you change the feel of your brand. This creates brand consistency.

Choose an Easy-to-Use CMS

Small businesses often wonder whether they should redesign or rebuild their website. One of the biggest barriers to staying fresh is a Content Management System (CMS) that requires an engineer or someone who is really web savvy to make simple changes. If this is the case for your site, it’s time to start from scratch.

An important determining factor is if your website doesn’t seamlessly work across devices. Websites built using Flash aren’t supported by iPads or iPhones. You should also rebuild your site if it isn’t optimized for mobile use as, according to the Pew Research Center, 56 percent of smartphone owners use their phones to look up community events or activities.

Strategize Around the Seasons

When you plan specials and events throughout the year, your website strategy should always be a part of the conversation. It will be easiest to highlight promotions on your homepage if you pick a template that has a prominent space devoted to rotating content. This way any employee will be able to just upload a flyer, photo, or text on the latest promotions.

Encourage Engagement

There’s so much emphasis on social media these days that studios sometimes forget there are many tools for encouraging engagement through their website. This is important for gaining new members, because poor analytics mean your page will be buried on search engines. The best way to avoid this is to both encourage people to stay on your website for longer and to update with new pages (not just new features). This might include a blog (if you don’t already have one), a newsletter, or a discussion forum. Also, make sure there are visible share buttons for all major social platforms on every post.

Prioritize Ease

The current design trend is simple and sleek. Of course you want your website to include your health philosophy, schedule, pricing, and rotating engagement features, but none of this will matter if your clients can’t easily navigate the information.

Throughout all the updates and changes, consider how it’s all coming together. Prioritize clean fonts, cohesive colors, and a clear navigation bar. If you add a new flyer or announcement to the homepage, check on a smart phone to make sure it’s appearing correctly on different devices. If you’re writing something up, no matter how small, give it to someone you trust for a quick proofread. It may sound obvious, but it’s common to read over simple grammatical errors. And last, if you’re not sure about your website, ask your clients.

Original Article Here