Why and How
There are several reasons why you would want to make sure your site is fresh and up to date.

The obvious one would be to make sure all your content is current. You’ll want to take some time and comb through your pages looking for broken links and outdated content. There’s nothing worse than following a dead link or trying to contact with an email address that is no longer in use.

Another reason is to keep your visitors interested. You don’t want your visitors to think you never update your site and its neglected, this just screams unprofessional. This also gives the impression that you don’t have time for your business.. so why should they give their time to you? The truth may be that you are so busy making time for customer service that you simply didn’t have time to devote to your website. So you don’t want to give the wrong impression. Updating your content periodically will let your visitors see the work you put into your business and also have them reading your site again to see what else they can learn!

This goes for visual and layout changes as well. You don’t have to do a complete re-design, but you may want to look to see what elements on your website are really working and which need to be redone. After you’ve been in business awhile you’ll have a good idea of what questions need to be answered on your site and what areas are not getting that much traffic. Make sure the areas you want visitors to check out are right up front and easy to navigate, if a page isn’t getting as much use as you want it to its time to decide what you can do to get your visitors clicking there. Changing up your content and tweaking your layout is a great way to jump start this. This can be as simple as updating pictures or graphics and changing the colors and positions of your links.

Make a point to check what the current coding standards are and see if your website is still up to date. Take this opportunity make any necessary chages to keep your web site in compliance. The web is every evolving, and so are the web standards. You can also check out the new trends in web design, Web 2.0 for instance. Web 2.0 focuses on clean, simple designs and appropriate use of white space with larger text. Decide if you want to update your site so that it follows the current trends and if they are appropriate for your target audience.

The final reason is for SEO or Search Engine Optimization purposes. When a search engine sends out it’s spiders to crawl your site it loves to see new information! Remember, a spider going out to crawl your site is looking for food to eat, that food is your content. If you eat PB and J every day for a year you’ll get bored. Freshen it up and change the menu a bit. Make the spider say “Hey, wow, look at this, new content for me to devour!” This also gives you a chance to see what content on your page is making the most impact on your search engine placement and use that knowledge to improve your content in areas that you want to make stronger in regards to keyword and phrase searches.

When?
So I’ve told you how and why, but how often you should refresh your web site is a good question.

I generally tell people to comb through their site at least once a month, I do mine every weekend. This is to check for outdated information or dead links. When you are updating your site you may have said to yourself “I’ll grab that later” or “I have to remember to make that change” Then 10 seconds later your mind is wrapped up in something completely different. Take the time to go through and recheck everything often. Even the most experience web site owners do this!

For bigger changes like layout or organizational changes you may want to do every few months or only a couple times a year. Go through your site at least a couple times a year to re-evaluate how your layout and navigation is working for your visitors and to make necessary adjustments.

For complete redesigns keep them spaced out, maybe once a year if you feel its necessary. If you are changing these too often you’ll confuse your visitors and you don’t want them feeling as if they’ve stepped onto a site with a personality complex.

To re-cap: Check your site often for outdated content. Re-evaluate your layout and navigation periodically. When doing big changes remember not to overwhelm your visitors with too-frequent of changes to the entire design; or know when a complete redesign will benefit your site vs confuse your visitors.

Technorati Tags: website, SEO, web site, redesign, layout