How do you update your site? - 8 ideas

• Firstly, the updated site is positively perceived by search engines. If something happens on this site, this is a sign that someone is still making an effort to ensure that the service is at the highest level.
• Secondly, users also like updated and modern websites. They know that from time to time you can find something new on the site, so they are happy to visit it again.
• Thirdly, modernization or renewal means changes that usually bring something new - some additional value. For example, they raise the level of online business, offer new (or better) products, valuable blog articles, etc.

However, it is worth noting that the problem of updating the site sometimes occurs in connection with the platform on which the site is based.

Currently a very popular solution is a content management system called WordPress. We can say that it is built as if from building blocks - you can add or subtract something to such a site at any time. Usually in a pretty simple way. Our blog, among others, is based on this system.

If your site is not based on WordPress, but on some niche system (or no system at all), stumbling blocks may arise due to the less intuitive process of updating such a site from the contractor's point of view.

I would also add that we receive orders to update the site quite often. This is the natural order of things as the Internet is constantly evolving and in many ways it is necessary to keep up with the times. The fact is that it is worth determining exactly what modernization should be.

If we want to change something from a certain angle, there is always an incentive to do so:

• Tired of light hair color? Then we want to darken it.
• Is your car no longer serving its intended purpose? Let's then replace it with another, more suitable for our lifestyle.
• Are your running shoes worn out? Then you should look for new ones.

I want to say that if we want to change something in our lives, then there must be a reason for this. Therefore, a message like "good morning, I want to change the site" (and that's all) is too small for a potential contractor. It would be nice to indicate:

• if there are any features currently missing on the site that would be useful and worth implementing,
• if there are elements in the current version that should be removed,
• maybe something just doesn’t work or doesn’t work the way you expect, so it would be nice to update the system,
• how competitors work, whether their sites are developing, what innovations they have introduced recently.

The more information the contractor has in advance, the shorter and more efficient the entire process of determining requirements and pricing of work. This saves time for both the contractor and the customer.In addition, it is more likely that the requirements and recommendations will be 100% understandable, so that the final product will be maximally adapted to a specific customer.

However, I understand that sometimes someone may feel that it is worth updating the site, but he himself does not know for what reason. This is understandable, so below you will find a list of eight examples of questions that are usually worth updating on the site.

Why update your site? - 8 examples of elements to change

1. Editing the site search method

The importance of a site search engine is something that online store owners are regularly aware of.

These days, it's no longer just a box with buttons. Various enhancements are becoming more and more common, including suggesting phrases or filtering results.

If your site has a search engine, I can confidently recommend my text on the topic: How should a search engine work and look like on a site?

2. Adding a blog

If search engine robots are more favorable to rich sites with lots of valuable content, how can you modernize, for example, a company site?

After all, no one is going to forcibly stuff text into a "Contact Us" subpage or pointlessly expand offer pages with extra text that no one will read anyway.

You need to act differently, namely: enter a blog.

Guide for one of your products? Boasting an interesting example from practice? A comprehensive A to Z article explaining some extremely important issue in your industry?

You can find many topics for blog posts.

The more valuable texts in your domain, the better both users and search engines look at it. By blogging, you won't notice any difference at first, but after a few months of successful work, it will start to pay off.

For more details see this text: is blogging a necessity for business these days?

3. Transition to Responsiveness

It makes sense to update your site so that it displays as best as possible on mobile devices.

Smartphones and tablets are an integral part of our lives - we use them every day, including when browsing the web.

Responsiveness has been the absolute standard for several years, but despite this, you can still find sites that need to be “compressed” on mobile phones in order to see anything on them.

If this applies to your site, believe me - it's high time to change something.

4. Make visual questions more engaging

As they say, "you eat with your eyes". The same saying can be applied to websites. If a site is not visually appealing to us, then it is of little interest.

Refreshing colors, changing the font, swapping elements, generally "beautifying" the presentation of content - all this greatly improves our perception of the site.

5. Adding so-called whitespace characters

The term whitespace refers to empty (not necessarily white - contrary to the original name), free space around various elements.

Spacing between lines of text, margins separating the image from the content, free space around the button - all these count as spaces.

The question is why is this so important? Does he really play an important role?

Yes.

Free space is the lot of modern design. Giving a kind of "breathing", the appearance of the site wins significantly in elegance and ease of use. Now is not the time when we tried to cram as much information as possible into as little space as possible. In this day and age, everything must have a purpose, a meaning, and a proper placement.

So if you are planning to update your site, adding spaces would be a great idea.

If I haven't convinced you yet, here is an interesting text on the subject (along with a number of ready-made examples): White space - a few words about empty spaces on websites.

6. Troubleshooting

If your site has errors, it is simply reprehensible not to update it.

These can be, for example, errors in contact details or spelling errors in texts.

This also includes SEO and usability flaws, such as broken links on the site.

If you are aware of errors on your site, do not wait for changes, but implement them as soon as possible. You don't want subsequent users to discover them.

7. Converting stock photos to real ones

It's a good idea to update the site to change the images and photos presented on the site.

By this I mean, for example, the photos used on the site. If it is full of stock (i.e., freely available, used after purchasing a license) images, this creates an increasingly bad impression for users.

Many stock images are repeated on different sites. Moreover, many of them just look artificial. The characters in such photographs are too perfect, they have perfect smiles, facial expressions, the background is exaggeratedly well-groomed.

Obviously, idealized images are not well received by users. If you have the opportunity, it is better to replace them with images from your own photo shoot.

Of course, I don't mean to take some photos with my mobile phone and upload them to the Internet. Absolutely not. I mean a professional photo session with a photographer, but not so "smeared". It is important to show the truth. Moreover, such photos will be unique and available only on your site.

8.Updating information

As they say, the last thing is outdated information.

Has anything you wrote about in your blog post changed in the last year? Have you changed your company headquarters and it is located in a different location? The one who appears on your site on the "Team" subpage has not been working in your company for a long time?

I don't think it needs further development. As with item six on this list, there is no need to wait to change the above information.

How do you update your site? - a summary of the text

Sometimes it happens that we subconsciously feel that this or that site is somehow unfinished. Something about him is not right, he seems so outdated, so inadequate to the present times.

The list above is meant to point you to potential paths that will lead to your website taking on new life.

I hope that the tips given in this article will be useful to you.