Why an out-of-date site costs you
An outdated website quietly loses work. A visitor who sees last year's prices, opening hours that are wrong, or a "latest news" item from three years ago starts to wonder whether the business is still open. A wrong phone number or address can lose a customer outright.
The good news is that keeping a small business site current is mostly a matter of habit, not hours. A short routine catches almost everything.
What must always be right
Some details are worth checking whenever anything changes in the business, because a mistake in them stops customers reaching you:
- Phone number and email address
- Address, or the areas you serve
- Opening hours, including holiday closures
- Prices or price ranges, if you show them
- The services you offer - remove ones you no longer do
- Names and photos of the team customers will meet
Keep a short note of every place these details appear: your website, your business profiles, directories and social pages. When one changes, work through the list.
A monthly routine
Put a recurring reminder in your calendar - the first Monday of the month, say - and spend fifteen minutes on your site. Open it on your phone, as a customer would, and go through it:
- Read the homepage and the contact page and check every detail is still true
- Send yourself a test message through your contact form and make sure it arrives
- Tap the phone number and check it rings the right phone
- Add one or two new photos of recent work, if you have them
- Remove or update anything that mentions a date that has passed
Add a little, often
Fresh content does not have to mean writing a blog every week. For most local businesses, the most useful additions are small: a finished project with a few photos and a sentence about it, a new customer quote, an answer to a question you have been asked twice this month.
Get into the habit of taking two or three photos at the end of each good job. When the monthly routine comes round, you will have something to add without any extra effort.
On Buildly, you can add a finished job with its photos from the Projects screen - see Services, projects, and blog posts.
Seasonal and yearly checks
A few things only need attention a few times a year. Before a busy season or a holiday, update your hours and any seasonal services, and put a short notice on the homepage if you are closing or booked up. Remember to take it down afterwards.
Once a year, read every page from start to finish. Businesses change gradually, and a page written when you started may no longer describe what you do or who you are. Check your domain renewal date at the same time.
Make editing easy
The biggest reason sites go stale is that changing them is a hassle - the login is lost, or every edit needs someone else. Make sure you can log in to your website yourself, and that you know how to change text and photos without help. If several people in the business can make small updates, it is less likely to wait for one busy person.
In the Buildly editor you click any text to change it, swap pictures, and undo a change if you need to - see Your pages, legal pages, and search settings.
What can safely wait
Not everything needs constant attention. A full redesign rarely needs to happen more than every few years if the site is clear and accurate. Colors and fonts that still look tidy can stay. A blog you no longer have time for can be quietly left, as long as nothing on the homepage points at an old post as "latest news".
Spend your limited time on what customers notice: accurate details, recent photos, and a quick reply when they get in touch.