Websites today for me and most businesses is a key part of our marketing activities, in that much like a high street shop window to any passers-by, if you get their attention or interest i.e. in website context via relevant search terms within Google, or other major search engines then great, you've caught their attention and hopefully built on their existing need more than they originally thought and then they're likely to come in a browse further.
If however they walk past that same shop window the following week/month and it's the same old stuff which they've already seen before, would you go in again? I'm not so sure... there is nothing worse than having a website with "breaking news" that actually broke in 2005!!
Websites... how often should they be updated or changed? There's no hard and fast rule, it's more about the quality of change rather than the quantity of change. So many websites are updated regularly but with no true meaning, others are never updated? Granted I like change and something new to look at on a website, but I also like security that websites continue to do what the company has set out to do and is inline with their values, building your knowledge and understanding in both the company and their products and services, but not loosing people's confidence in who you are and what you do.
If however, this can be achieved through updating your site, to represent a growing, changing company, as well as remaining true to internal and external business values then great, but is it the content that's required to change or the overall look and feel? You only have 3-5 seconds to impress a potential new customer and encourage an existing customer to read on, if your website appears old, outdated or doesn't work properly, then chances are you have just lost a customer before they've even started to make contact with your business other than your website, and that's not a nice situation to be in.
