Websites, like all communication tools, need to be kept fresh. Sites that remain unchanged can quickly become stagnant and put off repeat visits. If a visitor doesn’t see new or updated content, why should they come back?

Imagine picking up a newspaper every day and seeing the same headline and lead image: it wouldn’t be long before you decided to buy a different newspaper. Obviously sites have a variety of different uses and sometimes it’s not possible to update a site every day or even week. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that change doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, or require lots of time. Sometimes it’s a simple change that can have the most impact. 

Below I’ve laid out five simple things that you could do to keep your website looking fresh: 

1. Refreshing the images 

Images are now easily accessible, so changing them is no longer the chore that it once was. The licensing and legal issues with images are made simple through numerous online image sites such as Shutterstock and Thinkstock. For a relatively small fee you can quickly download new images for your site. Alternatively, why not look for the David Bailey amongst your staff? Some of the best images are taken by non-professionals and people always enjoy seeing their work used in a public context. Make sure you get a waiver from the photograph owner, and away you go. 

2. Social media

If, like most organisations nowadays, you are active on social media, you will want to ensure you get a maximum value from the time invested. If your objective is to increase customer engagement, or create leads, including your social media feeds on your site can add to its effectiveness. Alternatively, why not pull out some of the best tweets or Facebook messages you receive? These can be used as testimonials on your site. 

3. Site review

If you have a spare five minutes during your day, go to your website with the mindset of an end user. What do you want to see? Is the information you’re looking for accessible? Do the design and graphics engage you and leave you wanting to know more, or do they put you off? This can be a valuable task that can help you think about what those small changes need to be. 

4. Colours and branding 

Changes to colours and branding are normally relatively straight forward. If you brand is not well represented, a re-skin of the site can give it a shiny new appearance? A re-skin of existing templates can be a cheaper alternative to going through a whole site re-design. Speak to your site developer and ask them about changes in colours. Most developers enjoy the creative side of the job!  

5. Look at your competitors

We’ve all done it: looking at our neighbour's shiny new car and then thinking “it’s about time I had a new car” the next day. The point being: there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from others. We are lucky to live in a digital world where we can access our competitors’ marketing material at the click of a button. Looking at how your competitors position their brand, engage with their audience and describe their business can often give us inspiration to go on and make changes ourselves.