On average, a website will typically last a business 2 - 4 years, depending on how it was built, designed, optimized, and maintained.
Changes in Technology
Changes in Search Engine Algorithms
Google’s rise to success was their ability to dominate the search landscape. They did this because of their algorithm. They figured out how to allow people to search the world wide web by delivering the absolute best search results using their advanced algorithms. But they didn’t stay stagnant. They knew that they needed to continue to improve upon their algorithm in order to continue to dominate the search engine space.
Their algorithm has evolved and become smarter than what we would have ever imagined. Google has worked hard on learning user behavior and using that information to help innovate what a search algorithm can do. All of these changes means that your website infrastructure can’t stay stagnant either. As Google changes, you must adapt. Otherwise you are going to get buried by those that keep up.
In the last 2 years, Google has released 28 algorithm updates that are all packed with major and minor changes to how they rank websites. How many updates have you made to your sites SEO structure in the last 2 years? I bet it’s not 28.
Since 2015, Google has released 44 algorithm changes. If you haven’t rebuilt your site since 2015, you’re likely missing out on some big SEO ranking factors and holding yourself back from more organic traffic.
Can you really afford NOT to update your website every few years? If you let your website sit still, you are falling behind very quickly.
| Year | Number Of Algorithm Change Rollouts |
| 2018 | 15 |
| 2017 | 13 |
| 2016 | 11 |
| 2015 | 5 |
| 2014 | 15 |
| 2013 | 17 |
| 2012 | 37 |
| 2011 | 21 |
| 2010 | 8 |
| 2009 | 4 |
Changes in Design Standards
All this user behavior learning has allowed use web designers to really dial in our ability to manipulate that behavior with our designs. That’s why the designs of websites that you are seeing today are vastly different than they were just 5 years ago, or even 10 years ago. It’s because designers have a much better understanding of what drives the actions we want them to take.
Looking at a business, we can take the overall business goals and use modern design standards to help drive actions online that align with those goals. Want more phone calls from your website visitors? Or maybe more PDF downloads? We now know how to design the site to drive that specific behavior.
This is also not a stagnant variable. User behavior changes and we have to constantly A/B test our theories, study their actions, and adapt our websites.
