Changing your website too little or too often will drive away users
Creating a new website is like buying a new cell phone.
Immediately after you have it another feature comes out and your website, or cell phone, doesn’t have the latest features anymore.
This can be irritating, but the truth is your website (and probably your phone) doesn’t need to be cutting edge.
In fact, if you started adopting every new feature on the Web, your website would change so often that repeat visitors wouldn’t know how to use it.
It would be like buying a new phone every week. Not only would it be incredibly expensive, but you wouldn’t even master your BlackBerry before you got an iPhone.
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Constantly changing your website affects its “strategic intent,” or what visitors to your website expect to be able to do.
After too many frequent changes your site’s strategic intent becomes blurred and users get confused and irritated. That’s when they start looking for a more consistent competitor.
So don’t mess with the users’ routine. Give them what they want and send them on their way.
The optimal frequency to changing your website is about every 12 to 18 months, but only if you are making positive changes, adding tactics that are proven to work.
Try to optimize the functionality of your website, but try avoid changing its look and feel. This will save users from bewilderment and give them a better working website.
The most important part of adjusting your website is ensuring that you are using proven tactics that work.
If you change your website for the worse, you’ll not only have the consequences of malfunction, but you’ll have to change the site again, doubling the users’ ire.
