“How often should I update my website” gets asked in two very different ways, and the honest answer depends on which one you actually mean: how often should you apply software updates to keep it secure and working, versus how often should you refresh the actual content to keep it feeling current to visitors. This post covers both, with realistic, practical guidance rather than vague generalities.
Software Updates: More Often Than You Probably Think
WordPress core, themes, and plugins should be updated promptly after a new release becomes available, ideally within a few days, not left to accumulate for weeks or months. This is not about chasing every minor version for its own sake, it is because updates frequently include security patches addressing specific, sometimes publicly disclosed vulnerabilities, and the gap between a patch becoming available and attackers actively exploiting sites that have not applied it can be surprisingly short.
See Plugin Updates: Why Skipping Them Is the Number One Cause of Hacked Sites for why this specific habit carries so much weight.
A realistic cadence: check for and apply updates weekly at minimum, taking a quick backup beforehand each time. If that feels like more than you can commit to consistently, that is a reasonable signal that managed hosting, where this is handled proactively on your behalf, might be a better fit than hoping you will remember every week indefinitely.
Content Updates: Less Rigid, But Still Matters
Unlike software updates, there is no strict security reason to update your website’s actual content on a fixed schedule, but stale content does carry real costs worth understanding. A “team” page still listing someone who left the company two years ago, outdated pricing, or a blog that has not been touched in a year all signal to visitors, and to search engines, that the business behind the site may not be particularly active or attentive.
A realistic approach: review and refresh core pages (services, pricing, about, contact) at least twice a year, and more often if anything about your business genuinely changes, new offerings, team changes, updated hours or policies. If you maintain a blog, consistency matters more than frequency; a realistic, sustainable pace you can actually maintain long-term is more valuable than an ambitious schedule you abandon after a few months.
Why “Set It and Forget It” Content Isn’t Actually a Problem, But Neglected Software Is
It is worth separating these two concerns clearly, because conflating them leads to unnecessary anxiety. A website with content that has not changed much in a year is not inherently broken or a problem, if the information on it is still accurate. A website running software that has not been updated in a year is a genuine, growing security risk regardless of how good the content looks. Prioritize software updates as a non-negotiable habit, and treat content refreshes as valuable but more flexible.
Signs Your Content Genuinely Needs Attention
Beyond a general schedule, a few specific signs suggest your content needs updating regardless of when you last touched it: pricing or service information that no longer matches what you actually offer, a copyright year in your footer stuck several years in the past, broken links pointing to pages or resources that no longer exist, or a noticeable gap between what your website says and what a customer actually experiences when they contact or visit your business.
A Practical Schedule to Work From
Weekly: check for and apply software updates.
Monthly: review the broader maintenance checklist covered in Website Maintenance Checklist Every Small Business Should Follow Monthly, including testing key site functions and checking for broken links.
Twice yearly: review and refresh core content pages for accuracy.
As needed: update anything the moment your business itself changes, new services, updated hours, a rebrand, rather than waiting for a scheduled review.
What If You’re Behind on Both
If your site has fallen behind on software updates, content, or both, resist the urge to fix everything at once under pressure. Start with software updates first, since they carry the more immediate security risk, applying them carefully with backups along the way, then work through content refreshes at a more measured pace afterward.
The Bottom Line
Software updates deserve a strict, consistent schedule because the risk of skipping them compounds silently. Content updates deserve regular attention but can flex around your actual capacity, as long as accuracy is maintained. Getting this balance right protects your site’s security without turning content maintenance into an overwhelming, guilt-inducing task.
