Nobody notices a website going stale in real time — it happens page by page, over years. Here's what "out of date" actually means, why it matters more than it looks like it should, and how to find out where it applies to you.
None of these are dramatic on their own. Add a few together and they start to say something about how closely the site's being looked after.
The footer, a blog post, or a "last reviewed" date still shows a year that's passed.
A notice, offer or announcement that quietly stopped being true a while ago.
Products, services or prices listed that you don't actually offer any more.
A blog or news page where the most recent entry is from years back.
Not drama — just quiet, ordinary friction that adds up.
A visitor makes a decision on wrong information. Old prices, discontinued services, or outdated opening hours cost you a conversation you never even got to have.
It reads as neglect, even if the business isn't. A five-year-old blog post or an expired offer sitting on the homepage tells a visitor the website isn't being looked after — whether or not that's true.
Search engines notice patterns too. Freshness is one signal among many that search engines use to judge a page — it isn't a guarantee of ranking, but a site that's clearly abandoned isn't helped by it either.
This is one of the six areas covered in a full WebTality audit. Here's specifically what the freshness check looks at.
Reads your sitemap and page metadata to work out when each page last changed — not when it was first published.
Flags visible mentions of past years that read oddly next to today's date — a common giveaway on a page nobody's revisited.
Identifies the single page that's gone longest without an update, so you know exactly where to start.
A simple site-wide figure — how much of the website has actually seen attention recently, versus how much hasn't.
There's no single correct answer — a five-page brochure site and a business blogging weekly don't need the same rhythm. As a rough guide: anything a customer might rely on to make a decision (prices, services, opening hours, contact details) is worth checking every few months. Anything dated or seasonal (news, offers, "latest" anything) is worth reviewing whenever it stops being current, not on a fixed schedule. The free snapshot will tell you where you currently stand against that.
The free snapshot gives you the headline picture. The full report (£49) names every page and its last-updated date, up to 150 pages, so you can see exactly where to focus.
No — and we wouldn't claim it does. Freshness is one factor among many. What it reliably does is stop your site quietly telling visitors things that are no longer true.
Then the snapshot will say so — a Green status means there's nothing here that needs attention right now, not a reason to go looking for problems that aren't there.
Run the free snapshot — no card, no commitment, just a plain-English answer.
Check my website — free →This is one of six areas WebTality checks — see the full overview or what's in the paid report.