Internet Strategies to Improve Farm Business Management

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Frequency of Updates

The content and function of your website will dictate how often you should make updates. If the website contains information that rarely changes then you won't need to update the site often. However, if you have content that indicates that it should be changed or updated on a particular basis you need to make sure that it is done. For instance, if your product line changes seasonally and you list your current inventory on your website, you need to ensure that the list changes as the seasons change. The quickest way to get people to stop coming to your website is for them to see incorrect or out of date information.

You should consider how frequently aspects of your website will need to be updated when you develop the content for the site. Updating requires time. If you don't have the time to perform the updates, perhaps you should rethink including certain aspects. Alternatively, you can always hire someone to perform the updates for you providing you are willing and able to get them the new information and pay them.

How often to update?

How often you update your website is largely determined by the content you have on it. Four of our guests share their policy on how often their websites are updated.

Rod Hissong

Rod says that he updates the website quarterly, but feels that he could be updating it more frequently if he had the time.

Brad Hollabaugh

The Hollabaugh Bros. website is updated at least once a week when the market is open (summer and fall), occasionally 2-3 times a week when things are very active. When the market closes, the site is changed to reflect that.

Kim Tait

Kim's site has two levels of updating. She updates the product listing annually while making other changes on a quarterly basis. She's considering the purposes of the website to determine whether updating it more frequently would be of value.

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These materials were developed as part of the Southern Rural Development Center’s National e-Commerce Extension Initiative. They are based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Award No. 2005-45064-03212

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Southern Rural Development Center.