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Merrick, NY--The Centurion Newsletter talks to a lot of luxury jewelers. One comment we hear over and over is "My website is being redesigned.......It's being updated.......it's under construction," and so forth. It makes sense, especially in a luxury, fashion-centric business like ours. 

But how often should you update your website? (Hint: it's not when someone tells you the Nineties called asking for their website back.) And what's the fine line between updating (which you should be doing consistently) and redesigning?

Here are some tips to know when to say "when:"

It's more than five years old, or even if it isn't, it looks dated. If your website was state of the art when it was built, that's great--but it's easy to get entrenched in that idea and forget that "state of the art" changes every few years. Evaluate your website annually and don't be attached to the old just because it was once the leader of the new. Always look to the future. 

It doesn't accurately represent your current brand. Are you still the company that your website represents? Perhaps you've gone more toward custom work--does it show on your website? New credentials, new community involvement, make sure all are visible. Added new brands? Add links and photos! Are you up to date on all your social media buttons? If not, add them.

You want to change how you manage it. For many retailers, this is an important factor. When you change from managing your site out-of-house to in-store or vice/versa, it's a great time to change your website all around, both visually and functionally, inside and out. Making the system work for those who manage it is vital--and making it user-friendly for those who visit it is paramount. 

It's not ranking well in search engines. SEO (great article here) is important to help your customer and potential customer base find you. It hard for a customer to connect with you if your company doesn't turn up until page 6 of Google results, because most people rarely read even to page 2. 

If you're sick of looking at it, time for a change. It's been said that for advertising, it's not working/reaching your audience until it's run long enough that you are sick of it. The opposite is true of your website. People expect websites to change and update regularly and they notice when they don't. 

Does it work for mobile devices? Crucial for today's communication, a 'responsive' website is one that automatically looks good (and is usable) on all devices: desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone. Here's a quick check: pull up yours on your cell phone -- if it's not readable, it's time for a change.

Is it difficult to add content? With the hundreds of options available today for reasonably priced website, it should not be hard for you to update content. If that's one of your issues, then run, don't walk, to update your website. Again, updating (vs redesiging) is something you should be doing on a constant basis, so it's imperative that it be easy to do so. Many tools have been improved in recent years, so if you're still working on a template that's more than five years old, it's time consider upgrading.

There are many more changes in your business that can trigger a re-design--such as a corresponding remodeling of your store or a total change in your advertising or graphics--but these should give you a starting idea of how you want your website to perform today.