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How often should a contractor update their website?

By Adam Collins, Founder, 3Fold Labs

Update the facts when they change. Hours, services, contact details and the places you work. Illustrative editorial photograph.

Short answer

There's no schedule Google requires. Change your hours, phone number, services, and service area the day they change. Add real project photos and reviews when you have them. Check your form, phone link, and Google Business Profile monthly. Changing dates or churning content just to look "fresh" doesn't help.

There's no schedule Google requires. Change your hours, phone number, services and service area the day they change.
What matters is accurate facts and a working form and phone link, not a posting calendar.
Change your hours, phone number, services, and service area the day they change.

Does Google reward websites that update often?

Not in the way most people think. Google has "query deserves freshness" systems that show fresher content "for queries where it would be expected," like a just-released movie or a recent earthquake. Someone searching for a roofer isn't looking for news.

Google's guide to helpful content lists this as a warning sign: "Are you adding a lot of new content or removing a lot of older content primarily because you believe it will help your search rankings overall by somehow making your site seem 'fresh?' (No, it won't)."

What Google does recommend: "Check in on previously published content and update it as needed, or even delete it if it's not relevant anymore."

Myths and facts: churning content won't make a site seem fresh, a new date counts only if content changed, and a copyright year isn't significant.
Churning pages, bumping the "last updated" date or changing the copyright year doesn't make a site fresh to Google.
Someone searching for a roofer isn't looking for news.

Getting found on Google and in AI answers

Should I change the "last updated" date on my pages?

Only when the content really changed. Google's helpful content guide asks: "Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?" That's on its list of warning signs.

Google's sitemap docs say it uses a page's last-modified date only if it's "consistently and verifiably" accurate, and that an update to the copyright date isn't a significant change. Its byline date guidance says to label dates "Published" or "Last updated" and not to use future dates.

What should I update the same day it changes?

Business facts run on their own clock. Change these right away, on your site and your Google Business Profile:

  • Hours, including holiday and seasonal hours.
  • Phone number and email.
  • Services you add or stop offering.
  • Prices, if you list them.
  • License and insurance details.
  • Towns you serve.
Checklist of facts to update the same day: hours, phone and email, services, prices, license and insurance details, and towns served.
Hours, contact details, services, prices, license and insurance, and towns served change on your site and your Business Profile together.
Business facts run on their own clock.

Google says "Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results," and if your info isn't accurate, your profile "might not show up for relevant searches in your area."

What's a good monthly, quarterly, and yearly routine?

This is my suggested practice, not a Google rule:

Monthly

  • Submit your own quote form and confirm the lead arrives.
  • Tap the phone number on your site from a phone.
  • Add recent project photos, with the town and type of job.
  • Check your Google Business Profile hours and any info Google has collected.

Quarterly

  • Reread your service pages. Remove anything you no longer do.
  • Add FAQ answers based on questions customers actually asked.

Yearly

  • Review the whole site and decide whether anything needs rewriting or rebuilding.
Timeline: monthly, test the form and phone link, add photos, check the Business Profile; quarterly, reread service pages; yearly, review the site.
A routine you can run yourself: test the lead path every month, reread service pages each quarter, and review the whole site once a year.
This is my suggested practice, not a Google rule.

How do I keep my website and Google profile saying the same thing?

Check them side by side. Google's guidelines ask for regular customer-facing hours, with special hours for holidays. Google also says it may contact businesses by automated call, text, or WhatsApp and use the answers to update the profile; owners can review that "Collected info." If nobody looks, the profile and your website can drift apart.

Are software updates on the same schedule?

No. If your site runs on WordPress, software updates are a separate, more frequent job (more on what happens if nobody updates your site). WordPress runs enabled plugin and theme auto-updates twice a day by default and says you "should always update your plugins and themes to the latest version." Its backup guidance is weekly for smaller sites, daily for busy ones, and always before an upgrade. On Wix or Squarespace, the platform handles software updates (more on what a website care plan is).

Two cards: on WordPress, auto-updates run twice a day and backups are weekly or daily; on Wix or Squarespace, the platform handles software updates.
WordPress auto-updates enabled plugins and themes twice a day by default, and its backup guidance depends on how busy the site is.
If your site runs on WordPress, software updates are a separate, more frequent job.

How 3Fold Labs helps

The schedule in this post works whoever runs your site: update the same day something changes, then work through the monthly, quarterly and yearly checks. A site with content editing built in makes that easier, because you can change hours or services yourself. To see whether it's working, check what a monthly website report should show, and budget for the ongoing costs of a business website.

Here's more on websites for service businesses, including content editing.

FAQ

Do I need to blog every week?

No. Google doesn't reward posting for its own sake. Write a post when you have something useful to say, like answering a question customers keep asking.

How often should I add project photos?

When you finish jobs worth showing. Real photos from real jobs, labeled with the town and type of work, are more useful than a fixed schedule.

When should I redesign my website?

When it no longer does its job: it's hard to use on a phone, it can't hold the pages you need, or you can't update it. Age alone isn't a reason.

Does changing my copyright year help?

No. Google's sitemap docs say a copyright date update isn't a significant change.

Sources

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