A Website is a great thing—if it is up to date. But companies that don’t bother to keep their site timely are better off simply shutting their sites down, since they reflect poorly on their effort, attention to detail and attitude.

For instance, a company with an events calendar should make sure that the most recent date on the list isn’t two years ago. Likewise, if the latest press release is a product introduction in 2002, people will know that little attention is paid to the site. Poor spelling, broken links and badly formatted pages suggest a lot of things about a company—and none of them are good.

This neglect does far more harm than providing visitors with no useful information. It sends a terrible message. It suggests that the company doesn’t care and is sloppy. It's just as egregious as if the firm didn’t cut the grass or sweep the floor at its retail location.

This constant need for attention means that a person should be tasked with updating it on a weekly or, at most, monthly basis. Instead of leaving site upkeep to an intern or to somebody to handle when they "have a chance," it should be part of an individual's job description. Some element of his or her review should depend upon how reliably this task was performed. If the company's administrative team is so maxed out that they can't handle updates, the job should be outsourced to a freelancer or, in some cases, a design firm.

The important thing to remember is that a visitor's impression of a company is deeply linked to how the Website looks. Indeed, in most cases a person knows nothing about a company other than what they find when they visit the site. For that reason, attention must be paid.