Why Updating Your Website for 2025 is Crucial for Conversions and SEO

In the early part of 2025, it’s very important to give your ecommerce store a refresh to ensure your website doesn’t appear outdated. Even the smallest, subtle signs of neglect, like an old copyright date in the footer, can make potential customers question whether your business is still active.

Beyond just keeping your site looking fresh, failing to update seasonal references and outdated content can impact both your conversion rate and search engine rankings. Here’s why you should audit your website now and how to do it effectively.

1. Update Copyright Dates and Footers

One of the simplest but most overlooked updates is your website’s copyright year. If your footer still says “Copyright 2019” or even “2023”, visitors might assume your site is inactive or neglected. Updating this to 2025 reassures customers that you’re still operating and maintaining your website.

How to Update Your Copyright Year

• If your website is coded manually, update the copyright text in the footer.
• If using a CMS like Shopify or WordPress, consider inserting a dynamic date that updates automatically every year.

2. Review Meta Titles and Descriptions for Outdated References

Meta titles and descriptions play a key role in search visibility. If your site has pages optimised for “Best Ecommerce SEO Tips for 2023”, these pages may now be seen as outdated by Google and AI-driven search engines.

Best Practices for Updating Metadata:

• Remove references to past years unless you have a reason to keep it at the old date
• Update blog post titles like “How to Get Free Backlinks in 2024” to “How to Get Free Backlinks in 2025” (or better yet, make it timeless by using “…This Year” instead).
• Rewrite descriptions to reflect updated information that stays relevant.

3. Refresh Seasonal Product Descriptions

Ecommerce stores often reference past seasons in product listings, which can hurt conversions. For example, if a product is labelled “Autumn/Winter 2024 Collection”, customers may perceive it as last year’s stock—even if it’s only a month or two old in the early part of the year.

What to Do Instead:

• Consider removing the year entirely and just calling it “Autumn/Winter Collection” or avoid mentioning what season it is from entirely

4. Refresh and Repurpose Old Content

If you’ve written trend-based blog posts or guides, it’s time to audit and update them to stay relevant. Google prioritises fresh content, and AI search tools are more likely to surface recent, up-to-date pages. This will give you a nice SEO boost.

How to Optimise Old Content:

• Update statistics, trends, and references to make them current.
• Rewrite introductory paragraphs to remove references to old years or outdated events.
• If a post is no longer relevant, consider redirecting it to a newer, better resource.
• Refresh the content to bring it up to date with the latest industry standard information

5. Audit Your Navigation and Homepage for Relevancy

Your homepage and key navigation elements should also reflect 2025. If you still have banners promoting “Spring 2024 Trends”, swap them for fresh messaging.

Key Areas to Check:

• Homepage banners and CTA buttons.
• Navigation categories referencing past events or promotions.
• Email signup incentives—ensure they highlight current trends.

6. Don’t Forget to Update Schema Markup

Schema markup helps search engines understand your content better, but it’s often hidden within apps, plugins, or metafields and can be easily overlooked when making updates.

How to Ensure Your Schema is Up-to-Date:

• Check for outdated structured data referencing past years (e.g., event dates, product launch years, or seasonal promotions).
• Use Google’s Rich Results Test to identify outdated schema information.
• If using a CMS, review schema settings in apps or plugins to ensure they align with 2025 data.

Unsure how to set up schema for your business or blog? Reach out to me and I’ll be happy to discuss.

To Sum Up

Keeping your ecommerce site updated isn’t just about aesthetics. It impacts trust, conversion rates, and SEO performance. A well-maintained, up-to-date website signals to customers (and search engines) that your business is active and relevant.

Now is the perfect time to audit your site and make sure everything is aligned for 2025. If you need help optimising your ecommerce store for better conversions and search rankings, get in touch!