Opinions: What’s the average lifespan of a corporate website?

Hi all.

Looking for people's opinion on what they think is the average lifespan of a corporate website. Naturally, this number is going to vary greatly depending upon the nature of the site and the corporation-- but I'm just looking for a rough average.

2 years?

4 years?

? years?

All responses greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Rachel

I'd say for as long as the company is in business.

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WelshStew
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Well I just did a Google search on "average lifespan of a website" and the results seemed to indicate it is between 44 and 75 days. Pretty short huh? I tried the same thing with corporate website, business website and commercial website but didn't get any results.

Welshstew, I'm referring to time between overhaul/redesigns, not online presence.

THANKS!

Thanks Vanessa. I did the same search. I think the time span they are talking about it between content changes/updates, not redesign (which is what I'm looking for).

I would think 2 years.

oh, well again it depends on the size / success of the business.

If the business is successful, this may be down to the design, and as such they won't want to make any drastic changes to often.

I think you will find that the younger the company is, the shorter the period of redesign, as they try and make a impact in their chosen market. This may result in a change every 6 - 10 months (or as long as it takes to do some research and gauge reaction to the design.

Larger companies will take longer to update the site. This will be for a number of reasons, from the amount of work involved (could be many hundreds of pages) to the familiarity of the design to its user base. I guess it depends on what users say about the design and how they interact with it. Another factor influencing this will be the type of industry the company is within. For example, Companies such as car manufacturers update their design every 6 months or so (as it co-insides with a new innovation in design) whereas those in the banking industry don’t change for several years, as it is seen as being “stable” if the same design is carried through for a extended period

From a technical point of view, sites are updated all the time, from adding pod / vod casts & HDA’s to performing web experience tests & updating basic content.

One of the things I am currently doing is updating our corporate presence to a tables design, and the company I have been working for has only been going (in this country) for 4 years. However, this is seen as a huge change, and is being done in four separate stages.

Sorry not to answer your question directly, but I don't think there is a fast and hard answer here.

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WelshStew
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i'd say option 3: ? years

LOL

Reminds me of a comic strip I saw the other day - see attached

Ooops - apologies for the language if it offends anyone (not me the comic strip...)

Attached Images

20070917.jpg (171.1 KB, 23 views)

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WelshStew
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Thanks, Karinne. That's the along the lines of the feedback I'm getting elsewhere (and along the lines of what I'm thinking as well).

Rofl! sorry for offtopicness!