Meta’s new business terms let it crawl your website from 30 October. Fix outdated website content first: old prices, expired offers, wrong details and more.
Old prices and expired offers can waste your time before a customer even calls. Use this quick website check to tidy the pages people, Google, Meta and AI tools can see.
That old special might still be sitting on your website. A customer can find it in Google, share it on Facebook, then call your shop expecting a deal you stopped running.
Meta has just raised the stakes on outdated website content. Its updated Commercial Terms take effect on 30 October 2026. They let Meta use crawlers to read and pull updates from websites linked to businesses that use its apps commercially. That includes anyone managing a Facebook Page for their business.
A crawler is software that automatically visits web pages and reads what’s on them. Google uses them. So do Meta and most AI tools.
Meta says the change is about pulling accurate product information from business websites for ads and recommendations on its platforms. It also says nothing has changed in how its crawlers work. An earlier version of the terms said Meta could use crawled content to “train” its products. Meta removed that wording on 17 October after pushback from publishers, narrowing the use to “advertising and business products”.
The practical job is simpler than the headlines: make sure your public pages say the right thing.
You don’t need a full rebuild this week. Start with the pages that cause bad calls, awkward conversations and lost bookings.
Public website copy can travel well beyond your homepage
Your website isn’t only read by someone comparing three local businesses. Search engines, social platforms and AI products can also process public pages and use that information to answer questions. We’ve covered how AI tools decide which businesses to mention, and thin or outdated pages give them little to work with.
If a Ballarat sparky still lists switchboard upgrades at an old price, that figure can confuse a homeowner before the sparky gets a chance to quote properly. The same goes for an old service area, a closed location or a staff member who left.
Treat every public page like a customer might see it at 9pm, screenshot it and ask you to honour it tomorrow morning.
Accurate content was already good business. It helps customers trust you and gives search systems less rubbish to repeat.
Check prices and offers before anything else
Prices and specials create the quickest mess. A café in Newcastle with an expired breakfast deal can cop complaints. A plumber with an old call-out fee can waste time explaining why the website is wrong.
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Check every page where a customer could see a dollar sign, percentage discount, package price or finance claim. Don’t forget old blog posts, landing pages and image text.
- →Remove specials with an end date already passed, such as a Brisbane salon’s Mother’s Day package from last year.
- →Update fixed prices if your supplier costs changed, like a Perth electrician’s old ceiling-fan installation rate.
- →Add a clear date to a current offer, such as “Valid until 31 January 2027”, so a customer in Geelong knows where they stand.
- →Replace vague claims like “lowest prices” with a plain explanation of what’s included in the quote.
Make sure you still offer every service on the site
Service pages hang around for years. We’ve seen businesses keep pages for work they no longer take because nobody remembers they exist.
A Sunshine Coast landscaper who stopped installing pools doesn’t need pool-installation enquiries filling the phone. A physio who no longer treats workplace injuries shouldn’t have an old page promising that service.
Search your own business name plus the service you stopped offering. If an old page appears, update it, redirect it to a relevant current page, or remove it if it has no useful purpose.
Fix service areas, addresses and contact details
Wrong contact details cost real jobs. A mobile detailer in Townsville can miss bookings if an old suburb list says they travel to areas they no longer cover.
Check the footer first. That’s where old phone numbers, retired email addresses and former opening hours often survive after everything else changed.
- →Phone number and email address on every key page.
- →Business address, including any old shopfront you’ve left.
- →Service suburbs and travel limits for mobile businesses.
- →Opening hours, public holiday notes and after-hours availability.
- →Contact forms that still send enquiries to a monitored inbox.
If you’ve moved recently, our guide to announcing a business relocation covers what else needs updating.
Remove former staff and stale team details
A former employee’s photo can make your business look neglected. It can also leave customers asking for a person who isn’t there anymore.
A hair salon in Adelaide might have a stylist profile booking clients through an old link. A legal practice in Hobart might still list a solicitor who moved on. Sort those pages out before they cause an uncomfortable call.
Keep team pages simple if your roster changes often. A current owner photo, clear business contact details and an updated service list beat bios nobody has checked in ages.
Read your FAQs like a customer with a job to book
FAQs often answer the questions that stop someone making contact. They’re also easy to forget because they sit below the main sales copy.
A Gold Coast pest controller might promise a quick inspection, despite being booked out for days. A retailer might promise click-and-collect while the service is paused.
Check booking lead times, cancellation rules, payment methods, warranty wording and product availability. If the answer depends on the job, say that plainly and invite the customer to ask for a quote.
Give policy pages a quick reality check
Nobody reads policy pages for fun, but customers look when something goes wrong. Old refund terms or a privacy page with the wrong business name can knock confidence fast.
A Cairns retailer that changed its returns process needs the website to match what staff say at the counter. A Canberra accountant using an old privacy template needs to check the business details and contact point are still right.
For legal wording, get appropriate professional advice if you’re unsure. The easy win is checking names, email addresses, addresses and processes match how your business operates today.
Find the old pages Google can still show
Your navigation menu isn’t the full picture. Old campaign pages can still appear in search, even if you removed the menu link years ago.
Type site:yourdomain.com into Google, then add words like “special”, “price”, “sale”, “booking” or an old service name. A Darwin café could search for “site:examplecafe.com.au menu” and find an old PDF menu.
Also search your business name with an old phone number, former staff name or old suburb. This is a quick way to check outdated website content without opening every page one by one. Google notes a site: search won’t always show every indexed page, so treat it as a spot check.
What to do with a stale page
- →Update it when the page still describes a current service, such as a Bendigo painter’s interior painting page.
- →Redirect it when there’s a newer, more accurate page covering the same job.
- →Remove it when the offer, service or information is finished and there’s nothing useful to keep.
- →Ask your web person to check the page is no longer indexed when it contains genuinely outdated or sensitive material.
Bin thin AI copy that says nothing useful
Some websites are full of pages that sound busy but don’t help a customer. A page saying a plumber provides “quality plumbing services for all plumbing needs” tells a homeowner in Wagga Wagga nothing.
Replace fluffy copy with practical detail. Say which jobs you take, where you travel, how customers can book and what happens after they call. If AI helped write those pages, check AI-written copy before it goes live.
This matters for AI search visibility for small business too. Clear, current answers give systems and customers less room to guess about your business.
Run a 20-minute check on the first Monday of each month
A business website content audit doesn’t need to become a monster project. Put some time in the calendar on the first Monday, before the phones get busy.
- →Spend five minutes checking your homepage, contact page and footer.
- →Spend five minutes checking current prices, specials and availability.
- →Spend five minutes checking your main service pages and service areas.
- →Spend five minutes searching Google for old offers, menus, staff names or discontinued services.
If you change something in the business, change it online that week. A new phone number in Albury, a closed Tuesday for a Melbourne café, or a discontinued product line in Toowoomba all need the same treatment.
Accuracy beats trying to block every crawler
You may decide to get technical advice about crawler access and your website settings. That’s your call. But blocking one platform won’t fix the old quote page, wrong phone number or expired offer already confusing customers.
Start with the information you control. Keep it current, useful and easy to find. That helps the person searching on Google, the customer checking your Facebook page, and any AI tool reading public business information.
At Localsearch, we work with more than 15,000 Australian small and medium businesses each year. The sites that earn trust aren’t always flashy. They’re the ones that answer the customer’s question properly, with details that are still true.
When Google, Meta and AI tools all read your website, outdated website content costs more than it used to. Book your first Monday check in the calendar today. And if you’re not sure where to start, a chat with a local specialist can help you see what a modern, up-to-date website could look like for your business.