Image source: [Momentum: Website Transformation Notes [newsletter] | New Year Edition | David Hobbs Janurary 2015]
This is a big challenge. Typically as described by Paul Boag. Executives love the fanfare of site launch with some graphic design elements i.e.'lipstick on the pig'. However post launch there is often very little attention given to websites.
Microsite rot
Often rather than focus a change that will improve all sites in a web presence. Like making a better author editing user interface. Note this also makes content authors role easier and potentially reduces workload on digital teams as well.
However, the most common approach is to focus on a particular microsite and 'upgrade' it only leading to an uneven web presence approach.
Paul Boag boom bust
Paul Boag also covered this issue very well in his boom bust web design article (2011). His new book Digital Adaptation also covers off how to build effective web governance structures to allow a strategy of continuous incremental improvement to be applied
The hard road to incremental improvement
Incremental improvement is effective but not as politically useful for executives. Therefore it is crucial that you demonstrate the value of any improvements made especially to decision makers who might fund such a program of work.