How to understand that your site is outdated? How to improve it? What are the most important points? Check our quick guide!
Top features of an outdated site: beware!
The Internet changes faster every year than any other medium. The digital media revolution has significantly influenced everyday life, work, communication, and trade – and there is no end in sight. Websites are now more than just virtual business cards for companies: they are available within seconds, offering essential information for the user.
In order to be able to counteract the variety of sensory overload, a good structure and optimized design for a website are more important than ever. However, yesterday’s standards may be outdated due to rapid development. Previously proven techniques can now seem unprofessional and old-fashioned: pixelated images, nested navigation, outdated fonts, and flash intros are just a few examples.
So that you can see if your website may need an update, we have summarized some of the most important no-gos for you. As we know, websites may be really different (websites built with Django are especially popular nowadays), but these features can define a solid basis for your contemporary and modern website.
The distraction: unnecessary pop-ups
Some companies are financed by allowing advertising on a website. This refers to suddenly appearing pop-ups that must first be clicked away – or they may even open in new windows or tabs, which costs some nerves, especially when you are using a mobile phone for accessing the site. Some also use pop-ups to draw attention to promotions or newsletters. However, since today’s user wants to waste as little time as possible to get the information he is looking for, such intrusive methods are rather out of place. It causes unnecessary clicks and can be very annoying, especially on smartphones.
The ease of use
The small attention span of the visitor can also be applied to the website’s structure. Your company intends to reach the user immediately, so your page should have a clear and precise structure. It should repeat no content, and the operation should be as easy as possible. Try to view your website from the perspective of an independent Internet user and recognize which elements are redundant.
Web design: the art of design
A good design can say more than a thousand words about your company. For example, outdated designs can be recognized by gray colors, nested tables, missing centering, or older standard fonts such as Times New Roman and Comic Sans.
This can also be an indicator if interactive elements or graphics are completely missing. Images, icons, and animations are now an important means of supporting the content and should also be used for this purpose. But be careful: blurred, distorted, or incorrectly positioned elements interfere with text flow rather than clarifying it.
The Flash content: faulty display
Flash animations were once chic, but nowadays, they are only annoying and excessive. They are not compatible with iPhones and iPads, and Adobe has even officially stopped further development. As a result, there are often error messages that could easily be avoided. They also make your website load slower. Particularly frustrating is flash content, which suddenly scares the visitor with loud music when he has turned up the speaker. So keep your hands off it! There are not too many platforms that are so much outdated, but there are some, so if you belong to this category, you’d better improve your page.
The copyright: outdated in the foot area
If you still manually use the copyright at the bottom of the website, you often forget to update the date. So it may be that “© 2002-2009 Max Brown” can still be seen in 2022. However, with a programming language such as PHP, it can be set, for example, so that the date automatically changes by itself.
The contact: missing form and social media
The contact details are one of the most important pieces of information on your website. In today’s world, however, these should include more than an address and telephone number. Many companies prefer a usable contact form, which is ideally already linked on the homepage. In this way, the visitor can communicate directly with you instead of having to open the mailbox. Global networking has also strengthened the trend toward social media. For this reason, we recommend embedding interactive icons for the most common channels (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) directly on your website.
The search engines: below-average ranking on Google
No matter how well thought out a website can be – if no one sees it, it will not help your company. In order for users to find you easier online, you should always make sure to make your website search engine compliant. This includes, for example, the targeted insertion of keywords, labeling graphics, and backlinks from other websites. You should definitely reexamine your SEO strategy if your page is very far down on Google.
The end devices: not optimized for smartphones
Just as the potential of the Internet is still growing, the trend toward mobile traffic is growing as well. Thus, more people now use a smartphone instead of a desktop computer for Internet visits. It can therefore make it unnecessarily difficult to visit your website if it is not optimized for small screens. If this is the case, the texts and navigation are displayed far too small and can hardly be read anymore. Clicking on is also becoming much more cumbersome. So that you do not scare away potential customers, texts and images should be able to adapt to different devices and screens.
Conclusion
There are other, many small annoyances in web design, but this article covers the most important points. If you want a modern web design, do not hesitate to inform yourself sufficiently about the current trends and avoid the points outlined. A nice website shows that your company follows the trends, looking flexibly and dynamically.
Also Read: Drive Traffic to Your Website with Better Media Distribution
