The Internet moves at the speed of light, and what is cutting edge today will soon be outdated and tacky. Of course you can’t be expected to keep up with every new technological advance in website development–unless you’re a web developer–but you should take a good look at your site every few months to make sure that things haven’t aged to the point of being stale.
It can be difficult to know if your site looks out of date, though, particularly if you’re a bit attached to it. Maybe you designed it yourself, or maybe the colors and graphics extend to your business cards and letterhead, or maybe you just really like the layout.
Flash, Color, and Graphics
Trends come and go, and unfortunately some stick around longer than they should. Website splash screens, or Flash intros, were popular a couple of years back, before everyone realized how irritating they are. Unless you are a performer or an artist, you probably shouldn’t have a flash intro on your site. All an intro like that accomplishes is to make your customer wait, and you don’t want that.
Color trends change, too, but the most important thing about colors is to make sure your site is readable. You want the majority of your content to be black text on white or light background. Darker headings or borders are fine, but for the sake of your customer’s eyes, stay away from dark background and white text.
Graphics should be understated and used sparingly. Flashing, color changing borders and animated gifs are distracting and make your site look cheesy, not exciting.
Through Your Customer’s Browser
About 45% of surfers are using some version of Internet Explorer, and about 45% are using Firefox. The remaining users are probably using Safari, Opera, or Chrome. What this means is that you can no longer put a disclaimer on your site saying “Best viewed with Internet Explorer” or some such thing. Doing so is like turning away half your potential sales.
Spying on Your Competitors
A good way to know if your site is sending the right message is to compare it to your competitor’s sites. Look at things like ease of use (Do you have to download an entire catalog in PDF just to see what they carry?), navigation (How long does it take you to find contact information?), and readability (Are you distracted by all the stuff crammed onto the page?), and objectively compare your site to theirs. If you’re still not sure how your site stacks up, get a friend or employee to compare the two.
Don’t Forget
If you have a copyright notice on your website, make sure it’s up to date. Nothing says out of date and uncared for like “Copyright 2007.” Same goes for blog postings. If you blog on your site, do it more than once every three months or take the date stamp out. If your customers get the impression you don’t update your blog, they’ll be more likely to think your business is behind the times as well.
Your business website is sometimes the first thing potential customers see, and where they form their first impressions of you. Having an up to date and easy to use website will help ensure the best possible first impression, and just might make the sale.
Related posts:
Don't miss a single informative post! Sign-up for my newsletter to get the latest updates along with exclusive content not found on the blog, and some fabulous freebies.
