In the fast-moving, ever-evolving landscape of the Internet, we seem to be at a crossroads for both ‘how’ and ‘what’ we present as “our company’s website.” Now, more than ever, an aging website sticks out like a sore thumb begging to either be modernized or abandoned.
Your website is no longer one spoke in the marketing wheel, it is the hub. Consequently, website development is no longer a project to complete and return to every few years, but rather has become a continuous, on-going, development effort.
If you haven't considered updating your website recently, here are three common web ailments you may be suffering from:
According to global Internet statistics sites like w3schools.com and statcounter.com, the once standard desktop screen resolution of 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high has plummeted to less than 8% of web users from its #1 position merely five years ago.
The days of 1024x768 being the dominant global screen size are long gone. Today, resolutions commonly double that size since most modern displays are packing in four times the number of pixels onto a “standard” screen. Consequently, our fonts have shrunk to 25% of what they used to be.
Your website probably needs larger, more legible type which is designed to be flexible based on the user’s screen resolution.
R.O.T. as Smashing Magazine puts it – Redundant, Out-of-date or Trivial content. The need for improved content curation is a growing concern as the Internet ages and expands.
Website redesigns often focus too heavily on the look and feel, without giving adequate attention to aging content. Over the years your site may have accumulated page after page of material which is not particularly relevant to the customer and is just dead weight. For example, at one point Microsoft.com had close to 10 million pages, 3 million of which had no traffic.
In contrast, industry best practice efforts to increase organic search engine placement (SEO) are influenced heavily by proper pruning of web content. Removing duplicate or nearly duplicate content, restructuring content, and enhancing content that speaks directly to your current product or service offering will not only yield higher search placement, but more importantly, it will also yield a significantly better user experience.
Tablet computing and smartphone market penetration have transformed the way the Internet is being consumed; These trends will only continue to splinter how we view the web. Given the number of devices (phone, tablets, desktops), the variation in web browsers, as well as the diversity of hardware and software manufacturers, it is no longer feasible to seek a standard “identical" website experience. A relatively “consistent,” or uniform experience is a much more realistic and useful bar to set for web design.
Responsive web design seeks to optimize the user experience for the device on which they are viewing the site. Fixed width web design is a thing of the past, the modern web flows and adapts to the user, constantly reorganizing to make the best use of the space available.
Is it time to update your website? Novocent can help. We are experts at organizing, expanding and illustrating the intangibles that make you unique.
Novocent helps you connect with customers by creating the building blocks of communication. We work to articulate the intangibles that differentiate your organization and can transform that messaging into actionable projects like:
Are we a ‘good fit’ for your team? Toss us a small project and let’s find out.
