Websites need to modernize and get updated periodically otherwise they grow stale. Ideas for web design that were good 2-3 years ago can be no longer accepted as best practice because technology moved on, and what Google sees as acceptable has altered.Here are a few Modern changes and improvements you should think about making to your website (or having someone complete for you).
Making the Site Responsive
There’s static sites, adaptive sites, and responsive sites. What’s the difference?
A static site has pages that don’t change. The site’s layout doesn’t adjust depending on the screen size being used to view the page (smartphone, tablet, or PC).
An adaptive site has pages that adjust based on a certain restrictive set of parameters. In other words, when the screen is a bit smaller, the design can adjust the width. Column sizes have some fluidity to them to make them slimmer when being viewer on a tablet in portrait orientation. But that only goes so far and then text becomes unreadable and the proper layout is lost completely.
A responsive site is the latest generation of site design. The design of the website adjusts depending on the screen width and height, and even the device being used to access it. A mobile-ready version of the design is available so it’s useable on a smartphone or tablet too. The mobile design looks similar to the desktop version, but it also responds to the different screen sizes of each smartphone or tablet device too.
To create a design that works on multiple desktop and mobile devices, this responsive web design West Midlands is a good option for professional project completion. They can design a new site that will look right when viewed with different computing devices to maximise the number of visitors who can access the site.
Social Sharing Button Update
Marketing through social media has become a useful way to expand your site’s reach. There are social media sharing buttons that are added to a website enabling visitors to share a post or page that they “Like” with their friends and associates. The trouble with this is that social networks come and go. It’s easy for an older site to offer to share a site on a defunct social network or one that few people use any longer which dates the site terribly. It’s also possible to not include newer social networks that visitors would enjoy sharing content if they could.
Don’t miss out on social shares because it’s a kind of “social proof” to visitors that your content is worth reading because it’s been voted on when it gets shared. The higher the number of shares, the better quality the content is perceived to be.
Moving Content Up the Page
A new trend has occurred with websites where visitors expect to see the content sooner. They want content to be visible above the fold, and not have to swipe up or scroll down to reach the article, image or video content. The same is also true of TV shows where the introductory credits have been shorted to a fraction of their original length to get into the television show sooner.
A redesign of an existing site can be completed to make the top navigation sticky (so it’s stays in place), minimize the logo, and adjust the header to save space. By making a few tweaks here and there, the content can be moved up several inches on the screen to make it visible when the page loads.
It’s not always necessary to completely redesign a website. It depends how dated it has become and whether minor updates can be performed to fix known issues and tweak the design to improve it. When that’s not possible, then a completely new design is called for.