An important question of every person who has a website is — should I update it? When evaluating an existing website I always look at a few primary factors to assess whether a site needs to be redeveloped, or at least edited.
Mobility
Firstly, a website needs to provide for the many mobile phone and small tablet users. A site that is not responsive can be frustrating to navigate, and being “user friendly” is a must for all websites. While I do think a response design is always best, for some websites, especially older ones that are otherwise effective, a mobile-only website can be a good option. In this case an htaccess script is used to redirect the mobile phone and tablet users to a separate mobile-only site, while other users will be routed to the main website. One of the downsides is that now there are two websites to update, instead of just one. It is also known that Google prefers responsive websites over the addition of a mobile site, so provides a ranking boost to responsive layouts.
Coding and Scripts
The next consideration is the coding and scripts. It is important to note that the web standard for design has changed considerably over the years. Not too long back the standard was XHTML, and prior to that HTML4. Older HTML code isn’t effective for a number of reasons. First off, older scripting is potentially vulnerable to hackers, this is especially common with older PHP scripts. As for HTML, many of the styling tags used have been deprecated, so are no longer fully supported in the browsers. For now most tags are still being rendered (this will end eventually), and modern design generators can’t edit inline font tags, where the size, font style, and color is added inline (in the body section of the pages). So while a good designer should have enough knowledge to edit the inline styling manually, it typically has to be done in “code view” per each inclusion, and so it takes far longer than it would with current coding standards where styling is linked to globally. The other issue is that a page that is bloated with tags will load slower and is less likely to be indexed fully.
Layout Conventions
Next one needs to look at the layout structure of the website. In the past all designs used tables for the layout to create columns. This is not ADA compliant, and accordingly makes it near impossible for adaptive technology devices to read a page correctly. For the same reason Flash should be used sparingly, image maps need to be coded correctly, images need “alt” tags for mouse over descriptions, and so on. Few early designers considered or even new of such tags. In modern design columns are added using div layers, and each div tag is assigned a maximum width in relation to the viewing device.
Visual Look
Next it is important to consider the visual look of the site’s layout. Most modern websites are designed to resize from desktop to mobile phone resolutions, with the content area sized at approx. 1400px width with padding added at the left and right margins. Prior to this most designers were developing for the 1024×768 px browser window. And prior to this the layouts were 800x600px, and before that 640x480px. As you can imagine, the smaller width layouts look very narrow in the larger browser resolutions. In addition to sizing, there is the simple question — does the site look good and effectively represent your company? Many of the older designs don’t effectively employ graphics, or the latest techniques to provide effective visual interest such as the jQuery header.
Menu System
Navigation is another important consideration. Of course the navigation has to look good, but it also needs to be cross-browser compatible (many of the earlier DHTML and JavaScript menus are not), Flash menus require the Flash plugin so are not a good option, and they can’t be read by the search engines, which leaves us with CSS menus. There are some very nice contemporary CSS menu options, but if your site is old, it doesn’t have one.
Interactivity
Finally, one needs to consider the interactivity of the site. If you need advanced functioning such as a blog, an event calendar, visitor polls, a contemporary gallery, and so on, then yes, your site will need to be updated. Modern designs also include varied presentational elements such as slideshows, toggles/accordions, tabs, parallax images, icons, banners, and more.
A website is an investment in your business. Much like the store-front windows of old, it is a necessity to keep it looking fresh if you are going to engender interest and trust in your business or organization. Most websites need to be redeveloped approx. every 5 years if you are to keep up with the times. Every website will need to have updates and routine maintenance (especially important with CMS websites), and if you select a reputable designer you will get an honest assessment about what is needed to effectively promote your business online at a price that won’t break your budget.
