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A website is not wine! How old design scares away your target group

Real gourmets appreciate long matured wine and good cheese. Old cars are labelled ‘classic cars’ after years of good care. None of this applies to your website! Unfortunately, you can tell very quickly that an old website is old. And the site is left even more quickly and with it any chance of attracting new customers. We humans are creatures of habit. Once a certain trend has become established, we are used to it and associate certain things with it. It’s the same with the design of your website. Every year, even almost every month, new trends in the design, navigation or use of a website develop on the web. These spread across the globe like wildfire. This starts with optimization for mobile devices, is reflected in the use of professional mood images and ends in a well-rounded, color-coordinated design. This can be further enhanced with customized graphics and a matching logo to suit the target group. Try to analyze your own user behavior. What do you do when you load an obviously old website during research? Do you carry on? Or do you judge the company by the look of its homepage? When users look at old websites, this can create negative associations. It is therefore beneficial for the success of your company to replace your old website with a new one.

It's all about the technology. A website must be usable

In recent years, there have been major changes in web server technology, but also in browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer. This has resulted in different requirements for the technology of a website.

In the area of the server-side programming language PHP alone, there have been many new versions in recent years. Work has been done on both performance and security. Old websites with old systems are therefore often based on very outdated technology.

The changes that are probably much more significant for visitors lie in the further development of their favourite browsers. We are already used to changes and innovations in Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox. Now Microsoft is reinventing its Internet Explorer for the second time. After replacing IE with Edge, a new version of Edge with a brand new logo was recently released. These changes to all browsers are great for the future, but very bad for outdated websites. More and more old web standards are (fortunately) being removed and no longer supported. So it can happen that your old website is suddenly no longer displayed at all or is completely deformed.

Security and data protection through SSL encryption

Encrypting communication between a website and the user should be ‘state of the art’ these days. An SSL / TLS certificate is used to establish an encrypted connection between the browser and the web server.

Admittedly, the absence of an SSL certificate is not really part of the website. But with old websites, it is quite likely that HTTPS is not used. There is a good reason for this: SSL certificates are currently very cheap or even free. This was not the case a few years ago.
As Google and the EU insist on an encrypted connection as part of the GDPR, this option is now being made available to the masses. And that’s a very good thing!

Optimised for mobile phones and tablets. Responsive web design is mandatory!

More than half of people currently use a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet (source). This development has had a huge impact on web design in recent years. When users with mobile devices access an old website, this can lead to problems. This often results in slower loading times or layout errors. It is therefore essential to make an old website responsive. The layout then adapts to the respective end device and your users have a better user experience. This not only benefits your customers and partners, but has also become increasingly important for search engine rankings:

Google, the most important pacemaker on the World Wide Web, recognised the trend early on. As early as 2016, it announced that it would pay more attention to the mobile view of a website and introduced the so-called Mobile First Index. This has been used more and more since 2018 and will be introduced for every website in 2020. It stipulates that Google will only obtain all information from the mobile view of a website. Search engines also evaluate usability and optimization for mobile devices.
If your old website is not optimised for small screens, you are in a very bad position in terms of Google ranking. If you have a mobile view with reduced content, you will also have major problems with the Mobile First Index, as you will lose a lot of ranking. This means for you and your new website: a responsive design is a must!

No up-to-date CMS? Security gaps and the agony of changing text

Have you seen this too? You see Christmas wishes on the homepage of your favorite restaurant’s website – and it’s July!

There can be several reasons why an old website is not updated. Many website owners simply don’t have the time to write new posts, news, etc.

Another reason may be that the owners of a website have no possibility to change texts and images without programming knowledge. This is only the case if the website is based on a content management system (CMS).

But even if your old website has a CMS, it has probably not been updated for a long time. Old CMS versions often contain security vulnerabilities (also related to the technology, see paragraph above). If you manage sensitive customer data on your website, this can quickly lead to data protection problems. In addition, an old CMS can be less user-friendly or lack modern features.

Data protection here, cookies there. Is your website GDPR-compliant?

In addition to design trends, technologies and search engine requirements, legal conditions are also important for the development of a website. Not least the introduction of the GDPR has forced many website operators to make changes to their website.

Have you not yet made any GDPR-relevant changes? Then it’s high time! Cookie notices, privacy policies, measures for the simple implementation of data subject rights or securing contact forms with appropriate texts are just some of these points.
Data protection should be important to you in the interests of your customers. It also creates trust with your website visitors.

New, professional website with a once off cost.

If you want to replace your old website with a new one, you’ve come to the right place. At manfredk.com website design, we have been creating, programming and designing professional websites since 1997.  Together with you, we find out your target group, analyze the needs of your website visitors and map these findings in a user-friendly homepage.

We do all this on the basics, so that you can easily change texts and images online without any programming knowledge.

And to ensure that your website doesn’t become a dusty, old page again over the next few years, we can take care of search engine optimization for you if required. We analyze the keywords you need, look at what people are searching for, write the right texts and turn your website into a dynamic marketing tool. So that you can reach people and increase sales.