Is Your Website a Relic? – Niteowl Creative

The modern internet was born in 1995-ish (as per Wikipedia). By 2000, you were nobody if you didn’t have a website.

Those were the days of splash/intro pages and Flash. Remember those clunky landing pages that made users work to get into your site? Or those awesomely customized Flash sites that took almost a minute to load and didn’t work on anything Apple? If you’re saying, “Remember? You just described my website,” we have some news for you — it’s time for a newer model.

Think of your website as a vehicle. A vehicle that drives around town with your brand splashed all over it. Do you want that vehicle to be a rusted-out jalopy or a sleek, modern Cadillac sedan (or SUV, whatever suits your tastes.) Like cars, web design and usability has come a long way in the past 17 years. If you’re site isn’t following the trends that cater to users, you might as well just hand out business cards for your competition.

A five-year-old site is considered a relic in web years. Think of where your business was five years ago. Has your website progressed with you? If you say yes, here’s a little test we’d like you to take.

You get 1 point for anything you can honestly say yes to. Subtract 2 points for anything you can’t (and that includes “I don’t know”).

1. How many of the following items have been updated on your site in the last year? 

• contact info
• product information
• about us page
• social media links
• logo

2. Is your website mobile friendly?

3. Have you used your website from a mobile device?

4. Do you use graphics instead of text in your menus and footers?

5. Do you know where all the links on your website go?

6. Do you know if all the links on your website work? 

If you scored 10 – awesome job. You’re web savvy enough to understand the importance of having an updated site (or someone in your company is at least). The web could use more people like you.

If you scored 8 or 9 – not bad. Your site needs a little tweaking but overall, you are likely in decent shape.

If you scored 7 or below – back away from the computer, slowly. Pick up the phone, dial 1-866-200-1161. We can help. (If you know how to email, you can do that too but we’re guessing that’s not your favourite means of communication.)

So, how do we know what your site needs just from asking these six questions? Because it’s our job to know. Niteowl Creative knows the web. We know what users want and how to get your company’s website in front of more people.

If you’re not sure how your site compares to 2016 standards, we’ll review your site for free (yes, free) and let you know what we think it needs — but not in a sleazy car mechanic way. You know, like when you go for an oil change and you’re told you need new brakes and a transmission. We’ll tell you what you actually need, nothing more and nothing less. We’re good like that.

Let us help you restore your web presence, it will feel like you’ve won a brand new car. (Feel like is the key word here…we will not actually give you a new car, just a new site. It won’t cost as much as a car either.)

~ Niteowl Creative