Outdated Web Design Trends

The following 3 items are outdated website trends! If you are using any of these currently, consider a re-work of your site. If you're getting ready to develop a new website, think about it long and hard before doing any of these!....

Splash Pages

A splash intro page is a welcome page. It is the first page a visitor sees when coming to your site. There is usually some kind of animation that welcomes the visitor, allowing them to watch the whole thing or "skip" and enter the site. While these can look good and might contain some info, here are a couple of reasons why this OLD trend no longer works:

• Splash Pages Annoy Visitors - People coming to your website are looking for information quick and fast. Splash Intro Pages waste your visitor's time by forcing the visitor to take unnecessary steps to get at the content of your website. The main goal of a website is to provide easily accessible information to visitors and Splash Intro Pages stand in their way.
• Splash Pages Negatively Affect a Site's Search Engine Ranking - Two of the most important things Search Engines look for are text-based content and text-based hyperlinks, neither of which is available on a splash intro page. The other goal of a website is to be found by Search Engines, and Splash Intro Pages make this difficult.

Music on your Website

Avoid adding music to your site! The only exception is websites created for musicians, entertainers, or multimedia-based sites. Background music was popular a few years back, but now it's the sure mark of an amateur. If you're still not convinced, here a few legitimate reasons not to have music on your site:

• Copyright Infringement - Unless you own the rights to the music, you run risk of being sued for copyright infringement.
• Slower Download Time - Music files are large and they cannot be compressed. They make your pages load slower and use up valuable bandwidth.
• People Have Different Tastes - What sounds good to you may annoy or offend someone else. Your website should be geared toward a wide viewing audience.

Flash Heavy Websites

If Flash is going to be used on a website, it needs to be used sparingly. The majority of your site should be HTML-based with only a few Flash elements to create visual interest. Here's why:

• Search Engine Optimization - Websites made entirely in Flash are almost invisible to search engines. This means, even with specialized SEO, your website may not show up in Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any other search engine's results.
• Flash Lowers Usability - It requires the viewer to download software in order to view it. Although most people have Flash Player installed on their computers, if your site needs to reach a broad audience, the pros and cons of using Flash must be carefully weighed.
• Slower Download Time - Flash pages load slower, which can turn viewers away from your site.

So what does all of this mean? You can have a fresh and interesting website without some of these features. Using the most current trends and making a commitment to update and refresh your site on a regular basis will help ensure that the search engines can find you and that you won't drive visitors away!