August 24th, 2009
With the phenomenal growth in social networking, both for individuals and businesses, and the increasing demand by web design customers for the ability to easily and simply update their websites, I found myself questioning recently whether static websites are a dying breed. Is there a use for and value in static sites anymore? And, if not, how do we, as web developers and designers, transition our clients into more interactive media?
Definitions
First of all, let me explain my definitions. Static web sites are those which have little to no changing content, and no options for interactivity between business and customer beyond one-way forms (contact, information requests, etc.). Many small businesses, in particular, have such websites, often because they don’t have staff to create updates, or they don’t see a compelling reason to use their website as a communication portal. Interactive web sites, on the other hand, are websites which frequently update their content, offer options for customer conversation or dynamic product search, or are otherwise designed to engender dialogue and participation rather than viewing and observation. Social media is a term applied to a wide range of websites and software that allow people (and businesses!) to communicate and share with each other, sometimes instantaneously. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Delicious, YouTube, Flickr, Digg and a wealth of blogs are all part of the social media network.
Why Funeral Arrangements are Being Made
There are many reasons why static websites no longer serve the needs of businesses, but here are my pick for the top 8:
1. The internet is becoming more and more social. Growth in use of social media continues to outstrip predictions, and, as more people use social media, their expectations for how they interact with websites changes to reflect a need for more "socialability". Josh Bernof classifies the online social behaviors of groups into categories of Inactives, Spectators, Joiners, Collectors, Critics, and Creators, based on their monthly online activities. He says: "Looking at the US data, the big news in 2008 is that, not unexpectedly, social technology participation has grown rapidly. Inactives — people untouched by social technologies — have shriveled from 44% down to 25% of the online population. Spectators — those who read, watch, or consumer social content — have ballooned from 48% to 69%. If you think social technology is about to become a universal phenomenon, we just handed you a nice little bundle of evidence."
2. Search engines and social media drive marketing and business promotion today. Where do most people go to find out about a business? Their favorite search engine. And who do they trust when they’re looking for referrals? Friends and credible others who’ve had experience with the business and can provide feedback. And what’s the quickest way to get person-to-person feedback or help? Social networks.
3. Search engines and social media rely on interaction and change. Gone are the days when search engines simply looked for keywords and ranked websites accordingly. Now a business’ rank can be decreased a) if content isn’t changed frequently enough and/or b) if people don’t reference or talk about the site elsewhere.
4. Offline marketing and advertising is falling by the wayside. As Erik Qualman stated in his January 2009 article in Search Engine Watch, "The financial downturn will encourage more marketing executives to turn to organic social media initiatives to drive awareness and interest." Print advertising media and the Yellow Pages are expensive. Many smaller businesses pay more in a month for Yellow Pages advertising they would to construct or upgrade a website, with increasingly diminishing returns. Advertising online, and particularly through social networks where relationships have been established is not only less costly, but the potential for reaching a larger audience is greater.
5. Content is no longer isolated, but syndicated. While many businesses have made an effort to change their content, up until the past few years, that updating could have gone largely unnoticed except by loyal visitors to the site itself. Now, however, with RSS, tweets, and blogs, content can be syndicated or spread virally through networks. While this helps get the word out when content IS changing, the dark side is that it also highlights sites where content DOESN’T change, to the detriment of the site owner.
6. Content management systems are more widely available. It used to be difficult for many people and small businesses who couldn’t afford web developers or expensive content management sytems to maintain or refresh their websites. Many relied on their "webmasters" each time they wanted something changed, often with less than satisfactory turn-around times. Today the proliferation of open source content management systems makes it possible for these people to finally have the ability to update their own sites. And, with sophisticated blogging platforms such as Wordpress, people have the ability to completely manage their website, even to the extent of adding and deleting pages, with an intuitive interface that doesn’t take a lot of training to use.
7. Blogs and social media apps for networking, promotion, and marketing are growing. Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook — these popular networking tools have a huge contingent of developers who are creating apps which businesses can use to promote and market themselves effectively using social media.
8. Giving customers what they want means interactivity. A business tenet we are all familiar with is "give the customer what they want". Doing so helps to build loyalty, word-of-mouth promotion, and customer satisfaction. If customers want more communication, changing content, and the ability to "relate" to a business on a more personal basis, static websites just won’t do the trick.
Is there any value in Static websites?
In our increasingly social online population, having a website, even if it is static, is certainly better than not having a website at all. People expect to be able to look up a business online 24/7 and see what that business is all about. Not having a web presence is like building a shop in the middle of a forest — the potential of being found is virtually non-existent.
What’s the benefit to site owners to become more social?
So what can we tell our clients to introduce the advantages of "going social"? I’ve found, working primarily with small businesses and non-profits, that factors of cost, effort, and return are often the key components of decision making. With that in mind, here’s what I say:
- If you can easily update your site yourself, you’ll do it more often, and you’ll save money
- Online advertising and promotion will cost less than display advertising and reach more people
- You will be seen as a company that cares enough to find a way to relate to its customers
- Your competitors are doing it
- (and finally) If you can’t, or don’t want to, do this yourself, we can do it for you.
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