As a modern-day business owner it’s important to understand what may develop across the next 6 months of 2013. Below we share our observations of what’s happens in 2013 and what’s to come.
Responsive Website Development
I predict responsive website design to be in huge demand throughout the second half of the 2013 business year. Companies are becoming aware as to whether their websites are user-friendly on mobile phones or even tablet devices. Since modern-day technologies have been used increasingly more for online use, companies have been pressured into developing their websites so they are easily accessible across all devices.
Many corporations possess websites, however only a few own websites that are designed for the modern user. Business websites should be accessible from all cellular devices. Mobile phone websites are in no way the best solution. Responsive websites are usually far higher servicing. A responsive website retains that all onsite developments take place from one central location. This means that you won’t need to update your mobile web page and your standard website separately. Having to update two separate websites; a standard website and a mobile website is laborious, time consuming and can cause devastating affects to your overall brand when simple mistakes are made.
Google Friendly Design
Good quality website design businesses consistently explore strategies to lower the size of written content within web pages, for instance; images, online video media and also JavaScript all help reduce the need for thousands of words. Google is beginning to favor those with a well designed website more than ever.
Smaller File Sizes
Google is demanding for web pages to load faster and faster. Most websites quite simply do meet the requirements set for the ultimate online experience. To meet Google’s requirements you will need to be selective over images you use and compress all images so they are optimised for online use.
Typography
Font faces are being explored unlike ever before. Businesses are now asking their web designers to include a specific font face so the websites content is in keeping with the rest of the businesses brand.
Bon Voyage To Flash Content
It is with no surprise that Flash systems become less and less used throughout 2013. Flash may have been viewed as a modern technology sometime ago but that’s certainly not the case in 2013. Most businesses are becoming ever more frustrated by the restraints of a flash website. Google quite simply ‘hates’ the technology and this causes endless problems for businesses with a flash site. Tech giants ‘Apple’ don’t even engineer their products to read Flash scripts.
Modern code such as HTML5 enables developers to achieve similar results as Flash code whilst being readable by the major search engines and leading technological devices. It truly is a win-win.
Big Images
Websites that include plenty of good quality images will need to optimise their content for search engine purposes. Search engines are placing further pressure on website owners to reduce image file sizes. By compressing your images, you will improve the load time of your website and reduce the amount of bandwidth and data usage.
During 2012, websites were designed to include a lot more whitespace. I’m sure this will carry on throughout the course of 2013 because a continued increase in responsive design will only ever require further white space. Web pages that contain white space will also be far easier to view via cellular devices.
Social Support Systems
More and more websites will include multiple social networking options for their users. The normal systems; Twitter, Linked In & Facebook will continue to be used by the masses, but in addition I can see a rise in industry relevant social media sites becoming ever more popular:
- Myspace for musicians
- Instagram for image and video sharing
- Pinterest for artists
More businesses will be forced into using Google + within their social marketing activities. Most would agree that it’s far from the best social platform at present, the only reason that businesses use it and will continue to use it is to increase their websites rankings within the SERP’s.
Website Colour Schemes
Colour shade systems are a great tool to identify a complimentary colour pallet. If you look closely, you will notice that the most successful websites only use of a handful of colour shades within their website design. For example; PayPal simply utilizes Blue, White & Grey as colours within their design. Minimalizing the different colours you incorporate within a design makes it far easier for users to navigate around your site. Too many websites opt for colour schemes with 6 or 7 different colours. This makes it incredibly difficult for people to read and understand your site. I predict that we will see selective colours used within design throughout the second half of 2013.
Mobile Applications
Although there will be a continued drive towards receptive website design, I will expect to see an ongoing expansion pertaining to mobile phone applications throughout 2013. Nearly all mobile phone applications are easier to use than a mobile web page equivalent. Once people have installed an application businesses are also able to market easily to their direct target audience.
Content Will Always Be King
I have ongoing confidence that ‘Content is King’. It’s undoubted that Google favours those with high quality, feature rich content within their website. Social signals prove that top quality content is shared across the web. These and other signals are what Google rely on to determine what sites contain great content.
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