Updating Your Old Web Designs For Social Media And Smartphones
If you have been doing web design for a while, you might have some older sites sitting around that have been online since before the recent explosion of social media and mobile media devices. If you want to breathe new life into your old sites, then you need to modernize them to take advantage of these new advances in Internet technology. Keep reading for more.
If you think your older website's content still has value and function for mobile users, then you need to make sure they can actually view it. You can either alter your existing site to make sure it works on smartphones, tablets and other mobile media devices, or you can just come up with mobile versions of your website. Doing mobile versions is a better idea in most cases, as you can get down to the barebones minimum they need while keeping the load sizes low out of respect of their data plans, which are likely not unlimited.
Social media websites are an even bigger part of the Internet and not to be ignored for any website you want to keep around for a long time. There are two ways to take advantage of them. First off, create social media accounts for your website. Facebook is a must, and Twitter is probably a good idea too. Depending on how ambitious you want to get, a YouTube account and a GooglePlus account can also help.
If your website does not already have one, add a blog, preferably run with WordPress. Let the world know that your old dog is back in the fight with new and updated content. Search engines will also take notice of this, and your long running slide into obscurity for static content will reverse.
Go through all your pages of content and make sure that there are social media buttons on each page so that your current visitors and fans can retweet or share your most interesting content or at least Like your pages. This starts getting the word out in social media feeds that your existing readers like you. It is free advertising that should hopefully get you new traffic.
Also post to your social media accounts whenever you post new content. No matter how well your website might have been optimized for search engines five years ago, social media backlinks are rated highly by current search engines and should help breathe new life into your old website.
As long as you are under the hood of your old vehicle, give it a tune up. Check for broken links and bad code. Update your certificates and check for viruses, malware and trojans. Apply any needed or available security certificates.
It does not take much to prime an older website you have long ignored for inclusion in the worlds of social media and smartphones. Eventually you will need to overhaul your site to modernize, but when you apply some of the ideas in this article, you can breathe new life into an old favorite.
