4 Things That Make Your Website Look Dated

There are some things that improve with age. Wine and cheese comes to mind. Unfortunately, your website may not be one of them. Just like most people don’t like to visit a house that covered in cobwebs and smells stale and musty, most people don’t like to stick around a website that looks like it was last updated before the turn of the millennium.

Plus, a lot of people don’t trust a website that looks dated, especially if they want to use your website to gather information or if they want to buy. If they get the feeling that you haven’t tended to your website in a while, they’ll assume that the rest of your operations work the same way. Here are 4 things that can make your website look dated.

1. Old copyright notices

If there’s one thing that makes your website scream, “I’m old and neglected” it’s a copyright date that’s years out of date. Even if your website was updated yesterday…that old copyright date makes everything else on your website look a bit suspect.

2. Outdated content

The thing about old copyright dates? That goes double for any kind of content that has a date on it like news releases, press releases, and articles. And that “This site was last updated on August 8, 2001″ message at the bottom of your page doesn’t help either. While it’s easier to spot outdated content that has a publication date, outdated content also includes subtler things like articles that are full of broken links because the website no longer exists. It can also include articles that reference old events, technologies, advice, or issues that are no longer relevant. This type of outdated content is not as obvious, but still adds a whiff of staleness to your website.

3. Outdated design

With that ugly patterned background, the midi start up music that plays when you arrive, and that rotating flaming logo, your website is partying like it’s 1999. Unfortunately, it’s almost 2010 and web design has moved on and has greatly improved. Things like blinking text, animated gifs, frames, and special effects that only work on Internet Explorer have, mostly, gone the way of Netscape…and good riddance. Web design nowadays is more sophisticated and cleaner than what was common in the early days of the Internet…and in most cases a lot less ugly.

4. Outdated technology

If you’re encouraging people to contact you through a little animated gift of a mailbox with it’s front door flapping up and down saying “Please email me!”, then your website definitely has tumbleweeds blowing through it. Things like the animated “mailto” gifs and guestbooks are so mid to late 1990’s. People aren’t signing guestbooks anymore, they’re leaving comments on blogs. And they’re certainly aren’t going to email you, they’re contacting people through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. A website loaded with technology that was cutting edge five or ten years ago definitely adds cobwebs to your website.

Here’s an important point to remember…there is a big difference between a website that’s old and a website that looks dated.There’s a big advantage search engine-wise to having a website that’s been around for a long while as age is favorable factor when it comes to search engine rankings. But, that advantage only comes into play if you keep your website spruced up with fresh content and updated design and technology. So take a long hard look at your website and start clearing out those cobwebs.

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Nicolette Tallmadge is the author of the How to “Hire the World’s Greatest Web Designer”, a no-nonsense guide to finding, hiring, and working with a great web designer. Find out more at: http://www.howtohireawebdesigner.com/aboutebook.html