2021 Website Trends
First of all a Happy New Year to all our clients, but moving right on, has it been a slow start to the year, Lockdown, Pandemics, Economy, Inaugurations, Scandals, the world moves apace, but what is going on in the world of Website Design.
I could whinge again about the take over of the internet by corporate interests and the rise of the big boys in eCommerce and Digital Trends, but what good is that to you. So instead, a look at what you can do with your website.
Trend 1
We’re moving away from traditional build from scratch websites, this has been going on for years, but is now reaching a maturity as never before, in days gone by you’d pay £10 a month to host your website, but these days you pay £10 a month to build a very worthy website full of Google goodness and easy Admin fun. What’s interesting is the lack of competition in this area and really these are the only names that count. In 2021 – we might see a few names, added, but if you want a website today look not much further than:
- WIX.com – dead-easy and effect website, reasonably designed and very cheap and easy to set up. Getting a WIX website to look nice is still a bit challenging, but websites never did look that nice especially on a budget. If you’re a small business you can’t go far wrong with WIX.
- Weebly.com – same thing, cheap and cheerful, perhaps one small step up the pecking order… but between WIX and Weebly you have total domination of the basic small business market for less than £20 per year, these really are bargains.
I’ll go one step further at this stage… people have worried that websites from WIX and Weebly aren’t search engine friendly… But if you’re a small business looking for a budget website (i..e. under £500) you really weren’t going to get a lot of SEO for that price. Bottom line, these websites will do just as well.
They also both have eCommerce options - SquareSpace.com – Another step up the pecking order, but Square Space targets a different and more specific market, Photo-based, musicians, artists and interior designs… any website that has a need for a strong image-based narrative. What’s the difference, well as website designers, getting our clients to produce wonderful photos has traditionally been harder than blood from a stone. If you’re a consultancy, or offer professional services, or produce just one or two products… photos are in often in very short supply. So SquareSpace is for the Photo conscious.
- WordPress.com – remains king of the Blogs, it’s also the only option on this list that might require separate hosting if you choose, WordPress does offer very low cost fully managed-hosting. But if you’ve something to say or share on the website WordPress is the answer. News, regular updates, subject material, WordPress remains probably the easiest platform to work with. No faff, just a title and a box for some text.
That said, however, WordPress is also probably the most misused Platform on this list, it runs roughly a third of all Internet Websites, but many of them should be on something else if I am honest… you don’t create a WordPress website and then just ignore it. WordPress needs to be worked on frequently. - Shopify.com – if you’ve something that you think will sell well online, and don’t mind the $29 per month then Shopify is the easy answer, there really is no other eCommerce platform worth mentioning, incredibly easy to set up, pick a theme, add your logo and products and you off. Shopify really has chucked the money, mud, thought and design into eCommerce and does it very well nowadays.
The common theme to all of these platforms is the barrier for entry into the business world of getting a website has collapsed, no need to spend ‘000’s on getting your website together… 5 minutes time a month and £20 will do it… Pick a Theme, add some pages and you’re done.
The downside is the day you stop paying is the day your website dies, hmmm, judging by how many dormant websites are probably out there that might not be such a bad thing.
The trend, however, is that these platforms are reaching maturity and are now very viable options for businesses to get online.
Trend 2
Brand and Social Media – a circle is developing… it’s that simple and we see it in the Stats of our clients every day… Most of the visitors you receive to your website will be from people that have already heard about you.
They will look up your website on Google by typing in your name.
Now that all sounds like bad news… the idea of having a website is to allow anyone to find you, strangers as much as your best ever friends and customers. But it no work like that no more.
You’ve got to promote yourself or your business regardless of whether your an artist, small business or giant corporation. And sure you can take out advertising space on Billboards that line the M4 into London… or you can spend a fraction of that money on Google Adwords and other Pay-Per-Click type things… or you can post pictures on Instagram.
I cannot explain the inns and outs of this… but I can say that if you call me up and ask me what keyword people looked up to find your website, a few hundred will have used your Brand name and fewer than 10 will have used your favourite most chased after keyword.
Warning Small Print Coming Up
The reason for this trend, we believe, is the lack of trust-building up between Google and their customers, you and I and anyone searching on Google. If you look up a train time, or cinema tickets or a historical fact. Google is going to give you the answer and that is an excellent service. But if you are looking up your sisters Birthday present, or whether Blue or Pink would look better in the dining room you’ll be hit by a barrage of adverts. Humans simply see through all this… we’re not interested unless it matches exactly what we want.
By this definition, we are suspicious of Google’s guidance, we might click a few adverts and mix things up a little… but is that enough to make us decide and buy? All too often not.
But when it comes to Brand name… word of mouth, someone somewhere has giving us the idea, we look it up on Google, it’s re-enforced by an Advert and kapow we buy into it. Brand is very strong.
And where do we hear most of our Brand Names from and that’s Word-of-Mouth or in digital speak Social Media? Social is by far the bigger keyword… and who hasn’t typed into WhatsApp – ‘what would you like for Christmas?’ or words to that effect.
The trend in 2021 is going to get significantly stronger for Social Media and while at some point in the future the end might be insight for Facebook… it won’t be 2021. Business has invaded and it is not about to let us escape that easily.
Conclusion
I’m only focussing on these two narrow trends for the moment, the reason is that with small SME’s in mind these are probably the two most important trends for 2021 in regards to Website Design. We’ve seen website become more uniform or homogenised, the layouts look the same, the mobile experience is that same, the checkout process is the same… there’s less room for innovation and experimentation particularly at the lower end of the investment market.
Thus the reduction in the cost barrier to entry is very welcome, Websites get a job done and in 2021 we can do it quickly, easily and well.
Within the industry then the trends are positive and good… the problems businesses face in 2021 lie outside of the Internet and probably in the bigger off-line area. For now, just make sure you upload a few photos to Instagram.