leveltwo Business Architects

A good portion of my responsibilities for Level2 Designs is to check links. I check if they work and fix them if they don’t. Many of our clients are linked to hundreds of different sites. I’m the lucky one that gets to see all different kinds of sites all day! It is really broadening my view on web designing. Although, I don’t have a lot of experience with web layouts and the designing that goes into that, I can tell the difference between a brand new site, one that is outdated, and one that was not done by a professional.

I often ask my bosses why we are linked to sites that don’t keep up. These really big names have some really bad pages that no one is going to take seriously. I mean really, are they nervous about change? Do they want to make more money? Is it because it isn’t on the top of the priority list? If it isn’t, well it should be! Millions of pages are out there and everyone is out there looking and all those people that are looking are not going to spend any time on your page if it isn’t shiny like a brand new penny! People want products. The demand is here for everything and if you have the supply then let it be available on line.

Just for a few points and reasons to update your page I’m going to let everyone in on some secrets. First off, people search for stuff on line on a daily basses. The way to search for a site is by search engines. The only thing people have to search with on these engines is key words. Does anyone get where I am going with this? SEO is one of the most important ways of getting people on your sites! You have to have great, not good, but great keywords. You have to have good ratings. Also, your links have to work. How many times have you been looking for information and came to a dead end? You know that wonderful page that says ‘Page not found’? That means that link is considered ‘broken’. Now why would anyone go back to a page that has broken links on it? This means lost clients or customers and that means lost money.

Another point is people had a certain style in the ‘80s. Yes, I am bringing up that bad hair and neon colors. No one wants to think about how bad they looked back then. So why should we remind them with ‘80s style websites? I would give you some links that have really made me want to run to m closet and make sure my bangle bracelets did get thrown out with the rest of my Rave hairspray, but I feel bad for picking on these sites. And really don’t want to admit that I even visited them! People do want to know that their sources are up-to-date, so they may look to see if the site they want information from has been updated at least in the last decade. I’m very sorry everyone, but the ‘80s style did die. Please let go of the neon stripes and bubble letters on your pages. It won’t make you money.

One thing that I have learned from this company is to check, check it and check it again. That one link that doesn’t work or that one typo that blocks a keyword is always the one part of the page that someone will notice. So if you can’t, for some unexplainable reason, update your page at least help clean up the web community a little by editing your existing pages. It will help everyone in the long run.