MJ University.
2011 Web Site Trends
As the year starts to unfold you're probably in the middle of reviewing business initiatives for 2011, and with that, perhaps you’ll evaluate your web site to see if it’s up to snuff to help meet your plan. There’s an excess of web trends and ideologies that evolve each year as technology continues to grow. We've combed through the list to highlight what we deem most important to encourage business expansion and ultimately business success.
Scalable Web Sites. iPhones, Blackberries, Androids, iPads - everyone is using some sort of sophisticated hand held these days. Be courteous to your mobile customer and ensure your site is scalable for a multitude of interfaces. It’s not a difficult task and it’s certainly quite affordable. Take your mobile device and punch in http://www.microjenisys.com/ to see an example.
Editorial Style Layouts. Too much content that you don’t know what to do with? Avoid overwhelming your visitor with congested top level pages that scroll to never-never land. Try a grid style to hold different content categories for your user to select. Not only will your visitor have control over their selections, search engines will rank you higher using your search-friendly content. Here’s a good example of a site in editorial style layout: http://www.verizonbusiness.com/Thinkforward.
Online Security. Each year the number of online transactions steadily increases. Forrester Research released a five-year forecast predicting that e-commerce sales in the U.S. will keep growing at a 10% compound annual growth rate through 2014. So as you can see, it’s imperative that you take the necessary precautions to secure your customer’s information. Perform your research, establish a plan, and then implement your security measures. Lastly, demonstrate that you respect online safety by including a trust seal of the technology you employed. Your customers can relax a little bit knowing that you didn’t skip any steps when it comes to protecting their data.
Concise Messaging. As we continue to use resources likes Twitter and Facebook our attention span wanes with each new update we receive. It’s no wonder that some of us have adopted this now-isn’t-soon-enough attitude wanting information in the laconic shorthand form. Keeping your key messaging concise and accessible will keep them interested and ultimately, they’ll come back for more.
SEO. Let’s face it. Whether we like it or not, sometimes the web can be one big popularity contest. If you don’t regularly update your web site with fresh content, you’re shoved to the back of the line. Better yet, if you have broken links or bogus content that doesn’t match your pages you take home a bad grade. You don’t need to break the bank to invest in SEO practices though you have to actively nurture your web site. Organic content, keywords, and metadata are highly effective when well thought out and executed. Your best bet is to devise an ongoing content update plan and stick with it. Also, try to enlist your site’s URL with neighboring vendors and resources. The more you web site is out there, the more popular you become.
We hope you enjoyed this MJU Training and Tips. Please contact us with any questions you may have about 2011 web trends. 
