Web Site Myths

There are many myths and misconceptions regarding the design process and unrealistic expectations about what a web site can and cannot do for a company.

It Ain’t Necessarily So...

In the modern world, a company without a web site is like an office without a telephone—you’re constantly out of touch. But there are many myths and misconceptions regarding the design process and unrealistic expectations about what a web site can and cannot do for a company. We can’t say we’ve heard them all, but we’ve heard more than a few, so let us share.

Myth: Thinking Web Sites Are Just HTML

A Web page is an empty vessel filled with the rich content your customers want to see. Web technologies—HTML, tableless CSS, web page validation and XML, for example—will not now, or ever, replace compelling content.

Myth: Developing Effective Web Sites Is Easy

Not by a long shot. Creating a successful web site takes a mutual commitment—from the client and the designer—of time, resources, effort and patience.

Myth: Web Sites Can Be “Finished”

The Web is dynamic in nature, ever-changing and ever-growing. If your site doesn’t change and grow with it, you’ll be left behind. A static site—one with no regularly added content—gives users no reason to return; they’ve already seen everything you’ve got, so why bother?

Myth: Thinking Anyone Really Cares About Your Web Site

Users will only “care” about your site to the extent to which it helps them solve their problems or answer their questions about how the services you and your company provide can help them.

Myth: People Want To Read Every Word of Your Site

With billions of pages of information available online, surfers skim rather than read your content. Yes, compelling content may help draw them in further, but designing your content with skimmers in mind will prove more effective in the long run.

Myth: Everything You See On The Web Is Free For The Taking

Not so much. Plagiarism is plagiarism, whether by copying an unattributed passage from a book or lifting a graphic or even an entire page from someone else’s web site; it's happened to us, more than a few times. But, we know how to handle this problem.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes such practices dangerous to the health of your site (you can be removed from the major search engine’s indexes and your web host would rather shut down your site than run the risk of being accused of any sort of complicity) and expensive (copyright holders may charge you any dollar figure they like if you use their stuff without their permission and it is guaranteed not to be cheap).

Myth: Your Web Site Defines Your Company

It’s more the other way round. Your company’s site should reinforce and amplify who you are and what you do. Defining your company solely through your web site is, plain and simple, a mistake.

Myth: Your Web Site Replaces Your Company’s Marketing Strategy

If you’ve already got a successful marketing plan in place, what makes you think replacing that strategy with a web site would be better? Hey, you think L. L. Bean stopped sending out catalogs when llbean.com went live?

Myth: Flash Has Any Practical Use Whatsoever

Let’s run it down—search engines cannot see anything written in Flash, the navigation of most of these sites is confusing at best and befuddling at worst. Truthfully, the only people enchanted by a Flash applet’s possibilities are the people who create (and sell) them. For everyone else, they’re just annoying.

Myth: People Like Sites That Force-Feed Them Multimedia

Not so much. If you’re not a musician, why do you have music automatically pumping out of your site?

Myth: Animated Gif’s Are “Cute”

No. Please. Not ever. Not even once.

Myth: People Will Find Your Site The Instant It Goes Live

It takes weeks and months for search engines to “find” just your front page—even when you draw ‘em a road map. In the interim, the people looking at your site are mostly you and your family.

Myth: Web Sites Are Like Magazines Or Any Other Media

The Internet is an entirely new and different medium than any other, with the promise of direct interaction between you and your customers throughout the entire world. Is there another medium that can do that?