fivereasonsYou’re probably not carrying the same cell phone you had four or five years ago. Likewise you’re probably not using the same laptop from four or five years ago. Technology changes so fast that it seems like every year you can get faster, better equipment for the same price or less. This economy is true in the internet world, too – in fact, the acceleration is even faster.

If your web site is more than three years old, it’s probably time to take a serious look to see if it’s doing a good job. If your site is more than four years old, you can probably get a better site for less than you are paying now. Even if you’re not concerned with price, the internet has changed significantly in the last few years, and your site may not be delivering what people are looking for today.

Why? Here are five reasons:

1. New Content Management Systems are Faster, Better and Cheaper

A few years ago, most business web sites were built on proprietary content management systems. Meaning your web developer had his own tools to update your web site and you had to use those tools if you wanted to make changes. You paid “rent” to use those tools, and that rent is part of your recurring hosting costs.

Today, some of the most powerful and widely used content management systems are open source (free). They have been created and updated by thousands of programmers worldwide who have donated time to make these free products incredibly powerful. With thousands of people helping to improve these systems, they have become more robust and easier to use than almost any private system.

Bottom line: moving your site to an open source content management system will probably make your site easier to use, easier to enhance, and reduce your hosting costs.

2. Today’s Users Want More Content and Less Flash

Several years ago, the big thing in cutting-edge web development was Flash animations. The Adobe Flash software allowed designers to create elements that moved and changed – navigation buttons that changed when you moused over them, fancy graphic slide shows that faded pictures and logos together, and all kinds of other fancy, flashy ways to keep your web site from being boring.

Today’s user comes to the web for content. They’re probably not coming to your site to be entertained or impressed by your web designer’s creativity. They are there to get information and do business. They may even be on a mobile device where bandwidth and screen space are at a premium. All that “flashy” stuff now is seen as a slow down and a hindrance to getting to the data. Look at the most popular web sites on the web today: Facebook, Google, eBay. They are all clean and fast. None of them have animated splash pages when you visit their site. They are optimized to delivering content.

Bottom line: today’s user wants a fast, clean experience. Extra graphics and animations are annoying, not impressive.

3. New Technologies Exist to Push Content

Four or five years ago the only way to “push” content to your web followers was through broadcast emails. Every savvy web business had a way to subscribe to the email newsletter.

Today email newsletters still exist, but they are on the decline in popularity. New “push” technologies like RSS feeds, Twitter posts, and Facebook integration are growing in popularity. Many web users under 40 prefer to get their content in these new formats, and tend to see your email newsletter in the same light as fax broadcasts and telegrams. Fortunately these new technologies are cheaper and easier than your broadcast emails.

Bottom line: new, inexpensive push technologies are required to reach younger web users.

4. All Technology Prices are Falling

If you’re paying the same price for your web site as you were several years ago, it may be time to review your costs. Everything in technology in cheaper today than it was 3-5 years ago (except labor). Disk space, server costs, bandwidth — have all drastically fallen in price over the last few years. Even software development is cheaper because so much of modern web sites are built from existing parts now. There is no need to pay a developer to build a site from scratch. Existing content management systems and development tools have made it much faster and easier to build web applications than it was only a few years ago.

Bottom line: you should be paying less or getting more than you did a few years ago.

5. Social Networking Is Changing Internet Usage

A few years ago you could measure your internet success by how many hits your website received, or how many email subscribers you had. Search engine rankings were king and companies paid exorbitant sums to get first page listings on Google and Yahoo.

Today’s most popular sites usually have more RSS subscribers than email subscribers. More buzz comes in from Facebook and Twitter referrals, and less from search engines. While search engines are certainly not dead, a good social media campaigns can generate business faster and cheaper than any SEO or banner advertising campaign. The fastest growing sites today are social networks. If your business traditionally grows by client referrals, you need to be active in these networks.

Bottom line: your web strategy needs to tap into the explosive growth of social networking.

So, what’s next?

Take a few minutes to look at your current web site. Is it designed for today’s web user? Does it deliver content effectively? Does your current hosting price reflect the new advances in technology and software development? It may be time for new web site. You may be pleasantly surprised at what results a new site can generate, and how inexpensively it can do it.