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3 Frequently Asked Web Questions

Posted by Markentum Team on Dec 20, 2019 9:00:00 AM
Markentum Team
| 5 minute read

3 Frequently Asked Web Questions_Markentum

At Markentum, websites are a vital part of the digital marketing process for our senior living partners. Its where visitors from all of your digital marketing and advertising efforts go to learn more about your company, research your services, and make a buying decision. For this reason, it should be one of the most essential investments your business makes.

Our Markentum web development team prides themselves on best practices to prevent web issues that could impact your site’s overall performance. Throughout this process, we work closely with our partners to gather feedback, and we have heard many of the same frequently asked questions about website issues or concerns. 

We want to share a few of those frequently asked questions regarding web issues and more!

Q1. How Often Should I Redesign My Website?

A: Every business and their website is different, so there isn’t one set amount of time that would work for every company’s redesign project. For e-commerce businesses that revolve their entire business model around their website, every year, they may choose to update the layout or design, with new copy and imagery updated every month (or more frequently, depending on promotions and inventory changes). 

For businesses that have a brick and mortar location but rely heavily on website traffic to generate customers, we recommend redesigning your website and content every two to three years. If your business has undergone significant changes requiring a rebrand, you’ll want to redesign your website to launch with those new changes so that everything is consistent across all of your marketing and advertising messaging. 

READ: "SEO AND YOUR SENIOR LIVING WEBSITE"

Keep in mind that a website redesign doesn’t always mean it has to be rebuilt from the ground up. Depending on your current website’s structure, many businesses can simply “reskin” their website to use new images and content without redeveloping a completely new website. This “reskin” can give the results needed - an updated look, fresh content that is relevant to your current business, and modern design elements that reflect the latest trends for web design. 

Q2. Why Does My Website Look Different in Every Browser?

web-browsersA: We hear this one a lot! You’re using Safari, but then you view your website in Google Chrome or Internet Explorer, and now it looks different. Not a huge difference, but the fonts are slightly bolder or lighter, causing the spacing of your text to reflow differently than in the other browser. Images will most likely display correctly, but you can’t help but notice how the text reflows, so things don’t quite line up as they did in the other browser.

Why is that? Well, unfortunately, this is something that drives web developers nuts. Internet Explorer, Safari, and Google Chrome all have different ways of displaying the same code and fonts - which can also vary between each version of those browsers. 

During development, this means a significant amount of time must be spent doing browser compatibility testing to find any web issues. The layout may display differently, fonts are seldom exactly the same, and in most cases, certain web styles are not “honored” the same way across all browsers. This can cause a major shift in the way things look, requiring additional adjustments from the web developer.

At Markentum, we spend the last phase of development testing our web designs in different browsers and devices so that we can have the web design look as consistent as possible across all browsers. Due to the differences in font weights that will reflow text, it’s almost impossible to have the website look exactly the same across all browsers, but we make sure all elements are displaying and working properly before launching the new site.

 

Q3. What is Responsive Web Design and Why Do I Need it?

A: You’ve probably heard the term "responsive" before but aren’t quite sure what it means. Responsive web design means that the website “responds” to the size of the screen that it is being viewed within and reflows accordingly. This means your website may stack certain elements and reflow to look like a mobile website when viewed from your smartphone. On a tablet, it will display to fit that screen and then may expand even wider to look different on a large monitor or laptop screen.

Responsive Web Design_GIF
This intuitive change in the website layout is seen as a best practice for web design, as it allows your website to have a single source of content that is automatically optimized for every screen. It also helps with search engine optimization, as mobile-friendly websites rank higher than websites that are not mobile-friendly. This is a crucial part of any digital marketing plan and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Fifteen years ago, traditional websites used static designs that appeared the same on every screen size. Many were slow to load on a smartphone and even impossible to read. Now, responsive web design allows the website to adapt to mobile devices with larger fonts, bigger buttons and touchpoints, and graphics or images that can load faster. As more and more users view your website on a smartphone, responsive web design becomes even more critical to the user experience.  

Markentum is a digital marketing agency in Daytona Beach, Florida, that is leading the way in website development for senior living communities. Have a question we didn't cover? Contact us - we are happy to help!