On Average, a Person Visits 5 Websites Daily.
In 2024, the internet is indispensable. Beyond its obvious critical importance, it primarily offers us pleasure and an unprecedented level of convenience. Online banking, social media, Google, WhatsApp, and YouTube are just a few of the common interfaces to the internet that nearly everyone uses.
A World Without Google or Amazon?
The availability of information and products has never been higher. Knowledge is quickly and freely accessible to everyone. The vast variety of products from countless online shops fosters fierce competition, allowing for easy price comparisons and access to reviews, but also pushing us towards mass consumption.
A World Without Google or Amazon?
The availability of information and products has never been higher. Knowledge is quickly and freely accessible to everyone. The vast variety of products from countless online shops fosters fierce competition, allowing for easy price comparisons and access to reviews, but also pushing us towards mass consumption.
The Double-Edged Sword.
On one hand, it has never been easier and more effective to market a product to a target audience or to grow a brand and make it accessible to everyone. On the other hand, many people also exploit this global connectivity, resulting in unprecedented competitive pressure.
How to Navigate This Landscape
It doesn’t matter if you are an entrepreneur, artist, freelancer, or have another reason to maintain an online presence. To succeed on the internet, you need to stand out. Marketing is a complex harmony of various key factors that can vary greatly depending on the product or brand. A concept that works for one product will almost never achieve the same success with a completely different product. Even the main target groups, men and women, are fundamentally different in every aspect of marketing.
How to Navigate This Landscape
It doesn’t matter if you are an entrepreneur, artist, freelancer, or have another reason to maintain an online presence. To succeed on the internet, you need to stand out. Marketing is a complex harmony of various key factors that can vary greatly depending on the product or brand. A concept that works for one product will almost never achieve the same success with a completely different product. Even the main target groups, men and women, are fundamentally different in every aspect of marketing.
Design Evokes Emotions
When someone visits a website for the first time, they decide within seven seconds whether to stay or leave. Here, the content and offerings play a minor role. Six fundamental points are crucial: clarity, recognizability, speed, professionalism,
simplicity, and ranking.
In summary, the average user follows a consistent pattern. They search for something that interests them on Google. Even if they’ve seen an advertisement, they will look up a product, service, or
topic online, and the person, brand or company behind it. This information gathering should be quick and straightforward to create a trustworthy impression. It starts with Google ranking. The higher your website appears in Google
search results, the more credible the overall impression.
At this point the user opens the website, much happens in a short time. It's essential for the website to load quickly, even with a slow internet connection. If it
takes several seconds to load fully, users often leave before seeing anything. Once loaded, the first visual impression matters. The landing page must match the product or service, appear professional and authentic, and be immediately
understandable.
This psychological mechanism is why most websites look and feel similar. For a web developer, the challenge is to adhere to these rules while ensuring the website stands out through its uniqueness. Only after these hurdles
are overcome do the content, reviews, and the product or service itself gain importance.
Differences Between Fully Coded And CMS
What is the difference between Code and CMS like WordPress?
Every website is built with code. HTML and CSS play the most crucial roles in design, while JavaScript is typically used for logic and functionality. Good websites often use databases, and to process data securely (such as in login areas or contact forms), knowledge of MySQL and PHP is necessary. Because not everyone has the time or desire to learn programming for years to eventually build a good website, content management systems (CMS) were developed. CMS allow the creation of simple websites with a minimum knowledge. They provide a graphical user interface and various editors, which do not initially require significant programming skills. The most well-known CMS by far is the open-source software WordPress.
What are the problems with WordPress and other CMS?
While CMS might seem like a perfect solution, it brings some challenges. Creating a functional design still requires following many rules. Issues like semantics (e.g., making the website accessible for visually impaired users), responsive design (adapting the site to different screen sizes), or SEO (search engine optimization) require at least HTML knowledge. If the code of a website is poor, no matter how good it looks, the Google algorithm might not understand it, and it may not be found in search results. CMS websites also include a lot of additional code to be understood by the underlying software, which can make them very slow if misused.
Are CMS websites inferior to coded websites?
Not necessarily. A professional CMS website can also work very well. CMS websites are quicker to create and update, making them a good option for small businesses with limited budgets, as many providers offer relatively cheap WordPress websites. However, CMS have limited design and function possibilities, which usually suffice for small businesses, especially in the beginning.
What are the advantages of fully coded websites?
Fully coded websites offer limitless possibilities in design, functions, and structure. Theoretically, any design, idea, or concept can be implemented individually. However, since the developer must write every line of code, the time investment is much higher, which also affects the cost. Fully coded websites are unrivaled in terms of loading and scripting speed.
What is the best choice?
Both types of websites have their pros and cons. However, it is clear that both CMS websites (like WordPress sites) and fully coded websites should only be built by experienced web designers and developers to ensure they effectively serve their purpose.