Web Design Nostalgia

Web Design Nostalgia– If you are old enough to remember when the internet came about you will remember web design with a certain sense of nostalgia remembering how it all began and the simple sites that created such a buzz. The internet began in 1989 as a way for scientists to share data. It went public in 1992. 

In the early days, anyone could easily put up a site. There were many sites that were just for fun. There were message boards, newsgroups, and forums in the early days. We can’t forget the instant messengers either. They were the forerunners of social media and internet marketing. Messengers included:

AOL Website

AIM – AOL Instant Messenger

ICQ

Yahoo Messenger

MSN

iChat

There have been many changes over the past couple of decades. Now websites must be developed with things like SEO and geo-targeted SEO in mind, so the search engines like Google and Bing rank the site for result placement. The higher the ranking the higher up in the search results your site will place.

Original Versions of Popular Websites

There are thousands of nostalgic websites that are no longer in operation unlike Google, Apple, and the likes.

Some of our favorite sites that we remember fondly and associate with the much younger versions of ourselves are:

  • Myspace
  • Bebo
  • Miniclip
  • AskJeeves an early search engine
  • Klingon Language Institute
  • Netscape
  • com the first pet store online
  • Boo a British clothing store
  • Webvan was a grocery delivery company
  • Beenz allowed customers to earn beenz(points) shopping online, logging in through certain internet providers, or just visiting a website at times.
  • Six Degrees was the first modern online networking program
  • Virtual Magic Kingdom an online gaming site
  • Yahoo auctions the forerunner to Ebay and Deal Dash.
  • Stock Generation allowed customers to trade virtual companies
  • Spacejam

Myspace

Bebo

Netscape

If you look at any of these old websites you will see a completely different style. You might find these older sites are flat, 2d at best with very few graphics. They had little to no sales information other than a link to the product or service. Think of an index or card catalog from a library. Web Design Nostalgia runs deep if you ever compare your experience with “Ask Jeeves from years ago with the today version Alexa! Engaging Alexa in a conversation that turns the lights on and off, reminds you of important dates, plays favorite music, reads poetry or keeps you shopping list.

There have been dramatic changes in everything from design platforms to monitor displays to making sure a website is ADA compliant. There are some excellent site builder tools available today but fortunately most savvy business owners turn to experienced web developers or agencies to  get their website built, maintained and found online. The decision to hire a competent web design agency is critical in that they will be able to provide direction on content creation, E-commerce design platforms integration of the top social media sites. They can also make recommendations on ways to introduce a new content to the site or the latest innovation i the company, often through the installation of a WordPress Blog Platform. a blog will be included. 

Web Design and Internet Marketing

In the early stages of the internet web design nostalgia that takes us back to simpler times where web design did not really have much to do with marketing. The site design like the advertising was pretty bland. Maybe a graphic or two and a text link to follow. An example of this is Ask Jeeves, a graphic of a man that might be a professor or professional that will find the information to answer your query.

Internet marketing had its beginnings with the first clickable banner in 1993. These early links connecting the person to a page for the company and showing the product they could find at a variety of retail stores. Actually purchasing the product online did not happen until 1994. The banner ad was sold to companies that had products they wanted to sell. When clicked on, it would take the user to a landing page. That landing page held the sales pitch of the product.

In 1995, online marketing had adapted a way to target a company’s customers. An ad campaign based on users 18 to 30; another based on 30 to 60, and or based on their lifestyle and activities. This type of marketing allowed companies better pay off for the advertising dollars.

Then along came the pop-up ads. They were annoying. If you have had to deal with them, you know what I mean. This type of advertising did not last long before a software programmer come up with a way to block those popups.

Next, paid search and pay-per-click advertising were the marketing king. More recently came social media marketing. Today, we have content marketing. Content marketing provides valuable information to the consumer and allows the company to place clickable links in the content.

It is no longer so easy to put up a website and sell products. With the search engine algorithms and advertising, you must have something to get noticed. All the marketing models used cookies and still do. The cookies show them where the buyer is coming from to their site. They also have tools that tell them how long a customer stays on the page.

Today marketing on the internet uses several ways combined to bring targeted customers to their site. Informative content with SEO keywords about the product or services placed on social media and blogs.

The content needs outgoing links, backlinks, and more. There is also Geo-Targeted SEO where the content is tailored to a specific area such as Salt Lake City, Utah, or Houston, Texas.

Google rates the results of websites using content, readability, SEO, and more. Today you will find many components on a website instead of just text including videos.

Compare one of the older sites to a new site today, and you will see the major differences.

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