9 ways to future-proof your website

Commissioning a website is a big investment for any business – in both time and money – and everyone wants it to be perfect at launch. But a website lives long after launch day and it’s essential that the cash and effort put into the project reap rewards well into the future. And don’t be tempted to ask your agency to make the site “future proof” – because that isn’t something you can reasonably expect them to deliver.

The future proofing myth

If anyone tells you they can future proof your website, don’t believe them. It’s impossible. Even the best minds in the business can’t predict with any level of certainty what the Internet – or the devices we use to access it – will look like even in twelve months, let alone the real future. Remember when the iPhone launched? Few saw it coming and the Internet irreversibly changed that day. Because the rules on design, front end code, usability and user expectations all made a seismic shift to a new level.

Many of those sites that had been ‘future proofed’ suddenly looked very old indeed. The fixed-width layouts we’d become accustomed to making and using became ugly overnight. Preconceived ideas and patterns around screen size and context looked foolish. Clients who had been led to believe their site was the digital embodiment of Peter Pan, looked to their agency with confusion and anger. It turned out that the general idea of a future proofed website was fundamentally flawed. And those who’d promised clients a future without worries couldn’t help but feel a little sheepish.

It’s a scenario that plays out in varying forms every day around the world as the evolution of the ‘Net continues.

So, the idea of a website that is 100% compatible with changes we don’t yet know are coming, is a myth. But there are steps you can take to ensure your website has the maximum possible adaptability over time.

1. Build on solid foundations

It may sound dull and only for the geeks, but having solid foundations in your website’s front end code is a must for a future capable website.

There are many ways for developers to write the core files that make your website work (the HTML, CSS and JavaScript). But many of those ways aren’t very good. Browsers are brilliant at dealing with poorly structured and overly complicated code, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for it being a mess in the first place.

Since the mid 2000’s, the Internet as a whole has moved towards a set of standards that everyone – browser makers and developers – should follow.

These standards (when followed) help sites work well across multiple browsers and devices, are accessible to users with assistive devices, perform better in organic and paid search, load more quickly, and are much, much easier to maintain.

You don’t need to know what good code looks like (but it helps) – just be confident your developers know, and are committed to giving you a solid product. If in any doubt, ask a third party who knows what they’re looking for to give your devs’ previous work a once over.

2. Be responsive and adaptive

The last few years have seen a huge leap towards the ‘mobile optimisation’ of websites. You’ll now find lots of sites that change shape to fit the screen size and device you’re working on. The best ones use responsive and adaptive design and coding techniques to make that happen. Insist your site does, too.

Why? Because, if your site isn’t already pulling in more users from mobile and tablet devices than desktop, it soon will. And a site that doesn’t adapt is guaranteed to have less engagement from users.

Google also uses ‘mobile friendly’ as a ‘ranking signal’ in its search algorithm. And is even moving towards not showing sites in its mobile search results that aren’t optimised. And that’s half of your potential audience you might be missing out on.

3. Choose features and media formats that are already widely supported

Web browsers are constantly improving, and the techniques available to designers and developers is also evolving. There are lots of cool new things that can be done in the most up to date browsers that older software and devices just can’t handle. And a lot of people are still using those browsers.

There’s also no guarantee that new features will ever be available in all future browsers. So that fancy new animation effect your designer is suggesting might just never see the light of day in most users’ hands. Or worse, get dropped from the specification all together, making it obsolete.vMake sure your designer and dev are sticking to techniques that are widely supported wherever possible. If in doubt, ask if it’ll work in older versions of Internet Explorer and see what their plan is. It’s not all doom and gloom, because there are ways of providing a more simple experience to users who don’t have sufficient technology – it’s just much more efficient to maintain one version (or very few).

4. Keep it simple

Fancy techniques, plugins and frameworks can save time now, but can cause upgrade and maintenance headaches later on.

If you’re building a website for now – perhaps a campaign website that will be retired in just a few months – go for it. Use every fancy, fashionable trick in the book and make a big statement. But, if you’re building something to last and which needs not to be a financial burden to maintain, keep it simple.

That doesn’t mean your design or user experience (UX) needs to be boring. Far from it. Some of the very best designs we come across in life are the most simple and elegant. It just means your designer needs to think in a different way to fit the needs of the project.

5. Focus on usability

The Internet has been around for a few decades. Humans, millions of years. If you achieve a design that is usable and predictable for people to use, then it’s unlikely to get old quickly. Only fashions change, and if you’ve set things up properly, you’ll only need to change a few small things every now and again to stay ahead of the curve.

6. Keep it maintained

Get a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place with your agency, and make sure they have regular actions to check over the health of the website and to keep it updated. It’ll help you stay on top of content updates, bug fixes and third party script updates. Make sure they do regular browser and device testing, too – especially when new devices or operating systems come to the market or become popular amongst your users.

An SLA can take many forms, include a range different promises and vary greatly in cost depending on the size and complexity of the site.

7. Know when to drop device and browser support

Time does move on, and just because you needed to support IE6 or Android 1.0 devices at launch, it doesn’t mean you still should. Newer browsers and devices might now account for a much higher proportion of visitors. Even if you still have a handful of die-hard users on old browser versions, take a look at your budget and make sure it’s spent in the right places, perhaps dropping IE6 support to focus on that growth you’ve spotted from Windows phone. Review your analytics data with your agency regularly and make sensible decisions together.

8. Check your analytics data regularly

Having analytics tracking installed and configured is only the beginning. Take time to regularly review the key statistics. If you have goal tracking set up (which you should), then you’ll be able to see how all sorts of things affect conversion on your site. Only regular reviews will show you where to concentrate efforts, and how well any changes have performed.

If you’re not sure how to read your analytics data, there are lots of resources online if you want to learn for yourself. Alternatively, include the responsibility for gleaning insights from the data into your agency’s SLA with you.

9. Check your competitors’ sites regularly

Each and every day, you’ll have customers who are comparing your business with your competitors and making decisions based on their experience of your websites. So know what new features, content updates and big launches rivals are doing. You shouldn’t rip off your competitors’ ideas – that’s poor sportsmanship at the very least. Instead simply aim to do something better. But at least if you know what’s changing in your market, you’re able to respond quickly and intelligently.

Finally

However you choose to give your site longevity, always make sure you find an agency partner who’s committed to working with you for the long term for the benefit of your business. And who cares about the continued brilliance of your website.