Website Trends for 2012

What are the likely trends in websites for 2012?

Our Design Director, Hamish Braddick, put forward his thoughts on the online trends for the next year at our recent Conference. I have added some extra ones to give you:

The Top Ten Website Trends for 2011

#1 Websites for Mobile Devices

We all know that browsing on cellphones and PDA’s has increased hugely, thanks to the iPhone and similar devices. But not many website developers are creating websites specifically used for handheld devices.
If you intend developing a business that is targeting the large numbers of mobile users, you will need a website that displays perfectly on the small screens like the iPhone or Google Nexus One. If your website isn't accessible through a smartphone or PDA, visitors will give up and go somewhere else - losing you potential sales.
With the recent release of the iPad, the mobile market will become even bigger and SMEs need to ensure their website works on all sizes of screens.
It is also interesting to note that Google is spending a lot of money on mobile searching, and businesses need to leverage off that.

#2 Social Media

Facebook and Twitter were the big winners out of all the social networks in 2011, and their popularity will increase in 2012 as both are introducing new features, such as paid accounts for business. Developing a social media strategy is no longer optional, it is vital to the health of a company and its ability to tap into an online user-base. Keep an eye on Google Buzz which Google may reinvent as a Google Facebook.

Hamish believes that if you aren't engaging online, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to gain new customers and fans who will effectively do your marketing for you, if given enough reason.

#3 Reputation management

The downside of the huge growth in social media, is just how fast rumours and allegations can fly in the digital age. Several companies have had their reputations tarnished within hours from the activities of either rogue employees, or a botched advertising campaign. 2012 will see more companies embracing the need to address the inherent risks of social media, with enterprises moving towards a scientific and empirically-based approach to managing risk.

Businesses need to control their reputation by monitoring what people are saying about them. Companies have rushed into conducting social media marketing campaigns without proper research and without adequately addressing the risk factors associated with social media. Auditing, monitoring and analysing social media platforms, along with risk mitigation strategies, should be standard tactics for companies looking to protect and enhance their brand on social media platforms.

#4 Conversion

Google Engineer, Matt Cutts, has emphasised in a video interview (you can see it in my video pages) that webmasters should be focussing on getting their website visitors to take action – buy something/make an enquiry, rather than spending all their efforts on SEO. That has been the focus of our Website Workshops for more than four years now, so it is pleasing to see we had picked that trend. It will be even more important in the future.
If you are getting less then 3% conversion rate, you might think about attending a Website Workshop.

# 5 Marketing

Hamish reported that many businesses are developing new and interesting mobile marketing campaigns to draw people into their stores. There are various companies developing software that will determine that a potential customer is say, nearing a coffee shop, and will send the customer a text advising of a special offer on a coffee.

Google has developed a system where users take a picture of a barcode with their mobile phone and use the search engine to find information. Cinemas currently run promotions where movie goers with Bluetooth activated on their handsets will receive discount offers via text messages when they walk into the lobby.

The mobile apps market will need to become part of an online business's marketing strategy in 2012.

#6 Content

All my clients know the emphasis I put on content. Content is still King and will continue to drive rankings. The release of the iPad, and its imitators, will create a huge demand for E-Books to be read on these devices. Over the holidays, I have created three new website E-Books and two troutfishing E-Books, in anticipation of the increase in acceptance of reading books on a iPad or E-Book reader such as Kindle.
A free E-Book on your website will be of increasing interest to your visitors enabling them to download information and read it at their leisure. All my E-Books are free to my clients – just email me with your request and I’ll shoot it out to you.

#7 YouTube

The growth of the internet has allowed businesses to publish content of their own, including blogs, pictures and even videos. We believe all Zeald website owners should think about creating some sort of content on YouTube to see your fan base grow. Most of you will be aware of the device on your Zeald.com that enables you to load a link to a YouTube video in seconds.

There are a lot of smaller to medium sized businesses that have loaded videos onto YouTube, and they are doing really well. But you must be generating useful content, without the appearance of a blatant marketing pitch.

#8 SEO for personalised searches

Understanding how search engine algorithms work, in order to get your site on "page one" has been a tactic used by online businesses for years. But SEO experts say the process of getting a website ranking well will become even harder in 2012 with the rise of personalised and real-time search (Google Instant).

Social network Twitter sparked a trend when it designed the first popular real-time search engine. When users search for a term, the site would update that search with new "tweets" as they were being made.

Google has recently introduced a real-time search function of its own, complete with indexed tweets, while Microsoft Bing has made a deal to show tweets in search results. Hamish believes that all of the normal SEO techniques will still apply, even though Google is introducing personalised search. That will be a factor in SEO but you still have to get on the first page before you can get into someone's personal search results.

#9 Open Source

Many business owners used to be lacking trust in open-source programs, compared to branded, supposedly more trustworthy software solutions, like Microsoft. But now open-source has given SMEs a way of operating high-end programs without substantial costs.

Software programs such as Mozilla, Safari, Open Office, WordPress and Joomla are now gaining in popularity as SME’s are beginning to realise that open-source programs aren't just technically inferior rip-offs, but legitimate alternatives.

A number of organisations, including the British Government and the French police force, have openly supported open-source. With the development and popularity of open-source Android operating system continuing to grow, open-source is likely to play a major part in a business's IT strategy in 2012.

#10 Cloud computing

Two years ago "cloud computing" was viewed by many businesses as a buzzword with no particular meaning, used by techies who we did not know what they were talking about.

Now, using cloud services is becoming essential for many businesses. Whether they are backing up their data or using a piece of software hosted on external servers, cloud computing is now a part of everyday operations for many SMEs.

Cloud computing does not eliminate the costs of IT solutions, but it does rearrange some and reduce others. In addition, consuming cloud services enterprises will increasingly act as cloud providers and deliver application, information or business process services to customers and business partners.


One very interesting development is in the area of domain names with some new domain name extensions being released:

New Generic Domain Name Extensions Coming!

On the 20th June 2011 the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced its decision to allow applications for generic Top Level Domains (gTLD’s). In essence all possible domain name extensions can soon be registered e.g. brands such as “.bmw” may be registered as well as generic names such as “.food”. This is set to change the global domain name industry!

The rates will be set by the new registries but will likely to be around $50-$100 pa to own a new domain name extension.