Is A Traditional Website Still Effective Website Design?

In technology, one of the greatest living histories of evolution that we use on a daily basis is the Internet. The leaps and bounds that the Internet has been able to cast into the realm of possibility is astounding. From Wifi to social media and even live streaming, the way we interact with the world is not only mobile but even smaller as well, i.e., smartphones and tablets.

Yet with the Internet, we can’t forget websites. From tiled photo backgrounds of MySpace profiles to interactive websites from companies like HP & HubSpot, this evolution has grown in its own right.

Let’s take a look back at the evolution of the website and break down whether not traditional web design is still effective in today’s technological world.

The first website graced us in 1991. It was comprised of all text. Remember, “high-speed Internet” was quite a ways off. So these sites were built light and ready for those painfully slow dial up speeds.

The mid-90’s brought us graphics including the animated GIF and websites were all about designing with columns, rows, navigation elements, and JavaScript enabled scrolling text—all aimed to knock our socks off…and they did!

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The late-90’s began to focus on the visitor. Flash made its appearance—enabling more sophisticated animation. Due to its ubiquitous browser support, Flash also was used to launch video playback.  The use of 3D buttons came about along with bright color changes. And of course with Flash came huge, mind-boggling splash pages with animated images and complex navigation.

The early 2000’s hurdled us into the now! Design became the name of the game and the focus was driven with CSS (cascading style sheets)—causing developers to become interested in predicting the user’s next move.

The mid-2000’s gave us more mature interactivity, a crucial component of the modern websites of today. Web 2.0 was introduced which allowed users to interact with each other. The focus of these websites became SEO (search engine optimization) driven, which focused on getting your site seen through long tailed keywords—hopefully created around your buyer personas.

I get very uncomfortable when someone makes a design decision without customer contact.—Dan Ritzenthaler

That brings us to today. Today’s CMS (content management system) based website is now appearing more minimalistic—partly due to WordPress templates and other easy to manage solutions, i.e., website builders like Squarespace and Wix. Relevant content is mandatory through blog posts, webinars, live Q&As and so much more. While graphics, in some cases, have been relegated to flat art design—leaving room for a new wave of art direction.

What truly sets modern websites apart from their traditional ancestors isn’t just a matter of design or flashy features—it’s about how content is prioritized and how visitors are engaged. Gone are the days when a homepage was a static billboard listing your services. Today, the most effective sites are rich in content and value, providing resources, articles, or videos front and center. This means your visitors are greeted with answers and insights, not just a sales pitch.

Here’s the thing: traditional websites that lead with clever slogans and polished service pitches might look sharp, but they often miss the mark when it comes to what today’s visitors are actually searching for—real, immediate value. Think about your own browsing habits. When you land on a website, are you there to marvel at witty taglines, or are you hunting for answers to your burning questions?

If your website is simply showcasing your services with artful language, it’s easy for visitors—especially those at the earliest stages of decision-making—to bounce away. After all, if the first thing they see isn’t directly useful to them, there’s little incentive to stick around.

Let’s take a cue from the BBC. Their homepage isn’t just an endless advertisement for TV shows and radio programs. It’s loaded with news, headlines, and stories that invite you to explore. This steady stream of engaging, helpful content is what pulls visitors in and keeps them coming back. The same principle applies to any modern website—fill your pages with content that encourages digging deeper, exploring, and engaging. For most of your visitors, this is exactly what they’re looking for at the early stages of their buying cycle.

Today, rather than immediately reaching out to peers or dusting off a bookshelf, most turn to Google, Bing, or even forums like Reddit to gather insights. They type in questions, browse Quora discussions, and scan LinkedIn posts. Popular industry websites and digital magazines—think Harvard Business Review or Entrepreneur—often guide these initial explorations, providing answers and introducing them to solutions they hadn’t considered.

By the time a client contacts you, they’ve likely spent hours, if not days, scrolling through articles, comparing services, reading reviews, and collecting information from various sources—not unlike the process of reading this blog or skimming In-Sites for fresh approaches. The path to your services almost always starts with a search bar and a healthy dose of online curiosity.

Rarely will someone scroll through a beautifully worded homepage and instantly make a decision. Instead, they’re looking for informational content—practical advice, insights, or resources relevant to their needs right now.  Consider the journey of your visitors: When potential clients first recognize a need for professional services, this may be a minor challenge or an intriguing possibility, a workplace snag or a new business goal that needs expert advice or support. In the early stages, that challenge might be quietly researched. Their needs simmer and grow over time, and when they start seeking information, they want value—not a hard sell. If your site welcomes them with useful, engaging content, they’re much more likely to stick around, explore, and remember you when their need becomes urgent.

Why is content so crucial? For one, search engines like Google index every piece of relevant content, making your site more discoverable through the keywords your potential clients are actually searching for. Plus, other sites are far more likely to link to useful resources than to overtly promotional pages. The real secret sauce isn’t some clandestine SEO trick—it’s consistently providing value.

To truly attract and retain potential clients, your site needs to be a destination for valuable content right from the start. By offering up-to-date articles, guides, or videos directly on your homepage, you’re providing real value before there’s ever a sales conversation. This not only builds trust, but also positions you as an expert worth revisiting when the visitor’s passing interest turns into a pressing need.

The Two Pillars of Modern website Design

Today’s website or modern website design focuses on two components:

1. User Experience: User experience or UX is the foundation of any website’s success. Because in order for your company to understand your website’s performance, you need to look to the drivers of your design, i.e., your users.
2. Mobile Technology: Websites need to be responsive. With mobile devices now accounting for nearly 2 of every 3 minutes spent online, websites must be meet audiences in the formats that suits their specific needs.

So what is a modern website?

A modern website can best be defined by exploring the following attributes:

• HTML5 and CSS: These are the core technologies for building a modern website. They allow functionality that is easily readable by users and consistently understood by devices.
• Responsive Design: Responsive design< is HUGE. Websites need to be able to move seamlessly between multiple devices. This is an art that will be noticed by any person that has navigated the same website from their desktop, phone, or even to their tablet. And believe it or not, this feature can retain your users, or show them the exit—especially when 27% of consumers will leave a site if it is not mobile-optimized.
• Parallax Scrolling: Jack Roscoe of Design Principles describes parallax scrolling as “creating the illusion of depth in a 2D environment by moving two or more objects simultaneously at different velocities.” With that being said, designers use this concept to incorporate a new form of storytelling within their website not only stimulating visual attraction but also user curiosity towards your brand’s story.

• Video: Flash became a lame duck in the online space due to its hungry need for processor power. Now video is the shining star. But we’re not talking about your father’s postage stamped sized media player from the nineties. With service providers and CDN’s (content delivery networks) providing improved connection speed and playback, properly produced and placed video has captured audiences around the world. In fact, more than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month, and these users are spending more than 4 billion hours watching videos. Live streaming and interactive video is where websites are headed. Incorporating video may be the next step in the right direction for your company or you can run the risk of getting left behind.
• Inbound Marketing Web Design: If you don’t know this term by now, you will certainly be seeing this a lot moving forward. Inbound marketing is attracting, converting, closing, and delighting your audience through the sales funnel—transforming them from curious strangers to sales ready leads and ultimately delighted customers. Inbound marketing  is the now and the future of marketing especially with the help of the following tools:
  • Calls To Action (CTAs): Drive traffic by creating a call to action that guarantees your audience the incentive of a content offer through accessing one of your lead generating landing pages.
  • Landing page & forms: Every campaign you run should be tied to a custom landing page—not just another homepage where visitors have to guess where to go next. Forms are necessary for landing pages in order to capture appropriate information, i.e., your audience’s email address, to unlock the desired content offer, e.g., an eBook, webinar, live event, etc. You can also incorporate share buttons on your landing pages—allowing your pages to be shared with others who may also need your content.
  • Personalization: People are more than anonymous page views, and you must address them as such. Using smart content with the assistance of your buyer personas is a necessary feature that enables you to personalize your content to different visitors—providing them each with an individualistic experience in every stage of their buyer’s journey.

When creating content, be empathetic above all else. Try to live the lives of your audience.—Rand Fishkin

• • Integration with marketing channels: Every marketing tool from content marketing, social media, marketing automation and analytics are all deeply cooperative and connected to a marketer’s contact database. This allows for a complete history of your lead’s interests and interactions—enabling personalization throughout your marketing strategy.
• Growth Driven Design: Though Growth Driven Design is a fairly new concept, it has definitely defined itself as a more practical and effective design practice when it comes to building your website as well as the usually dreaded redesign process. However, it doesn’t have to feel like a dreaded process anymore. Instead you can feel secure in knowing how your website will affect your audience by creating a website with them in mind. By using research based on your website’s performance and your users’ existing habits, Growth Driven Design allows you to build a website fast—allowing users, both new and old, to experience it in order to learn and make necessary adjustments as you go. Now your website no longer has to be static. Through Growth Driven Design, it has become a living, 24/7 lead attracting, converting and closing machine that is centered around your audience’s interests and habits.

Your modern website needs all of these.

The short version of the methodology is this. It is time to stop waving your hands with an outbound approach to marketing and time to start creating quality content to attract customers to you. Your website should have actionable tips, best practices and SEO keyword rankings set to the standards of today and created around your buyer personas—increasing your site visitors and boosting your digital presence.

Your website should have actionable tips, best practices and SEO keyword rankings set to the standards of today and created around your buyer personas—increasing your site visitors and boosting your digital presence.

But let’s take this a step further. Rather than focusing on pitching your services front and center, prioritize delivering content—whether it’s the latest articles, helpful videos, or insightful resources—right from your homepage. This approach brings two distinct advantages:

• Greater Search Visibility: By offering a content-rich site, you’ll have more pages indexed by Google, each targeting keywords your potential customers are actively searching for. This not only lifts your presence in search engine results but also makes it easier for others in your field to link back to specific articles or resources on your site. Think of it as growing a web of value that naturally draws in organic traffic.
  
  
• Increased Visitor Engagement: When people land on your site and immediately find useful, relevant information, they’re more likely to stick around. Instead of bouncing off a corporate pitch, visitors engage with your content, explore further, and build trust in your expertise.
  
  

By structuring your website around quality content and helpful resources—supported by modern SEO tactics and an understanding of your audience’s needs—you create a digital environment where visitors not only arrive, but stay, learn, and ultimately convert.

“Does it better” will always beat “did it first.”—Aaron Levie

Why Smaller Professional Service Websites Stand Out

So, why do some smaller professional service websites consistently outshine their larger competitors when it comes to web traffic? The answer is simple: content-driven focus.

Instead of leading with aggressive sales pitches or stock “About Us” pages, these nimble sites prioritize publishing valuable, relevant content—think insightful articles, helpful videos, and actionable resources tailored to their ideal clients. The homepage isn’t a parade of service listings; it’s a curated feed of the latest thought leadership, designed for readers, not for boastful corporate monologues.

This approach yields two major advantages:

• Appeal to Search Engines and People Alike: By building a robust library of resources, these sites serve up tons of keyword-rich content for Google to index. Not only does this broaden discoverability for a range of search queries, but it also encourages others in the industry to link to specific articles and resources—which is much more appealing than linking to a generic service page. The result? Greater organic reach and higher referral traffic.
• Higher Engagement Once Visitors Arrive: When someone lands on a website and is immediately welcomed by useful, practical content rather than sales fluff, they’re far more likely to stick around, explore additional pages, and return in the future. This stickiness can quickly surpass the bounce rates seen on larger, more corporate sites that focus solely on self-promotion.

In short, being small isn’t a drawback when your website is a living library of expertise and insight. It’s this commitment to content and audience needs—rather than sheer size or reputation—that genuinely drives traffic and builds lasting relationships.

All in all, this is what a modern website looks like. By looking back, we can clearly see how past trends have created successful practices today. We’ve transitioned from traditional, business focused static websites to growth driven, user focused assets—which have now become vital features setting us all up for great success tomorrow.