I’m blogging with thousands of others; we’re up to our eyeballs in the A to Z Challenge. My posts are about inspiration, coaching and all kinds of writer stuff; things I love.
Today we’re talking about websites. Who would think a website would become embarrassingly outdated like square-toed shoes and leisure suits? Not me! Of course, all I know about websites you could stuff into a thimble. I had to be talked into leaving my faithful old blog for this cool site.
My friend Heather at Oxblaze Media and Marketing told me I needed to look professional. Remember, we only get one chance to make a good first impression so I let her counsel me on professional websites.
I didn’t have a clue what looked outdated but after roaming around the ‘net, it was easy to spot things that didn’t work. Seems like way too many authors are looking a little hokey.
What makes them outdated?
Well, they use clip art, glow affects around images, multi-colored fonts and other 90s looking designs. Many use colors that remind visitors of their grandparent’s kitchen. Yeah, remember the avocado green refrigerators? If our kitchen and bathrooms can be outdated, so can our websites.
A real detriment is a non-responsive website design. Google penalizes non-responsive sites from mobile searches. A non-responsive site means it’s not adaptable for mobile and tablets. When someone searches for you on their phone or tablet, Google will rank you toward the bottom. Google made this announcement in 2015, and said it would have a “significant impact” on mobile search.
Here’s an example of a mobile friendly website: mine of course. 
A site that isn’t mobile friendly will receive a message saying so, that text is too small to read, links are too close together or maybe that the content is too wide for the screen.
You can test your website by clicking here.
And if you think you need an update, then check out my friend Heather at Oxblaze Media. (She’s doing her A to Z here.) She also designed these two writer sites:
Believe me, there was a time I loved my avocado green kitchen, but not anymore. Remember, one chance only … good impression!
Do you have a website? If you don’t, let’s talk about why.