Website Building Tutorials From the “Good Old Days” Aren’t That Good

January 20, 2009 | By admin |

: Image by thievingjoker via Flickr

Here’s one immutable fact about the Internet: Things change fast. What’s cool today may be cold tomorrow. The things that are working this year may seem laughable within another two years. Nothing stands still. That includes the way you should be building websites. Yesterday’s systems aren’t well-suited for today. Those website building tutorials from a few years ago shouldn’t be the kind of reference material upon which you rely today.

What’s changed? Just about everything. Over the past few years, we’ve developed an entirely new set of expectations with respect to website appearance, organization and function. An Internet that was dominated by colorful but limited single-page “home pages” has been replaced by a million different blogs, the entire “web 2.0″ movement, increased focus on usability and countless innovations.

If you want to build a website that will succeed in the current environment, you don’t want to rely on advice from five years ago. You don’t want to rely on advice from one year ago, for that matter. The changing landscape of the Internet renders almost all older website building tutorials completely outdated.

There is some core information that will remain valid and usable. However, when it comes to site building, the devil truly is in the details. Those details can make a break a site and they’re not always based on logic of design. They can be as much a matter of trend and aesthetic expectation as usability or function.

As such, even a “mechanically sound” tutorial can be a mistake. The information contained within it might provide you with still-valid “nuts and bolts” instruction, but the failure to adhere to new expectations regarding content presentation and design can lead you in the wrong direction. In order to create a site that will work today, you need to follow recent advice.

There are few things that change as quickly as our expectations and norms for Internet use. Here’s the bottom line. If you want to create a website that will perform well enough to meet your goals, the only way to do it is to understand the current Internet landscape. If you’re relying on website tutorials to help you in that regard, you must make use the latest information.

This look at website building tutorials only skims the surface of a deep pool of valuable information. Take advantage of this opportunity to plunge even deeper into website building tutorials. You’ll love what you find there.

I personally recommend this site:

http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com

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