The Internet has become the undisputed home of freedom of expression. Whether you’re using the web for work, entertainment, voicing your opinions, Web design or any other of its wonderful multitude of uses, one thing’s for sure, if you are reading this, it has more than likely become a very large and important part of your everyday life. What would you say that you use the Internet for most?
The World Wide Web
As the Internet has evolved, we have seen a distinct change in the general perception of what the web means to its users. With the initial emphasis on low cost global communication, it was no surprise that the first appeal was that of a long distance nature. We envisioned sharing conversations with people from around the world, businesses having the capability to sell their products to all four corners of the globe whilst they slept.
The dot.com boom was full of global promise, which certainly is still the case, but now there seems to be a growing focus on the things around us.
Everybody’s doing the local motion!
The Internet is viewed less as a global opportunity, but more as a virtual representation of your day-to-day life. Shopping online for groceries, managing your banking, checking for the opening times of your local eatery, continually bombarding your closest friends with relentless micro messaging. Whatever it is that people use the Internet for it seems that the focus is on their individual life, as it has always been. With this in mind, it would be worthwhile considering web design solutions that take this trend into consideration.
For most businesses, the majority of the work bought from the web, will still come from the same areas bought about by directory listings and other fast becoming redundant platforms. For a while now, web design company’s have been marketing sites towards the local areas as it would be a much tougher challenge to gain exposure on a national level, but indications could suggest now that, not focusing on a particular local market could start to become damaging.
It’s interesting to see that brute force of the search engine world in particular Google and now Microsoft’s Bing, are giving more consideration than ever to local search results. With the aim of enhancing the accuracy of what people are searching for by directing them to results based on their location.
What does this mean?
It is unrealistic to think that any time soon, business will be solely conducted on the web, as people still crave the social interaction that makes us all who we are. However, things like queuing in a crowded city centre post office on a busy Saturday morning to renew your road tax, could pleasantly be, a thing of the past.