So I looked at one of my very first website project – a 10-paged static website! Behold I saw ‘There are currently no vacancies.’ on the Staff page. What the heck was I thinking?
I think a number of us, web desvelopers, simply create portions of the website that the clients don’t need – whether its the vacancies or the testimonials.
Take these two scenarios:
- I consulted for a client and handled their web project. Since they were big in their industry, I suggested we mine the potential of getting testimonials from top shots, to give some form of endorsement on the website. At the end of the day, we had a handful of testimonials and they were displayed nicely on the website. #GoodJob #MissionAchieved
- This client didn’t want my consultancy services, they think they know what exactly they wanted (or afford) – just do A, B and D. They requested a Testimonial section but I politely declined by pushing the ball to them – asking them to provide the testimonials. Long story short, they still didn’t while insisting we implement the functionality. We did (at least we were paid to), but simply put dummy text in the testimonials. The problem with dummy text is that, if the client does not follow up and ensure the content is updated, years down the line, the website will still have “Lorem Ipsum Dummy Text”.
So basically, if you don’t need it or can’t drive the content for any part of your website avoid placing it there from the start. Don’t fall for the ‘I will simply put the contents in there later’ trick, except you have a content team or you are committed to updating your website frequently.
