In the process of internet entrepreneurship, one problem that is not easy to notice is the “experience loop”: practices that succeeded in the past are repeatedly carried over, while the environment has already changed. Official website development is one of the areas where this kind of problem is concentrated, because its practices have changed greatly in recent years, but many teams’ judgments still remain at the level of several years ago.
Three common judgment biases
The first is path dependence. Treating the official website as a product showcase page and copying cases that have been done well in the industry, while ignoring changes in how users obtain information. The second is cognitive rigidity, separating website design and development into unrelated stages, which makes adjustments after launch difficult. The third is overconfidence, where a set of practices validated early on is carried over for a long time, missing the opportunity to upgrade the official website into a data and content hub.
The positioning of the official website is shifting
In the past, the official website was an isolated display page; now it is more often regarded as a connection point between enterprises and users. It needs to host content, capture search traffic, collect user leads, and coordinate with other channels. This change requires the development approach to shift from “one-time delivery” to “continuous iteration.”
Several actionable approaches
- Reserve room for expansion: consider features that may be integrated later at the design stage, so as to avoid starting over from scratch every time.
- Use data validation to make judgments: page adjustments should be based on actual traffic data, not feelings.
- Treat maintenance as routine work: content updates, security checks, and performance optimization should all have clear owners and cadence.
- Establish long-term relationships with service providers: a website is a continuous asset, and the way you cooperate should adjust accordingly.
Two extremes to avoid
One is “redesign means revolution,” where every adjustment pursues a complete rebuild, with high cost and risk; the other is completely doing nothing, letting the website remain on an old version for a long time. In most cases, incremental adjustments are more feasible and easier to validate.
The so-called breaking of experience dependence is not a denial of past accumulation, but rather remaining sensitive to changes in the environment while retaining effective judgments. The updating of official website development thinking is, in essence, part of this sensitivity.