I spend a lot of my time working on websites. A lot.
It is just the nature of my job. Recently, we had a client who had been working with us for over a decade ask us to remove their website. The website was a secondary site with a small off-shoot of their main business. Things happen. Needs change. It was time.
It always makes me a little nostalgic, maybe even a little sad when a website has to shut down. That is especially true when I built the site and have been working to keep it going for so long.
To me, websites are a bit like a house that was built from the ground up. You spend the time building the core framework (structure), dividing it into pages and sections (rooms), creating the look and feel (decorating), adding security (locks and alarm systems), and getting it listed online to receive traffic (putting the address on the mailbox). It is a process.
Over a period of time, we may have to do some work on the “house”. We may need to repaint the walls and rearrange the furniture. We frequently change the photos on the walls and swap out some of the decorative pieces on the table. If the house is there long enough, we often have to do some major overhauls to the wiring or the plumbing. We even have to tear out some walls or add a new wing, on occasion. It is all part of the evolution of a house (site).
Our company is not a large entity working with the largest corporations on the planet. We intentionally work with small and medium-sized businesses who need our expertise to help them thrive in a local market. We are a small business helping other small businesses grow.
Many of our clients have been with us for a long time. As a result, we get to know our clients and their businesses well. We are a part of their team. We like it that way. When we have to remove a website, it is like losing a friend.
It is not often that we must delete a site completely, but after 25+ years of doing this, it has happened more than once. The usual reasons are to blame, most of the time. It could be due to a business closing, a death of a client, a change in direction for the business, or the site was just a temporary measure in the first place.
There is no moral or point to this post other than maybe to think about your website, if you have one. Like a house, if you let it sit dormant for too long, it will start to decay and may eventually have to be torn down as a result. Hopefully, it will never come to that.
