A company or organization website that suffers from a
chronic failure to update its contents. Zombie sites are common among
small service businesses (e.g. accounting and consulting, accommodation, tourism etc.) whose owners were once persuaded to "have a website" (usually because 'everyone else has one') but who subsequently take no active interest in maintaining its contents and relevance. A serious credibility
gap creator.
A classic Zombie Site will have last had its
basic platform updated in around 2008 and features staff profiles of individuals (zombies) who have
long since left the firm. Zombie sites can also display obsolete products, out-dated html-gone-bad graphics and design elements,
broken links and monthly newsletters that have
long since petered out.
Even worse Zombie Sites are those ostensibly designed to promote on-
line shopping where the product selections are permanently out-of-stock, unavailable, off the market etc.. - all because no one in these businesses has the time, wit, skills or motivation to keep them shipshape. These are major customer turn-offs.
"Hey check out this dumbass management consultant's zombie site. It punts one dude as an associate with
hands-on expertise in strategic management who retired to
Florida three years ago and brags about the principal completing a major project for a business that went tits up after the
Vancouver Winter Olympics."
