Websites: Different Types Of Sites

Throughout the years I have consulted with different types of businesses and government institutions regarding their websites and the type and kind that will work for them. Often business people and others take it for granted when they see a website that is well designed, easy to navigate, quick to load, the content of the site is well balanced and other factors that makes it draw traffic towards it. When you don't understand what you want, the probability of getting what you don't want is high, not because the developer is not capable of doing the work, but because the customer did not research the kind of site they want and the work that is put behind the type and kind of website they need. If you walk into a suit store and ask the salesman to give you a suit, they might give you a suit for the wrong occasion, you might need a Tuxedo and the salesman sells you a day-to-day Work suit. The sames applies with websites.

Generally there are two categories of websites, Static Websites and Dynamic Websites. Static websites are web pages stored on the server in the format that is sent to a client web browser. It is primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language or simply known as HTML. Simple forms or marketing examples of websites, such as classic website, a five-page website or a brochure website are often static websites, because they present pre-defined, static information to the user. This may include information about a company and its products and services via text, photos, animations, auid/video and interactive menus and navigation.

This type of website usually displays the same information to all visitors. Similar to handing out printed brochures to customers or clients, a static website will generally provide consistent, standard information for an extended period of time. Although the website owner may make updates periodically it is a manual process to edit the text, photos and other content and will definitely require web design skills and software. With a static site visitors are not able to control what information they receive via a static website and must instead settle for whatever content the website owner has decided to offer at the time.

A Dynamic site is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and automatically, based on certain criteria. Dynamic websites can have two types of dynamic activity namely,  Code and Content. Dynamic code is invisible or behind the scenes and dynamic content is visible or fully displayed.
The first type is a web page with dynamic code. The code is constructed dynamically on the fly using active programming language instead of plain, static HTML. The second type is a website with dynamic content displayed in plain view. Variable content is displayed dynamically on the fly based on a certain criteria, usually by retrieving content stored in a database. The purpose of a dynamic site is automation. A dynamic site can operate more effectively, be built more efficiently and is easier to maintain, update and expand. It is much simpler to build a template and a database than to build hundred or thousands of individual, static HTML web pages. These are the two categories of sites, and every website you see is either static or dynamic.

There are a lot of different types of sites, but for the sake of the blog not being too long, I will just use a few that are most commonly used with a short description:

• Personal site: website about an individual that contains information or any content that the individual wishes to include
• Corporate site: used to provide background information about a business, organization, or service
• Search engine/Directories: a site used to search information and other websites. 
• Affiliate sites: typically in few pages, whose purpose is to sell a third party's product. The seller receives a commission for facilitating the sale. 
• Archive sites: Used to preserve valuable electronic content threatened with extinction. 
• Blog sites: Sites generally used to post online diaries which may include discussion forums
• Content sites: Sites whose business is the creation and distribution of original content. 
• E-commerce: A site offering goods and services for online sale and enabling online transactions for such sales
• Phishing sites: a site created to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business. 

There are many more sites that one can choose from and all of them have different costing. There are 3 key indicators that you should give to your web developer when requesting a website developed for your business or anything for that matter and they are as follows: 

1. Do you want a Static or Dynamic website
2. What will your website's function be?
3. The size of your site.

Its always a pleasure dealing with clients/customers who have done their research and know what they want. It saves time, money and misunderstandings. There is a move away from static sites and more and more businesses are doing dynamic sites. Your developer will give you advise, but ultimately nobody else knows what you want except yourself. For more on websites, next week Tuesday on this blog.