Which type of website?

There are basically two main types of website - static and dynamic.

Each website is built for a different purpose, which could be to sell business products online, or simply as a brochure to show potential customers what a business does, and then to attract them to contacting the business for more information.

The following outlines the two types of website we can provide and will hopefully serve you with some background information as to which is most suited to you.

Relative merits of static and dynamic websites

Static (brochure) sites - Plus Points

Flexibility is the main advantage of a static brochure website - every page can be different if desired, to match the layout to different content, and the designer is free to put in any special effects that a client may ask for in a unique way on different pages. This allows theming - for instance an author may want a different theme for a different book and associated pages or perhaps for a series of books, in order to match the cover designs or the context of the stories.

Cost is generally lower up-front than a dynamic site.

Static (brochure) sites - Considerations

Dynamic (CMS) sites - Plus Points

The main advantages of dynamic sites are that by connecting them to databases you can easily pull in information in an organised and structured way to easily create product pages or categories of related products sorted in a variety of different ways depending on how the user wants to view them.

This ability to connect to a database means that you can also create a content management system - an interface which allows the client to input and manage data via a web-based series of administration pages. That content can be text for their pages and images to go along with the text, or items in their product range with categories, specifications, short and long descriptions, images, etc. In both these cases it can be as simple or as complex as the client requires.

There are little or no ongoing costs unless there is a change in the basic design or an extra capability added.

Dynamic (CMS) sites - Considerations

The design of a dynamic site is more fixed than a static one because many of the pages are essentially a template into which data and content is poured to create multiple pages of a similar type. So for instance all your product pages will be essentially the same page with different data being displayed. A change to the page design will be evident on every product page.

Costs are higher initially than for a static site.