The types of web site

What type of web site does your business need?

Quite often we are approached to produce a web site when the client doesn't really know what they need. This article aims to discuss the types of web site available and what they are suitable for.

Brochure Web sites

A brochure, or static web site is a site that often has no database interaction. Quite often these are setup ‘just because we need a web site’ - after all, ‘everyone has a web site now’. A brochure web site tends to have a similar level of information to a standard printed brochure, i.e. Who you are, What you do, How to find you etc. These sites can be optimised for search engines, however they are often too small to have any significant impact. Typically, if someone queries a search engine by your company name you would be found, however you are unlikely to be found for a keyword unless it’s very specific.

Some examples of brochure web sites we have produced

• RC Turner - Patent Attorney
• The Print Centre, Berkhamsted
• Connekt Colour, Berkhamsted
• Iceberg Tools
• The In-House Training Company

Flash web sites

A flash web site, is one that use Adobe Flash, a programme that requires every user to have a browser plugin to view the web site. The real benefits of a flash web site are that you can use advanced animation, music and video. They are brilliant for showcasing your work and mean any fonts and images can be used on the site. The drawbacks are that they are not indexed well by the search engines (meaning poor performance in search listings i.e. people will not be able to find you on Google et al) and that they are not that accessible or easy to update.

Maintenance of Flash web site would need to be carried out by skilled staff and a re-design (which is a part of every web sites life cycle) means effectively starting again each time. Whereas more traditional web sites, built using modern coding standards can be re-skinned with relatively little re-work.

Part Flash/Part HTML/CSS

For clients wanting some animation, video or sound we often recommend a Flash/HTML mix. This is where the bulk of the web site is coded in HTML/CSS but elements of it are in fact Flash movies embedded into the page. This offers a “best of both worlds” solution to having some Flash whilst retaining an ease of update and redesign approach.

Some examples of our Flash work

• Coles Architects
• Peter Haddon & Partners

These sites are a HTML/Flash mix:

• Survey Quotes
• RC Turner - Patent Attorney
• The Print Centre, Berkhamsted
• Connekt Colour, Berkhamsted

Content Management Systems (CMS)

A Content Management System (CMS) is a web based tool to allow any auhtorised user access to edit the web site. The idea behind a CMS is that day-to-day maintenance is handled by the client, who typically have no prior experience in web page programming. By using modern programming languages and WYSIWYG (pronounced ‘wizzy wig’ - meaning ‘What You See Is What You Get’) editors that look and work in a similar way to Microsoft Word, but convert the content in HTML (the language of the web).

We find that people who are proficient in Word can easily work our CMSs - with the ability to create new content, add content, insert images and basically control what is in the web site.

A database powered CMS will store the content of the web page in a database table, meaning it’s searchable and can have various meta data attached to it. It also means that you can have various version of the same page (for example, the live version, older versions and perhaps a new version that is not yet complete.) So this makes a CMS a very powerful tool for managing the site content.

There are a few options with CMSs, but the main ones are:

Off the shelf Content Management Systems

Off the shelf CMSs allow you to quickly and easily setup a web site. They are often open source, meaning they're free to download, and they are well supported. The usually lend themselves well to be re-skinned to whatever design you want.

There are obvious advantages and dis-advantages to using an off-the-shelf CMS, notably;

Positives

• The system is pre-built, so there are no development costs
• Well supported
• Well tested with regular updates

Negatives

• Functionality limited to what the package offers
• Hacking older versions can be common place
• Updating systems can be difficult
• What happens if the system is no longer supported?
• Altering the systems is often very complicated

Bespoke Content Management Systems

A bespoke CMS is one built to your exact requirements. It will do precisely what you want it do and will look exactly as you want. Obviously a bespoke build will carry a greater level of development work and ultimately cost. Most web agencies worth their salt should have previously built a CMS. If they have any sense they’ll have built it in a portable and scalable way, meaning the core code can be lifted from project to project and modified to suit each individual set of deliverables.

As with the off the shelf systems there are, of course, pros and cons to a bespoke build - they are:

Positives

• It will do exactly what you want it to do
• It will look exactly as you want it to
• Additional functionality can be added for things like Google Maps, Flickr imports, RSS feeds and other rich media

Negatives

• Initial build costs
• Longer time scales than off-the-shelf
• Greater requirement for testing and snagging

Some example Content Management Systems that we’ve produced

• The World Medical Fund - Word Medical Fund
• Worth School - Co-education school near Crawley
• Epsom College - Co-education school in Epsom
• Advanced Semi Conductor - Hard to find and obsolete parts
• Richter Sports - VW/Audi parts
• ACE Events - exhibition and conference organisers
• 3C Test - EMC Testing facilities at Silverstone circuit
• Baldwins Group - Baldwins accident repair group

eCommerce

Selling over the internet is now a massive industry. The overheads are low, the audience is huge and the potential is only restricted by budget and commitment.

Deciding which approach to take is probably dependent upon your requirements and what else the web site needs to achieve.

Off the shelf eCommerce

Like the off the shelf CMS, there are many benefits to using an off the shelf eCommerce system, however the negatives are also similar. There are a 101 different eCommerce packages on the market, some good and some bad. Deciding which one to use is difficult

We tend to use Magento (http://www.magentocommerce.com/) for our off the shelf eCommerce implementations - it's a free to use package that is very flexible and has many great features. It can be re-styled and customised relatively easily. The main drawbacks are when you want to add functionality that is not part of the original system.

For an example of this system have a look at our Circular Energy web site: www.circularenergy.co.uk.

Bespoke eCommerce

A lot of our Bespoke eCommerce applications are setup because an off the shelf package doesn’t offer the functionality required. Setting up a bespoke eCommerce application is simple in it’s basic concept, however additional things like reporting, printing invoices and picking lists add to the complexity of it.

Most of our eCommerce packages are integrated with Paypal or with Protx, who are a payment gateway provider.

Some example eCommerce sites that we’ve produced

• Richter Sport - VW & Audi parts and spares
• Sootys Choppers - Motor cycle parts and spares
• Pressies 4 Dogs - Gifts, chews and toys for your dogs
• Circular Energy - Solar Panels, Energy saving equipment and flood defences
• Pulsar Direct - Trade plumbing supplies

So, do you know which type of website you need?

If you do, why not get in touch or write a brief for your web site.