Three types of websites and future planning 102.

In this article I am going to explain the different types of websites out there and hopefully guide you in the right decision when building your own or having it designed for you. If you don’t plan now you could be in for a rude awakening down the road. You don’t want to have to pay someone like me to fix a mistake that could have easily been avoided at the beginning.

What this is:  It’s a very simple, beginner level explanation of the topic covered.

What it’s not:  Its not a definitive guide about the topic.

The topic is.

Types of websites and future planning.

There are basically three types of websites out there.

1.      A hand coded static html site.  – This is by far the most basic website and although easy to create, it is difficult to update and lacks many features of today’s popular websites. Not that many people do this anymore and if they do (on large sites) it’s gonna be pretty expensive. These days this type of site would be used for a very basic page with maybe one or two graphics.

2.     A flash based web site. – These are pretty cool and are usually very appealing visually. The problem is that they are also difficult to update. The easiest way of describing a flash site is to give you a link to one I did several years back.  www.deberti.com

*Flash has come a long way since then and some companies do offer basic CMS capabilities for flash websites, but they in no way compare to the features offered by a true CMS.

3.     A Content management system. – This is by far the most common type of website on the Internet. Each CMS (and there are a bunch) offer different features, but most function in basically the same way. They use a template-based system that a designer can tweak and add features to. They use databases to store information about the website and access that information when a user requests it through the web browser.

CMS systems can cost a lot of money, or they can be free (open source) like Joomla. A CMS allows a website owner to more easily update content on their website, without having to pay a web designer each time a change needs to be make.

*Although CMS systems have made it easier to update a website, the systems including Joomla can require a lot of time to master and may have steep learning curves.

Usually the first thing I am asked when someone wants a website is how much do you charge? Well I can give a starting price but until I know what they want or need its almost impossible to give an accurate quote. In reality, asking a web designer for a price on a website, without specifics, is like asking someone how much food costs without giving them the type.

The best advice I can give someone who needs a website is to sit down and decide what they want their website to do. Then they need to think about how their business might look in the future as well. You don’t want to spend the time, effort and money on a website that your gonna rebuild in a year.

When you know these things it is much easier to decide which type of website you will need now and in the future.

Let me explain.

Lets say you decide you want to start a blog and want to share your knowledge with the world. You decide to use a CMS that is known for making blogging super easy. You get your site up and running and you build a large readership. Two years down the road you decide you want to open your own online store and begin selling stuff. The problem is that the CMS you based your website on doesn’t offer an easy solution for a web store (e-commerce) so your stuck. Now you have to find a designer, to not only find a solution for you web store, but possibly also migrate all of your old content into a new CMS that will handle web stores.

This is just one example of a problem that could arise without planning for the future. While there are many solutions to the above example I gave, each could have it’s own set of headaches, when the easiest solution would have been to plan for the future ahead of time.

Now for some reality.

The Internet changes daily and there is no guarantee that any system will be around even two weeks from now. But by choosing a well know system up front, that offers all the features you might want in the future, you are reducing your chances of problems down the road.

Hope this helps.

Lance