Website Options
Here are some website types that a business considers when they first venture online.
Business Card Website:
This type of site is usally a few pages with all your business information including location, serices, a few relevant images and ways to contact the business. These are good for small tradesman and other businesses who want to supplement any print advertising by adding a web address to their advert. They are cheap to buildand maintain, and are usually visited by prospective first time customers seeking reassurance about what service is offered, prices etc.
Blog Website:
Although blogs (webblogs) are thought of as being the sort of things that teenagers post their favourite bands on, they are essentially another form of website. Owners can add new content (posts) easily using their own computer and if you are able to write interesting articles that people love, you can generate a real buzz within the online community. A blog is also often a consideration as part of larger website so that the business can develop a more personal relationship with visitors to the website.
Small Business Website:
These sites usually have around six or so pages, with the same information as the business card site but in greater detail. They give the owner the space to promote the goods or services and also can be optimised for search engines. A number of images of products can be displayed and simple ordering online of a few products can be achieved cheaply and easily. The pages usually have a flat hierarchical structure ( home, products, news, contact) and contain information that is fairly consistent and that doesn’t need to change on a daily basis. These sites are often added to as required, in the future.
Larger Business Website:
This larger site is neccessary if the range of products and services are greater and need to be laid out in a ‘family tree’ style hierarchy. This enables the visitor to drill down into a product category and also means the site owner can really target the potential customer and really pitch the business. It also can contain related information that is freely given to the visitor. This can be linked to the business and is what makes the site useful which in turn keeps customers coming back to the site.
Ecommerce website:
Any website that enables the visitor to purchase remotely using a Web interface could be called an ecommerce site. The technology and costs can vary greatly depending on the scope of the project. Small businesses can successfully sell a handful of products with very little outlay whilst a large retailer will require a full shopping cart, product database and credit card payment gateway to list and process all of it’s products. The advantage of a database system for the owner is the ease of adding and editing product lines whilst the visitor can benefit from complex searching of products by category, colour or any other variable you can imagine. Database and other sites created dynamically need careful planning to ensure that they can be found and listed by search engines as effectively as static sites.