Quite often we are approached to produce a website when the client doesn't really know what they need. This article aims to discuss the types of website available and what they are suitable for.
Brochure Websites
A brochure, or static website, is a site that often has no database interaction. Quite often these are set up ‘just because we need a website’ - after all, ‘everyone has a website now’. A brochure website 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 with your company name you would be found, however you are unlikely to be found with a keyword unless it’s very specific.
Flash Websites
A Flash website is one that uses Adobe Flash, a programme that requires every user to have a browser plugin to view the website. The real benefit of a Flash website is 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 very accessible or easy to update.
Maintenance of a Flash website would need to be carried out by skilled staff and a redesign, which is a part of every website's life cycle, means effectively starting again each time. More traditional websites built using modern coding standards can be reskinned with relatively little rework.
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 website 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 being easier to update and redesign.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
A Content Management System (CMS) is a web-based tool to allow any authorised user access to edit the website. The idea behind a CMS is that day-to-day maintenance is handled by the client who, typically, has 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 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 website.
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.) 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 set up a website. They are often open source, meaning they're free to download, and are well supported. They usually lend themselves well to being re-skinned to whatever design you want.
There are obvious advantages and disadvantages 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 system 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 how you want it to. 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 how 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 systems
- Greater requirement for testing and snagging
eCommerce
Selling on 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 website 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 restyled and customised relatively easily. The main drawbacks come when you want to add functionality that was not part of the original system.
Bespoke eCommerce
A lot of our Bespoke eCommerce applications are set up because an off the shelf package doesn’t offer the functionality required. Setting up a bespoke eCommerce application is simple in its basic concept, however additional things like reporting, printing invoices and picking lists add to its complexity.
Most of our eCommerce packages are integrated with Paypal or with Protx, who are payment gateway providers.
No comments:
Post a Comment