Designer: "Would you like your quotation to include an CMS quote or do you want XHTML compatibility?"

Customer: "Umm... yes?"

The more you know about what you want, the better the end product is going to be and the better deal you are going to get. So let's have a look at the six major types of websites and their typical features.

1. Static Website

Pros: Cheap to build

Cons: Expensive to maintain

Used by: Start ups and small service based businesses

A static website is the most common website for small businesses. The word 'static' refers to way the information on a web page is loaded. The best way to explain this is to compare a 'static' photo gallery with a 'dynamic' photo gallery.

A static photo gallery has the gallery photos inserted into the web page. Click to see an example of a static photo gallery. When the website owner wants to add photos to this gallery, they will need to employ the skills of a web programmer because the photos are part of the code. They are loaded from inside the web page.

A dynamic photo gallery has it's photos stored in a database and loads the files from the database and into the web page. Click to see an example of a dynamic photo gallery. When the website owner wants to add photos to this gallery, all they need to do is upload the photos to the database using a web interface. This makes updating the gallery much easier.

Example Static Websites:

• http://www.melbournedailoong.com.au/

Get static website quotes at Design Quotes

2. eCommerce Website

Pros: Sell products online and take payments online

Cons: Time consuming and expensive to set up

Used by: Retailers

eCommerce has quickly become the most popular type of website. With the wild success of eBay and Amazon, more and more businesses are looking for ways to sell their products online. The main factors that make a website an eCommerce website is not just that it sells products, but that it provides a special administrator's area where the website owner can add new products at any time. Much like the dynamic photo gallery, an eCommerce website is a dynamic product gallery.

Example eCommerce Websites:

• http://www.millandmia.com

• http://www.harveynorman.com.au/
• http://www.davidjones.com.au/

Get eCommerce quotes at Design Quotes

3. Flash Website

Pros: Looks fantastic

Cons: Slow load times and can negatively affect search engine rankings

Used by: Fashion industry, web application, web games

Flash websites use a special kind of graphics by Adobe. Flash allows designers to be very creative without worrying about the limitations of technology. Flash allows for lots of animation and interactive elements. Fashion catalogues often use Flash so that there is an added level of glitz. One of the main criticisms of using Flash is that the text in your website cannot easily be read by search engines such as Google. This means that a flash website is much less likely to rank highly in search results.

Example Flash Websites:

• http://www.gettheglass.com/
• http://www.speakvisual.com/

Get Flash website quotes at Design Quotes

4. Content Management System Website

Pros: Article and news management

Cons: Difficult to set up, often hard to learn to use

Used by: News portals, article websites, review websites

A Content Managment System (CMS) is a website which focuses on the authoring, editing and publishing of website articles and news. The articles in a CMS are stored in a database and are displayed in the website the same way photos from a dynamic photo gallery are. The advantage  is that a CMS can allow many users (editors, authors, admins etc) to update the websites content through the website itself. This means that a web programmer does not need to be employed every time an article is added. Another feature of many CMS platforms is plugins. Plugins allow you to extend the functionality of your website. For example, you could install a dynamic photo gallery plugin in your CMS, giving you both articles and photos.

Example CMS Websites:

• http://www.travancoresch.vic.edu.au/school/index.php
• http://www.cnet.com.au/

Get CMS quotes at Design Quotes

5. Blog Website

Pros: Simplistic article and news management

Cons: Not as flexible as a CMS

Used by: Individuals with an opinion

A blog is a recent type of website. It is a simplified CMS that allows everyday users to post their thoughts and opinions as often as they like. Blogs are more and more often being used to manage articles as well. Blogs are often seen as part of a corporate site because it gives a friendly voice to the company.

Example Blog Websites:

• http://www.adelle.com.au/
• http://www.techcrunch.com/

Get blog website quotes at Design Quotes

6. Social Network Website

Pros: Allows groups of people to interact, provides lots of advertising space

Cons: Expensive to set up, hard to attract a user base

A social network is the most recent website phenomenon. A social network is like a community of blogs, email and games all rolled into one. Social network websites are few and far between because the success of a social network depends on having a large community of users. However more and more organisations are beginning to create their own small niche social network websites.

Example Social Network Websites:

• http://www.facebook.com/
• http://www.whosonyourblacklist.com/

Get social network website quotes at Design Quotes

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