Dynamic websites are great, but are they what your business needs?
It goes without saying that if you are a small business, you need a website.
Your website is the public face of your company, the vehicle that drives traffic and clientele to your services.
Many business owners treat this as an afterthought, something to be considered after the rest of the business details are ironed out.
Here’s the issue though: No website means no clients.
The occasional octogenarian still uses the phone book, but with the bulk of returning customers coming from Google and other search engines, not having a web presence is business suicide.
This is even before we get into things like social media engagement, mailing lists, and the like.
Once you start getting into the grit of building your website, you’ll need to make a few choices to ensure that your website is working as hard as it can for you and your business.
Every aspect of your site needs to be tailored and optimized for your needs and the needs of your client base, but the very first choice and the one that will most greatly affect all the others is this: Do you want to go with a static or dynamic website design?
Static vs Dynamic Website Design
The decision to use a static or dynamic design for your website is crucial, but before you can make a choice, it’s important to understand what each type looks like.
A static website is simple and no-fuss, analogous to reading an online brochure. It may have a few links and forms, but nothing far beyond that.
These types of sites present the necessary information without any of the bells and whistles of a dynamic site. This comes from the use of HTML, rather than a more complex coding language. It’s easy to pick up and use yourself but lacks a lot of the functionality of a more complex coding language.
A dynamic site is exactly what is sounds like. Dynamic. More versatile coding languages are used on these, like PHP or ASP.
This gives a dynamic website design more functionality and more versatility, as well as making changes easier.
Building these sorts fo sites can be more complex than with a static site, but the finished product is going to offer a more interactive experience to the user.
What Kind of Website Does Your Business Need?
Five years to a decade ago, this conversation would have been about cost vs ROI, time, and skill level.
I would have told you to look at what you could afford and whether or not you wanted to take the time to learn a more complex coding language, and then make your decision from there.
Anymore, however, there is really only one answer to the question. You need a dynamic website design.
Customers are looking for a website that provides them with information, but also that they can interact with, that shows a level of care and expertise in the design and construction.
In today’s climate, with the bulk of clients coming to a company from internet searches and other web sources, a website become akin to the lobby of your office.
Your customers aren’t on your website just to get your company’s phone number.
They want bios, a clue into your company culture, and a clear idea of what working with you will be like. This simply isn’t achievable with a static site.
What About Cost?
It is true, and you should be ready for it: dynamic website design costs more money than static.
The time involved for a website designer is greater than with a simple static site, and the training required is extensive. This isn’t something you can learn on Youtube in a weekend.
In the modern business world, website design is an investment, like your marketing costs. The potential ROI here far outweighs the cost.
Other Benefits to Dynamic Website Design
Dynamic website design is going to provide you with a few advantages over static design.
First and foremost, functionality on the backend. A dynamic website with the right Content Managements System, or CMS, makes your job creating pages and adding content, much easier. ‘
Now, I know we said earlier that dynamic design uses more complex coding languages, and it does. But because of the systems designed to use that language, you can often do the maintenance work, such as adding a new landing page or blog post, with little to no coding experience at all.
You have more creative control this way and more ease of use, as well as a site that offers more content and functionality to your customer base.
Dynamic sites are also going to work better for SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, making your site easier to index and easier to find on major search engines.
Are There Any Advantages to Static?
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: Yes, but be careful how long you use it.
Static sites can be very useful as placeholders while you are working on your dynamic website design.
They can provide the information your clients need while informing them that something better is coming.
Using a static page helps keep your web presence alive while you are taking the time to create quality content for a dynamic site, and it is miles better than a 404 error message.
The caveat here is that you don’t want to allow that static page to sit for too long. Obviously, take the time to make sure your website is quality before you publish, but if you leave a static site for too long with a “We’re working on building our site” message, customers will stop checking back.
Static designs have their place, and certainly a valuable one, but for the best return and optimal client results, you want to make the leap and invest in a dynamic website design.
Need some help getting that dynamic design perfect? Check out our website design offerings.