Web Site Types Overview

Below is an overview of the various "categories" of web site, their purpose and resulting functionality.

Internet Presence/Simple 1 or 2 Page Site

A simple 1 to 2 page site stating the company's address, phone, fax, email, opening hours, main line of business and possibly directions and a contact form. Very useful for letting people know who and where you are.

Internet Presence/Small Business Description Site

Multiple page site consisting of a more in depth insight to the business's products or services offered. Can include company history, case studies, price lists, product/service descriptions and images, contact details, email forms, mailing lists and documentation.

Corporate Company Site

Comprehensive site aiming to cater for the needs of a medium to large company or organisation. Various department sections with staff, goals and achievements, department specific details, company contacts/address book, calendars and room reservation/bookings, company events, notice boards, documentation organisation and distribution.

Community Site

Examples include forums, member group sites, clubs, hobby and special interest groups. Event calendars, news, subscriptions and chat rooms may also be integrated. Organisation of member details, facilitating lost passwords and sending notification of new topics posts. Most of content is user created. May accept web payments for exclusive membership or offer classified advert listings.

Educational/Informational Site

Managing large amount of data, indexed for easy retrieval. May accept new submissions from users, questions and answers area, links section for further related information.

E-commerce Site/Online Sales

A site dealing with internet sales, accepting orders over the internet, payment gateway interface, managing user details and customer services. The organising and search results display of available products, along with descriptions, images, prices and similar items. May include newsletter offers subscription, FAQs and product documentation. Banner and affiliate adverts may boost profits or 3rd party products could be offered such as classified adverts listings.

 

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Simple Explanation of Terms Used:

Bandwidth The amount of data transmitted (web site traffic) the web site uses. CMS Content Management System - a collections of web forms that facilitate the editing and management of a database and web page content. Database Recordset The records returned from a database query. Dynamic Site/Content Content drawn from a database recordset or depending on user interaction e.g. Active Server Pages (ASP) Domain Name Server (DNS) An internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses (the handler that manages the IP address where a site is hosted). IP Address Internet Protocol address - an identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Registrant (Domain Name) The person registering the domain name. Registrar (Domain Name) The company that handles the domain registration. SEO Search Engine Optimisation - the technique of enabling search engines to crawl and index your web site content. Static Pages/Site Web page content that does not rely on a database recordset or any user interaction (HTML files).