The functional purpose of a website can be varied. According to Internet Live Stats at the time of this writing (October 2017), there are over 1 trillion active websites and this number is increasing by thousands every day. With numbers like this, it’s no surprise that there are so many different purposes for websites. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of websites.
Business card website/product catalog optimization
A business card website is quite often an auxiliary online marketing tool that answers basic questions about your business: “Who are you? What products and services do you offer? Where are you? This is how most companies appear online. For some of our clients, a simple business card site that changes occasionally is enough. Typically, such a site contains one or two pages (Main, Contacts, and Feedback), it can be static or dynamic using a CMS.
Examples of companies that would benefit from this type of site:
- business services, such as installation and repair of air conditioners or heating systems, to show what services they offer and how to contact them;
- restaurants post their menus so customers can see what choices they have on site and what hours the restaurant is open.
Corporate website
Such websites differ from business card websites by having dynamic content. In particular, it can be a news feed about the company and its partners, updates on the offered goods and services, special offers, events from the life of the company, as well as a photo gallery. The presence of a sufficiently large amount of content implies the implementation of a search engine on the website.
A corporate website may offer online mechanisms for communication between customers and the company, for example, it can be an online consultant or a call from the site.
The presence of dynamic content suggests one of the dynamic types of corporate website implementation (using CMS or from scratch).
Informational website
As the name implies, such a website usually contains a large amount of specific information about any industry, category of goods, or services (specifications, documents, presentations, instructions for specialists, etc.).
A mechanism for publishing articles (blog) and their categorization, convenient search mechanisms and a site map are added to the functionality of the website. Users are usually given the opportunity to discuss online the information presented, and to rate the quality and relevance. It is supposed to have a module for registration and authorization of users, messaging, and a forum.
Online store
Online stores often turn out to be the most difficult and expensive to implement, as they include the functionality of all the above types of websites and at the same time provide a variety of mechanisms for marketing and online sales of goods and services. The website of an online store is usually the main sales tool for a company, so its development and support require significant financial investments in order to achieve the required quality and functionality.
Small and medium-sized companies use specialized types of CMS as a platform for the implementation of an online store. Larger ones implement online store websites from scratch, as with a large number of buyers, the performance of the CMS may not be enough. In addition, large online stores often represent an integration system of various services, mechanisms, data sources, etc., which can only be implemented using a self-written solution.
The functionality of the online store website requires the following module pages (in addition to the basic pages described for other types of websites):
- product catalog optimization with a detailed description of the characteristics;
- the mechanism for ordering goods, shopping cart, quick order;
- personal account with order history;
- payment for orders online;
- module for publishing static and dynamic banners;
- feedback and reviews module;
- online consultant, call from the site and call back;
- a page describing the terms of delivery and payment, integration with the delivery service;
- integration with the accounting system and warehouse;
- integration with various information platforms for the resale of goods and services.
The proposed list of website types is by no means exhaustive.