If you are here, you probably have already decided that you need a new website. Congratulations! Good decision! But if you are not yet fully convinced, check why you need a website.
Now it is time to answer the next big question: what type of website do you need? The answer is not very complex, but to find it out you must first decide on four more specific questions.
1. What is your website really for?
When I ask my client this question, the answer I often hear is: “I need a website because my competition already has one”. This is a very good reason, but this is not an answer to the question. It is essential to understand your aims and objectives in having a website. Here is a hint: consider
what do you want to achieve?
Maybe you would like to raise your brand recognition? Increase sales by gaining new customers? Or be more attractive to existing ones? How about improving communication with your customers? Maybe you want to expand your business by trying online sales? Or make your service faster by using online orders? Possibly what you want is to reduce costs by being more efficient? Or would you like to be more eco-friendly and replace paper communication with electronic one? This is not a “pick-one” activity. You may have multiple objectives and they don’t need to be limited to those listed here. But, what’s important, is to decide which of them are your priorities and which would just be “nice to have”. This will allow to precisely specify the scope of functionality for your website.
2. Who is the website for?
This is the second fundamental question because it will help you define the marketing strategy for your website and beyond. First of all, you need to decide who is your target group. How old are your customers? More men or women (or maybe both equally)? How tech-savvy are your visitors? What kind of devices are they most likely to use? PC or mobile? Is your website to be mostly used at work or at home? It is important because this will allow for designing a website that will not only be productive but also appealing and enjoyable to use!
Once you know who your visitors are, you need to realise how they are going to find you. By searching for your products or services in Google or another engine? Through ads or links published on other websites? Or maybe by using localisation services such as Google Maps? It is also possible that your customers already know you from elsewhere. In that case, you should still aim at providing more information or better functionality than your competition. This may be even more important if your brand is niche and everyone knows each other.
3. Where is your website in the context of your overall marketing plan?
You probably have a marketing plan, and your website needs to fit your marketing strategy. It will determine what content and functionality should be provided on the website. If you have a restaurant business, you can publish menus, but also an online table booking feature. If you organise live events, apart from advertising them on the website, you can refer the participants back to your online resources. If you are thinking about a mailing campaign or printing leaflets, you will definitely need to include a specific “landing page” for the users to go to. Your website can also be a great platform to announce and run all kinds of special offers.
4. How much time do you have to keep your website up-to-date?
There is no doubt that your website must always be up to date. Outdated or wrong information will be totally counterproductive for your business. So, if you change things like opening hours, products on offer and so on – it has to be reflected on your website as soon as possible.
But you can go above and beyond that and publish new content on regular basis. It is a well-known fact that frequent quality updates, such as blogs or news, improve the website’s visibility. They are the best way to promote your website, position it in search engines and build a relationship with your customers.
But for this all to be true, your content must be good and interesting for your visitors. The search engine positioning algorithms analyse your existing traffic, so your content won’t work unless your visitors find it attractive. Content that is inaccurate, low quality or simply not published regularly enough will work against you and may easily spoil your business image. Creating good content takes time and requires experience. You must decide whether this will work for you. If your decision is to go into it, your efforts must first of all be persistent. But if you are not ready for a serious commitment you will probably be better off with a simpler website.
If you know the answers to the above questions, it is time to present you with the most common types of websites.
4 Most Common Types of Websites and Their Uses
Based on the functionality provided by various websites, I identified four large categories of websites. There are many different classification systems that may use different categories and different names. This is just one of them I consider simple and useful. You may find that your website belongs to more than one category – or even to all of them. Don’t worry, hybrid solutions that mix elements from various categories are actually quite common. They may work well together to suit the specific needs of your business.
Brochure Website
A brochure website is usually not very complex. It only provides basic functionality. But basic does not mean bad or less useful! A well-done brochure site positions a business correctly within its marketplace. It can be used by businesses of all sizes. They may be as small as five pages, but may also be much more extensive. Typically, a brochure website would include a clear description of your business, including strong branding and contact information, as well as your products and services. It may also show testimonials, details of your business processes, ordering information, T&C, privacy policy, and many more.
Portfolio Website
It is a perfect choice if your customers want to see examples of what you have done for others. This will help them decide whether to buy from you. This type of website is most common for freelancers and creative professionals who are often hired based on demonstrated skills. You can show anything from graphics work to case studies to work completed for other customers. The general rule is that you should demonstrate the best examples of your past work, with imagery of as high quality as possible.
Ecommerce Website
If you want to sell anything online, you need an online shop. An e-commerce site is an industry term for it. E-commerce websites will allow you to sell products or services online and handle the order process fully online from the presentation of products to invoicing, payment and fulfilment. E-commerce does not just mean selling physical products. If you want to take online payments for subscriptions, digital (downloadable) products or something else, it is a website type for you. If you are running a hairdresser’s salon, restaurant, or hotel, or running ticketed events you need a special type of e-commerce site called an online booking website. Other similar solutions include charity donation sites, crowdfunding platforms and others.
Blog, news, and similar websites
If your goal is to share knowledge or experience, to educate or entertain your audience, then this type of website is what you need. Blog sites like the one you are reading now, news, forums, wikis, online magazines, e-learning platforms, and media websites may all belong to this category. You will gain online visibility and build trust with your readers. Your blog site should be updated regularly with relevant articles, videos, and photos. It can be a platform for individual opinions, but it also can be a good idea for companies to offer valuable content to their customers.
So, which category will you choose for your business?
If you’d like to discuss your project requirements, get advice, or just ask a question, feel free to contact us.