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Dynamic websites

Written by Luke Cocks of Dorris Design © 2008
A typical Dynamic Website is made so it can be instantly updated by the site owner when ever they please without the need of any web design skills.

There are many other uses for a dynamic website such as the automation of various site features including online ordering, booking and payment systems.

Most Dynamic Websites use a “database” driven system to store all the different “values” intended for use on the website. These “values” could be the content for a page, a product, promotion, customer details or anything you can think of storing, processing, using or displaying on a website.

Control your own Website with a Content Management System (CMS)

A website can be designed and constructed around a Content Management System which the owner can login and use to create, remove and edit their website pages and content instantly online.

The CMS can also be custom designed to suit exactly what dynamic content you as the owner wish to have control over on your website.

Updating site content using the CMS is very similar to using Microsoft Word or any other word processor so anyone who is familiar with one will be able to update a CMS site easily and instantly.

A “website design template”, created by the web designer, controls the static elements of the site that the owner has no control over. These static elements or the “template” usually include your business logo, graphic header, footers, menus, borders and the general site layout and styles that control the look and feel of the website and keep each page coherent.

A CMS controlled website, as with any website, first needs to be thoroughly planned out so you can predict the future direction of the website and try to prepare for and incorporate all ideas for future growth into the original site design “template”. By planning ahead in this way your website can last a long time without the need of employing a web designer to keep updating or making costly changes to your website.

As with every website you also need to plan where your customers are going to come from and how you are going to get them to your site from search engines, online advertising, traditional print, TV or radio advertising or a combination.

BONUSES of a CMS Driven Website:

The biggest advantage of owning a CMS controlled website is you and who ever you want can add to and edit the site content instantly when ever you want, at no cost.

Compared to hiring a web designer to update a normal Static website, it’s a huge saving and the more you update your site the more you save. This is great because it means you can add as much content to your website as you want to help explain your services or products in great detail and do everything possible to generate the sales you want.

According to the search engine Google, content is king. Meaning the more pages of text relevant to your products or services that you have on your website the more Google will reward your site with high rankings in their search results.

Having the power to keep your website up to date at all times means your site will keep climbing the search engines and people will be more likely to come back to the site because it keeps changing.

Visitors aren’t going to keep coming back to a website that stays the same. Plus return visitors are usually of a higher quality and value than most first time visitors. So the more you can get people coming back to your website, the more chance you have to gain their trust and turn them into quality customers who return constantly.

If utilized efficiently the power of a CMS driven website can help improve all different aspects of a business from customer relations and support to streamlined business processes and international trade prospects to name just a few.

If you wish to update your website frequently, then a CMS database driven website is simply the only way to go. The amount of money saved on site updates makes it well worth the investment, as long as you utilise it.

NEGATIVES of a CMS Driven Website:

One down side of a CMS website is that it costs a lot more than a static website to initially setup and often any changes to the template design can be quite difficult and time consuming compared to a static site design which is why fore-thought is very important when designing a CMS controlled website.

Another negative could be that because you are in total control of the content on your website, with little or no online marketing experience, you may actually be driving your customers away instead of making the sales you want from your website.

If you track your visitors’ actions on your site you can see when and where people are leaving your site and try to decipher why and fix the problem yourself. The benefit of an expert’s opinion however can save you hours, even years of guess work and headache so even if you do have a CMS website it can often be very beneficial to enlist the services or even advice of an expert to help your website reach your desired goals.

Selling Online, Online Stores & E-Commerce

With the development of database driven websites comes the ability to automate many features to create an entire store online that would have previously needed a physical building in a good location to setup and much manual labor to run.

Online stores now have many capabilities that leave the owner with nothing to do accept add new stock to the database as it arrives and send out the orders as they are notified of them. Every other process and function of an online store can be completely automated. You can now practically run a business all by yourself from your own home.

Modern online shoppers have become rather demanding in their shopping habits however so thorough research and planning of an online store is the key to success.

Conduct Automated Business Online

The best part about a Dynamic Website is the capability to automate many business processes which previously took hours of manual labour.

Any website can be installed with tracking or booking software, gather customer details or process orders and payments. Any way you currently process information in your business at the moment your website could be doing it for you.

Why not contact Dorris Design today to see if we can help automate your business and save you precious time and money.