Every now and again I take a look at various of my competitors websites both here in Blackburn, Lancashire, and nationally. I always find this a useful exercise for a number of reasons mainly to reassure myself that the services that I offer, be it web design, web programming, search engine optimisation or social media can compete with the best that is out there. However, I am often struck by the number of web design agencies that quote for static websites.

For those of you that do not know there are two types of website static and dynamic. To a site visitor it does not matter whether the site is static or dynamic it will still look the same. The difference is when you are the site owner. A static site is one in which nothing can be amended without amending the actual code on the page. All the text and images are set when the page is created and to change anything means uploading the entire page to the server. A dynamic website is one which is powered by a database. The site has a template which sets out the look and feel of each page but all the information, including any images, is pulled out of the database.

What difference does this make? The main one is the ability for a site owner to have the power to amend the content of their own site when the site owner wants. They are not tied into any service level agreement with their web designer that can mean that they have to wait anything from 24 hours to up to one week to get even the most minor of changes actioned. It is one thing to be waiting for a grammatical error to be corrected on a page, but what if it is an item that has been priced incorrectly? That item that is supposed to be £599 is on the site at £5.99 and you have been told by your web design agency that they will be able to schedule the work in at the beginning of next week. Now you have a problem!

Often web designers will quote for a static website and then double the price to create a dynamic site. I do not understand why this would be the case. I will use the example of a site that comprises of five pages. With a static site the designer will refine a design with the client and then create a working version of the page. This working version is in all respects a template that the rest of the site will use. The web designer then has to add all the content to each page. Then upload the pages to the server. If they were using a dynamic site using a content management system such as Concrete5 then the designer will still have to produce a template, but instead of copying and pasting text into the pages they can edit them from the back office. More importantly they can show you how to edit the content of your site so that you have more control of your site. You really will be the site owner.

So what additional costs are there for your web designer in creating a dynamic website as opposed to a static one? There are really only two, the first is in setting the site up and the second is training. There is a time implication in setting up a dynamic website, the files need to be uploaded to the server and the database needs to be created, but this is not rocket science. Training may seem a little daunting to some clients, but I have found that often a client who thinks they are a technophobe is amazed at how easy it is to create and maintain pages on their own site. I usually tell my clients that if they can send an email and format a Word document then they will have no problem at all getting to grips with maintaining their own website.

There is a bonus for myself, it allows me to be able to better plan my workflow as I know that I am unlikely to be asked to deal with a client’s emergency amendment.

If you are thinking about having a website built do consider having a dynamic website. The power and flexibility that it will enable you to have in your control will allow your site to be able to0 grow and scale in line with your business. If you already have a static site then speak to your web designer about the possibility of changing it to a dynamic one powered by a CMS such as Concrete5, Drupal or Joomla. If your web designer does not want to do this then give me a call!