Web Site Design & Marketing Guide

The World Wide Web is massive. There are countless amounts of websites online filled with information on and about everything. It may all look the same to the untrained eye, a website is a website, but for web designers there is and needs to be a distinct difference between them all, to help them price up your website.
Each website that you see on the internet have different functions and layouts, and ways of grabbing your attention depending on what it is they are trying to achieve. There are several types of main websites that all web designers sell and work on.

1. Business
   With a Business website, it enables businesses to show anyone, globally, photos and descriptions of their products and services. Unlike an Ecommerce website, not everything you see on a business website is sellable over the web. Examples of this would be hair-stylist, dentist, schools etc.
   There are a number of key factors that need to be taken into account when designing a business website, these include:
   • Appearance: The first impression that a visitor gets when coming to your website should be a good one.
   • Navigation: Poor navigation will make it difficult for people to find what they are looking for and they will leave.
   • Content: Quality content not only sells products but it also insures good placement on the search engines.
   • Optimisation: Search engine optimization
     is crucial to your traffic flow.
   • Clarity and Style: The message that you are trying to convey to your audience must be clear and as simple as possible.
   • About us: Your visitors want to know who they’re doing business with, and this is your chance to tell them.
   • Contacts: You should include as many different ways for visitors/customers to contact you as you possibly can.

2. Personal
   A personal website is similar to a blog, but bigger and the person controlling the website, the webmaster (you), has full control of the theme, branding, and content such as adding interests, hobbies etc.The amount of Personal Websites that can be found on the internet is astronomical. Personal Websites are probably the fastest growing type of website.One of the main reasons for this type of website is to stay in touch with family, and including family photos or jusr used as an online diary.

   However, you do have to remember that Personal Websites are not private, so to take an air of caution with what information and pictures that you decide to upload.

3. Multimedia
   This type of website, uses a range of media to grab the attention of their potential readers, buyers etc, with the use of sound, video and animation aka Flash.Some examples of who would you this type if website include YouTube, other video sites, game sites and celebrity websites.

   This type of design is getting more popular as more and more people and businesses are on the internet and all fighting to get that number one spot on Google and other Search Engines, its one big competition.

4. News
   As the name suggests, News type website are pretty much self explanatory, examples of this type include BBC news, CNN etc.However, the defining factor between all of these is the style and ease of navigation finding exactly what you want.

   It is a very heavy commitment to run a news type website, as it needs to be constantly updated and reevaluated to ensure up-to-date news and navigation throughout the site is easy.

   But the upside to these type of sites is especially good as they usually allow for everyone and anyone to have their say.

5. Blog
   Along with Personal Website types, Blogs are one of the fastest growing website type on the internet, and they can be found anywhere and about anything and everything, whether its someone talking about the new Star Trek Movie, right down to a discussion on what they are going to wear out that night.The reason these are so popular, is that they are so easy to use and update and maintain.
6. Content and Info
   This is the most common site that you will find around the internet. These are sites with which homework is done, Wiki, Yell.com, Directories etc. These are set up purely to inform the world of what is going on, where to find something and how to get there.
7. Ecommerce
   This is the more complex and important websites and widely the most used globally. Examples of this include Argos.com, Tescos Direct, ASDA Online etc.There are even TV ads about ecommerce sites such as the LittleWoods website. This is usually a pinicle point for any business as it enables then to reach a global audience and use various marketing strategies to keep repeated custom, such as ‘Website only Deal’. These sites are very important to businesses that want to sell over the internet.
8. Online Brochure

   This type of site, the Online Brochure Site, is similar to the business/content and info sites, it is a way of showing the world what you have to offer and how. It does sound like an ecommerce site in the fact that they both show pictures and descriptions and optionally the price of products and services but again not everything is sellable over the internet, such as gardener, landscaper etc.

   It enables businesses to branch out and further their market globally and improve their business on the whole.

9. Hybrid

   The Hybrid Style includes sites that not only promote their own products and/or services, but also offer other information such as printable documents, news items, and other types of downloads and grabs your attention via sound, videos and animation. Hybrid sites are usually a mix of a number of different types in order to fully take advantage of the internet to boost their business and website.

   Examples of this would be a personal hobby site that not only tells the world what the person does, but also offer tips, hints, help downloadable paper work etc.

10. Web Directory

    This type of web site, the Web Directory, is similar to your phone book in your house, the yellow pages. It is not a search engine, but displays a list of various businesses, products and services a number of ways, such as alphabetically, industry or by area.

    There are a couple of ways web directories are populated with companies and services etc either directly added via the webmaster or a company would go to the website and add their own information and then it is reviewed and accepted or declined and placed in the appropriate category.

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