What Type Of A Website For Your Business?

Depending on what kind of business you run, as well as what type of actual web site design you wish to have to represent your business online, you will need to plan out the sections needed for your web site design. Depending on the purpose of your company’s web site, you will need to have sections such as biography or company background, portfolio pages, contact pages, company staff or directory pages, services or products pages and more.. the sheer amount of possibilities for content of your site can be almost as overwhelming as the design process itself.

When I work with a client to plan or map out their web site design strategy, the first step for me is always a simple one… what is the main goal or purpose of the website.. and to break that down, it is simply a question of will the site be meant for providing information to the visitor about the company and it’s products or services, or will the web site design be geared more towards as e-commerce web site design, where the web site will function as an online commerce site to sell products and / or services on the web.

The Informational Web Site

The main goal of an informational web site is basically to act as a digital on-line portfolio for the business. To provide some background information on the company, information on the services or products they sell or provide, and give a means to contact them regarding sales leads and customer support.

An informational web site is usually developed using a CMS (Content Management System) such as Joomla or WordPress, but sometimes the site can be custom coded in flash, html, php, asp or a combination of any of these technologies. Informational web site designs are usually well suited for “trades” type businesses, such as landscapers, business professionals, schools or even clubs, as they generally do not have a tangible product to sell, but rather a service.

A typical informational type web site design may have the following pages and features:

• Home page with a welcome message, brief summary of the services or products or background on the company
• Company Information / About us page that has more details on the history of the company
• Services / Products pages that detail the services or products the company offers it’s customers or clients
• Portfolio page which has  samples of work done for pasty clients
• Testimonials page which would usually show  feedback about the experience past customers had with the business
• Contact Page which allows the visitors / clients / customers to contact the company

The E-Commerce Web Site Design

While the informational web site’s main purpose is to bring in sales leads and inform customers and potential customers about the products and services offered, an E-Commerce web site design’s purpose is to not only provide this information, but also entice the visitor to purchase a product or service, and pay for it online on the web site. Usually e-commerce sites offer tangible goods that are shipped to the customer, but I have had some clients who sell “services” in an e-commerce format as well in the past.

There are many open-source and commercial e-commerce platforms available in the market to choose from, some of the more popular ones are osCommerce, OpenSourceCart, ZenCart and Creloaded. Each has it’s own benefits and pitfalls, feature sets and scalability. Choosing what package to use is often a tricky balance between cost, scalability and features built-in.

Typically an E-Commerce web site design will have the following pages and basic features

• Home page which may provide some welcome information, company information and perhaps sale products or featured products for sale
• Company information page with background information on the company
• A products catalog which has categorized products the visitor can browse
• A shopping cart which allows the customer to add items to a virtual “basket” and then “check out” and pay for them
• Other e-commerce related information pages such as terms and conditions, shipping and ordering information / guidelines

So there is the basic breakdown of the two main types of web site designs for a company. Informational sites are meant as a portal to inform and educate the visitor on the company and it’s services, much like a digital brochure, while an E-Commerce web site design is geared more towards actually selling products online to consumers.