Question: What is the difference between a static website and a dynamic website?
Answer: There are two kinds of websites: Ones that store all of your webpages in a single document (static) and ones that use a database to store content (dynamic). In this article we are going to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each.
Static sites use HTML which gives you browser directions on how to layout text copy and images for your website. This 1st generation web technology's main drawbacks are:
- Difficult to update - usually need a web developer to update pages. This has an ongoing cost drawback.
- Doesn't allow on the fly indexing of website pages - If you want a sitemap of your site it involves labor
- Content is married to design - if you want to update design it is more difficult than with dynamic websites
Dynamic websites use a database to store information, a programming language (PHP, ASP, CFML) to get information from the database and translate it to HTML so that your browser can read the page. Benefits of using dynamic pages are:
- Databases searchable - users can search database for keywords/phrases.
- User controlled content management - you control the text and images on your website. This saves you time and money in the long run. For example, you can design a user-friendly content management system that lets your members build their own web pages. This means that members can edit their content on the web pages that they create as often as they like.
- Menu systems update as pages are added and removed. - A static site's menu system is static so if you add a new page you must update the entire site. With dynamic websites things like Member Home Pages and Member product sub-pages are dynamic.
Conclusions: Although there is a higher upfront cost, the lower ongoing cost and ability to update style without effecting content is useful to users. Some sites that are small may not need a dynamic website, but it is definitely worth investigating, especially if you have future site expansion in mind.
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About Ryan Holmes, President/CTO Invoke Media
As founder of Invoke Media, Ryan's experience combines diverse management skills with solid industry and technical knowledge. Prior to the founding of Invoke, Ryan gained extensive experience in entrepreneurial ventures, business management development, and marketing as owner of a restaurant chain, and a tourist adventure business. His passion for technology and desire to embrace the Internet revolution let him to Vancouver to work as a project manager and programmer for a .com company.
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