Start small? One off project? Not many updates? We can do that.
A static site is the web in it's simplest form. The classic five-page website (Home Page, About Us, Services, Enquiry Form, Contact Us) or a simple web brochure are often examples of static websites.
In geek speak; a static website is one that has web pages stored on the server in the format that is sent to a client web browser. It is primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language , HTML.
Similar to handing out a printed flyer to customers, a static website is best suited to providing standard information over a long time. Although some website owners may make updates periodically, it is a manual process to edit the text, photos and other content that needs a degree of technical knowledge, website design skills and software.
The code for these sites is usually created using a software programme such as Dreamweaver and then uploaded to the site for display on the web. Changes to the site must also be made through the editor programme then uploaded. This means that all updates will normally be made by a web designer - and you'll get charged $$$ for that! So, if you think you want a small static site, think about how often you'll want to update - it could be more efficient to go for a Web Content Managed Website from the outset. WCMS sites enable you to make changes and add sections and pages to your own site - a much more powerful interactive tool that's not much more of an investment.
Who Uses Static Sites?
Small static sites suited to projects where;
- you only want a few pages
- the information rarely changes
- little budget
- your creative vision (or your graphic designers) is so fussy and exact that it can't be templated and used with WCMS (unlikely!)
- there are few competitors - so you are not too worried about competing in the search engine rankings
- the business online presence is a low priority in your marketing mix
- the business or project won't benefit from having news, updates, in depth product information, documentation, downloads, subscribers, social marketing, discussion boards and all the other interactive features associated with today's standard website (Web 2.0)
Examples
Costs
There are baseline costs of a domain name and the webspace to host the site. After that it's the time for designing a layout for approval followed by the coding time to build the pages. Typically a custom five page site could start from as little as $600 if you have ready-to-go artwork. If you have don't have any artwork then there's a graphic design process to go through that can add up depending on how many voices and committees you need get sign off from.
The Bottom Line
To be honest, we'll want to steer you away from this option unless there are very good reasons. It's not just because static sites are old-school (i.e. Web 1.0) in a world where we're Web 2.0 and beyond - but also because off-the-shelf interactive Web Content Management Systems are now so quick to install and deploy that they have made the static site virtually redundant. There are now only a few times where creating a static site from scratch will be faster than developing an interactive site using customised templates. So this is the option we'll talk about next - building an scalable interactive website with a web content management system - don't worry - it's much simpler than it sounds!
