Depending on the purpose of your website, if it’s there to serve multiple purposes or merely act as a brochure, you have to choose whether to go with a static website or a CMS (Content Management System) one. Both kinds have their advantages and disadvantages, but these days, most businesses find it more productive and proactive to use a CMS such as WordPress or Drupal.
A static website is the old school way of building a website. It is made with a markup language like HTML. The overall look and content are arranged with a fixed code. To update it, coding knowledge is essential or the site’s structure could end up broken. A CMS, on the other hand, involves software and server side scripting languages like PHP that enable the easy management of a website’s content. It also allows many functions like online sales and capture of customer details. Any edit is done quickly through accessing the administration section.
It is easy to see why CMS websites are more in demand. The following are a few specific reasons:
- Easy Creation and Update of Content. Putting in and editing content can be done as frequently as you wish without having a web developer assist you or you needing to learn code yourself. This gives anybody with access to the administrator’s section extensive and complete control over the content. It is very user friendly and interactive. Changes are immediate and can be done at your leisure.
- SEO Readiness. CMS websites are search engine friendly since their content is updated on a regular basis, earning them more attention from Google and other search engines, and making them rank higher in SER (search engine results) pages. A website that is on the good side of Google, as you know, gets exponentially better traffic compared to a website that does not. A CMS allows you to have fresh content, Google-friendly link structures, and Meta tags that give further details about your content.
- Browser Compatibility. CMS websites are standards compliant and are tested in all the popular browsers before being launched. With static websites, it is not as easy to have them compatible with various browsers, and they often favor one browser over another, looking perfect in Chrome, for instance, while appearing broken in Internet Explorer. This does not mean that a WordPress site can never look broken in a major browser, but a person has to do something incredibly bizarre to make that happen.
- Long Term Practical Option. Static websites may be cheaper to order from a web design company, but in the long run, CMS websites are more practical for the simple reason that they are easier to maintain. Ultimately, a CMS doesn’t make you dependent on a web designer to run your site