In terms of content, there are two different aspects when pondering the design and development of a new website for your business. When I think of dynamic, I think of something that is changing, moving, or interacting. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the word static is; stays constant, fixed, something that really isn’t interacting.
My same theories can be used to determine your site requirements. The context in which we will be discuss dynamic and static is merely for website content.
Static
Static content is often referred to as an “Online Brochure”; the content is there for the taking! A static website is a great, inexpensive tool to convey the basics of your business to an end user, create/recreate an online presence to keep up with or surpass your competitors, or simply post your contact details. When I think of a static website, I think of a 5 page website. For Example:
- Home
- About us
- Contact us
- Products/services
- Miscellaneous page (testimonials, terms of service, missions statement, etc)
A lot of web sites can be broken down into this static category, as a matter of fact Basque Norte’s brand new site couldn’t convey a static web site example any better.
Dynamic
Dynamic content can be defined as content, products, photo’s, etc that are constantly changing depending on user interaction. For example, when you think of an e-commerce website, you first select a category, perhaps a sub-category, then you see a list of products. Once you see a product you are interested in, you select the details to determine whether or not you would like to purchase that item. Well, you may not know it, but you’ve just browsed through what would be considered a dynamic web site.
Uses for dynamic content:
- E-Commerce
- Easily Managed Photo Gallery
- Content Management
- Online Forms
- Career Postings
- Etc
The uses are virtually endless. You can introduce infinite dynamic possibilities to the modern day website. The portfolio section (https://www.chicowebdesign.com/portfolio) of the website you are now browsing is dynamic and it allows us to easily add and maintain new and existing portfolio items with ease.
Dynamic content, for the context of this discussion, is pulled from a database. Without making you fall asleep (although probably too late!), a dynamic web language such as PHP interacts with a database to withdraw pertinent information based on what the end user selected or clicked on.
Bringing it back to our e-commerce example, the database has relationships between products and categories so when the user clicks on a particular category it knows what products to display to the user. This is a typical dynamic interaction between the user and database.
Advantages of dynamic web sites
First and foremost, one of the largest benefits to developing a dynamic site is the maintainability. Now that the content is being stored in a database, we can easily design an interface between the administrator and the database for any novice to maintain the data, products, images, etc on there website.
It also allows us to structure or retrieve the information any format you’d like to display it to the end user. Let’s say for example you want ten products per page, 35 products per page, or view all, it can all be done since the information is already being stored in the database. It makes loading new products, photos, content to your website a snap.
Remember, content is what is going to drive people to your website. Having up to date, easy to read and understand content is what’s going to keep them coming back or call your business.