Website Building Options

There are several different ways of building a website. Choosing

• Online Sitebuilder and Flash Websites
• Standard HTML template plus Webpage editor
• Content management system like WordPress, Joomla, Site build-it

Online Sitebuilder and Flash Websites

Many hosting packages offer a free online sitebuilder which allows you to create a site by clicking a few menu options, selecting some images and typing in some text.

There is no doubt that they usually produce nice looking sites and are usually very easy to use.

The problem is that:

• They are probably proprietary and so moving host at a later date is incredibly difficult.
• They are usually very search engine unfriendly which means that it is very difficult to get ranked, and so you don't get traffic.
• Not flexible

You will also come across flash websites. These look terrific and is easy to see why people want them. Flash was designed for graphical type work and the web is predominantly text. They also have severe problems:

• Great difficulty getting ranked by the search engines.
• Difficulty creating them.
• Not flexible.

I would avoid both of the above if you are building a business site. They are ok for small personal sites that don't require to be found in the search engines.

Standard HTML Template Plus Webpage Editor

This is the original method, and probably the most popular, it is suitable for sites of any size.

You start with a page template and simply add the content and save the file with a new page name. All content changes are done on your PC and then when complete uploaded to the website using FTP.

The original template can be self built or you can use a professional template from the many template sites. Take a look at website templates for more details.

This How to Make a Website Using Templates Video Tutorial Series shows you how to edit a free template so that you can use it to make your own website.

Although I use this method for this site it does have issues that you need to be aware of.

• Requires using a web page editor (free ones are available and are ok for small sites).
• Unless you are a web designer it is difficult to get a professional look by designing your own template
• If you use a pre-made template you need to be able to edit it. This in itself can mean that you require photo editing software and other tools.
• Need to upload the pages when complete. -Some people seem to have difficulty understanding this concept. See Using FTP to Upload web pages
• Changes on multiple pages can be difficult/time consuming .
• Can be difficult to add other functionality like forms, voting, comments etc unless you really understand what you are doing.
• If your site gets very large (>100 pages) you will need to start moving over to scripting like php to ease the management.

Having said that it is my preferred option for very simple 5-10 page brochure type sites ( the majority of small business sites fit this category).

 However if I was building a site that the client would themselves maintain, and add content to, then I would choose WordPress (see below)

Content Management Systems

Content management systems are designed to make it easy for non technical web authors to create content. They do this by separating the page/site layout completely from the content.

Adding content (i.e. pages) then becomes a simple matter of typing in the content to an online visual editor. It is as simple as typing into a word processor document.

This may sound ideal and it is but what you need to understand is that content management systems need to be managed/administered. Early content management systems were designed to be administered by a dedicated technical administrator and the content would be added by an author.

With Personal Content Management systems like WordPress the roles are usually combined and so the content author is also the administrator.

However management is done via a web browser and involves (in the main) selecting options from onscreen menus and with a little practise is quite within the capabilities of most.

The advantages are :

• No design ability required- choose choose from existing professional templates
• Templates can be changed easily with affecting the content.
• Very flexible.
• No web page editor required.
• Large number of add-on feature available to extend site functionality.
• Easier than the template/page editor method to create good looking sites.

Disadvantages

• The WordPress software gets updated regularly and you will need to update your site accordingly. Upgrades are getting easier with each new release.
• You still need to master FTP if you use plugins or another theme than those provided by the default install (almost certain that you will)
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I believe that this will become the standard method for site building and will be adopted by many new sites, and I would recommend this method for most sites that require new content to be added on a regular basis.

The only question then becomes which Content Management System should you use.

For non professional website builders then I recommend WordPress or Site build-it. If you require lots of help and want an even simpler solution than WordPress then Site build-it is probably the best choice.

Related Articles:

• Website Content Management Systems Overview