Website Design

All businesses can benefit from a Web presence, even a very basic page makes life easier for clients by providing an easy means of finding the firm's contact-details.  This fact alone can generate a substantial amount of business.

When going beyond the basics,  a lot would depend on the aims of the site, and these need to be carefully thought-out before any plans are made. There is after all no point in designing a costly and attractive website, but one which will  not generate any revenue since it is aimed at the wrong type of client, or will never be seen by the intended audience.

Where websites are concerned, there are basically two approaches or 'roadmaps' -the Static Site approach, and the Content Management System.  The static site is created on a local computer, tested there, and then uploaded onto the webspace as one integrated unit. The CMS on the other hand is created page-by-page, directly within the webspace itself. Both have their pro's and con's, so best to discuss your needs before coming to a firm decision on which route to take. The main point to note is that a CMS site will require quality, professional-grade webspace (hosting)  if it is to work reliably, whereas the static-site approach can by applied even to very basic webspace with acceptable results. Thus, to a large extent the choice of hosting hinges on the static or CMS decision.

A concern with CMS-based websites is that of security. A great many such websites suiffer the attentions of 'hackers' whose goal may be simply to deface the site, or it may be more sinister, for example to place a fake bank-logon page in your webspace, or to install a spam-sending automaton. These eventualities can result in the domain being blacklisted, therefore creating a far more serious problem than the mere need to reload the site from a backup. (You DO have backups, don't you?)

Since static sites are far more difficult to break-into, the use of a CMS should perhpas be limited to sites where interaction is necessary. For most business sites, this is not necessary, hance a static site may be preferred for the sake of security.

IWR Consultancy can offer advice on all aspects of  your Web presence, having a longstanding involvement in the technical as well as the design aspects of sites. As every website is different,  please feel free to call and discuss your plans.  

As a matter of interest this site, iwr.cc consists principally of static pages. It does however make use of a number of dynamic-content technologies, such as php and DHTML. It's maintained on a local computer, and then uploaded in a single process.