| Content,
they say, is the king. It is the most important part
of your web-site - primary reason why customers visit
it. Look, appearance, presentation all are important
- but what finally matters is the quality of content.
Just as packaging alone can not make a product winner
without quality - web-site design and presentation becomes
ineffective in the absence of quality content.
What is 'Good'
Content ?
No matter if it's
a business web-site or a personal page, you have to
give people a reason to stay on your site - the first
question the visitor is going to ask - "what's in it
for me?"
That doesn't mean you have to give away freebies - programs,
books, tickets, holidays etc. etc. - it does mean that
you have to offer something. That "something" could
be:
- Information
- Utility (bulletin board, search engine,
directory etc.)
- Entertainment
- Advice
- Help with a problem
- Opportunities to network with like
minded people
- Links to useful sites
In the context of business - the
content must have "something" perceived as 'useful'
by visitors. Perception of 'usefulness' may stem from
satisfaction due to - time saving, cost cutting, increased
efficiency, greater sales, better customer relation
etc. The hallmark of a successful web-site are:
- Visitors find the content 'useful'
- Contains information that is unique
or at least hard to find
- Contains fresh information (i.e.
updated regularly)
- Easy to locate through search engine
and other means
One way to judge usefulness of your
web-site content is to get into visitor's shoes and
critically examine it from customers' viewpoint.
How to Manage
Web Site Content
Once you decide
kind, extent and format of information that qualifies
as content for your web-site - the next step is to look
at the technical side of it. There are several ways
of rendering this content over your web-space and accordingly,
you web-site could be :
- Static Web-Site
- Dynamic web-site
- Mix of both
Static Web-Site
As the name implies
- the content of a static web-site remains static and
does not change unless you replace it manually with
fresh one. Created mainly through html pages - this
kind of web-site was prevalent during early days of
Internet.
Apart from simplicity - static web pages are search
engine friendly and less demanding on server resources.
As a result, they load faster and are easy to locate.
Such a web-site can be developed comparatively faster
and at lower cost as it does not require high degree
of technical skill.
However, the major drawback of static web-site is its
maintenance. Any change in content means updating concerned
web pages off-line and then loading these to remote
server using FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
Though technologies like CSS (Cascading Style Sheet),
Javascript etc. help in managing uniformity in look
and feel of a static web-site - there is no escape from
manual work when it comes to change in content
Dynamic Web-Site
Content of a dynamic
web-site is stored in a database and rendered as web-pages
whenever demanded by web-site visitors. Apart from easy
management of content - design of a web page can be
customized as per visitor requirement.
Such database-driven dynamic web-sites are very useful
for applications where content changes very frequently
and require high degree of customization.
Development of such web-site requires high degree of
technical skill and server resources. One may opt for
special software called Content Management System (CMS)
for developing such a web-site or employ programmers
and designers - development cost will significantly
higher than static web-site in either case.
Apart from resource-hungry and slow - biggest drawback
of dynamic web-site is its incompatibility with search
engines. Unlike static web-sites where content is present
in the form of physical web-pages - dynamic web-sites
have only virtual pages in the form of database records.
As a result, while search engine robots happily index
millions of static pages with convenience and ease -
they find databases almost impenetrable and hence out
of reach for search engines.
Conclusion
So, where does the debate
end ? Do I go for static web-site or dynamic ?
Well, the answer lies in your requirements. If high
search engine ranking is important for your business
(as it is with most SME manufacturers and exporters)
- kiss goodbye to dynamic web-sites.
If content management as well as high search engine
ranking both are critical for your business - make your
web-site a mix of both. You can achieve this by segregating
the content in two parts - static and dynamic.
Another solution is to have best of both worlds - keep
your content in database and generate static web pages
through software. This way, you can manage content and
achieve high search engine ranking, but last minute
customization will take a back seat. Finally - it is
your requirement and budget that decide the shape of
your web-site.
Happy and Productive Surfing
Dr. Amit K Chatterjee
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