What Strategy is Right for You?

To state it simply, a web site can be constructed in a number of ways. Much like the home in which you currently live, your web site can be one of many types, kinds, styles, or whatever other term you may choose to use. To illustrate: many housing neighborhoods can be found in which the homes are very much alike and are based on even the same floor-plans. Other neighborhoods may have 'modular' homes or 'kit' houses. And still yet others feature custom homes tailored to fit the individual or couple buying the home. The similarities between homes and web sites abound.

1) Template Designed Sites
Web sites that I place in this category are sites where a design template (pre-built files that can be placed on a web server) is used and some minor editing is done to change the contact information and content to fit with the business for which the site is constructed. These sites aren't built instantly, yet they do go up more quickly.

Advantages:

• Lower cost than the other types
• Design is viewable before the site is purchased

Disadvantages:

• Design is shared with other sites
• Less flexible: if the design does not allow for a feature, it might not be easily implemented

2) Site Patterns
These sites are not templates per se, but they are very similar to them in that they are structurally patterned. Like a home can be built based on a floor plan with variations, these web designs have a patterned structure and the colors are changed out and perhaps textures are switched from one design to the next to add variety to the resulting sites.

Advantages:

• Mid range cost with some flexibility
• Structure can be somewhat adjusted

Disadvantages:

• Price is a little more since more editing must be done to achieve the unique appearance
• There are still limits on the ease of customizing the site.

3) Custom Designed Sites
These sites are not templates per se, but they are very similar to them in that they are structurally patterned. Like a home can be built based on a floor plan with variations, these web designs have a patterned structure and the colors are changed out and perhaps textures are switched from one design to the next to add variety to the resulting sites.

Advantages:

• Most flexible
• Totally unique to your business
• Structural freedom

Disadvantages:

• Most costly of the strategies mentioned
• Time to build is longer