A recent survey conducted by TastyPlacement revealed
some very interesting results.

This survey demonstrated the effect that social media activity had
on a websites Google search engine rankings.

As it turns out, collecting Google+ followers seems to have
increased the websites site’s ranking up by as much as 14.63% ,
the following results were also recorded.

• 300 Google plus one votes (+9.44%)
• 70 Facebook shares (+6.9%)
• Tweets and Retweets (+2.88%)
• Twitter Followers  (-2.33)

So what does this all mean to you and your website?

It’s been well flagged for some time now that the search engines were upgrading their algorithms to become more
capable in determining the quality of website content using a wider range of measurements including a websites
level of social media engagement.

What you should strive for:
As an online publisher or website owner you should strive to:
Connect with your audience, giving them a reason to interact with your brand, build their loyalty.
You can achieve this by simply creating: engaging, highly share-able content.

The search engines are always striving to improve their users experience,
they can achieve this by linking to quality content, they can separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of website
content by measuring a websites level of social engagement. As quality content tends to be shared more so
than poor quality.

How can you achieve this?
The solution is to move to a Dynamic website, these new next generation of website
put you the owner in control and allow you to publish your content in one place automatically updating your
other important social media channels automatically.

Content Promotion via social media
Because these websites can Integrate with the top social media network and bookmarking websites, 
you can publish your content in one place (as opposed to several) saving you valuable time.

Content sharing, Tagging and indexing
These websites also provide additional tools to allow your visitors collaborate and
share information in real time; this is particularly important as more and more people
are using social media channels to assist them in making their important purchasing decisions,
A recommendation from a friend is now more important as 78% of consumers
trust Social Media friends recommendations more than traditional marketing messages.

The rewards to you for doing this:
Great publishers will be rewarded with higher rankings, higher rankings will result in more traffic to your website and increased business.

New complete specialist service
Our associates over at Next generation websites offer a number of choices and provide a complete service
and can help you upgrade your website to the next generation.

See their website upgrade Packs here:

Historically, website creation and maintenance required
significant technical skills (HTML, programming).

Typically a HTML programmer was hired to create and maintain the business website and medium sized enterprises who had the financial resources hired programmers directly and placed them on their payrolls in full time positions, these people commonly became known as the in-house webmaster.

The in-house webmaster role was to maintain and update the company website using their extensive programming skills. Smaller companies tended to outsource this task to external companies and paid then on a demand basis whenever updates were required, both processes tended to be a slow and expensive.

Next Generation of Websites
As the web became more popular and the demand for more content and more frequent updates because necessary a new generation of website appeared, this new generation employed a revolutionary new process of simple separation, they simply separated the HTML coding from the content meaning there was no more need for users to know complex HTML in order to update website content.

The birth of the Enterprise CMS
These new generation of websites had a new layer of software called a CMS, the CMS presented the end user with a graphic user interface that was similar to a standard word processor, so they quickly caught on.

Reasons why the Enterprise CMS became popular

• They could streamline the publishing processes.
• When the CMS was put in place the in-house webmaster could then focus on the redesign and functionality issues and not get tied down doing low level content updates.
• Content creators were able to add their content directly and take ownership which increased their motivation
• The ability to edit anywhere from anywhere, anytime removed bottlenecks within the organisation.
• Users could be assigned roles and permissions that prevented them from editing content which they were not authorized to change.
• Consistency of design was preserved; content from all authors was presented with the same, consistent design throughout the entire website.
• Content scheduling, presented publishers new levels of control never seen before.

These were the driving forces behind the growth in use of the Enterprise CMS.
Although the enterprise cms tended to use expensive software so they remained popular only within the medium to large enterprise community as they were simply not cost effective for small business.

A new credible alternative to the Enterprise CMS for small Business.
In recent times certain open source CMS projects have evolved, these are driven by entire online communities
of people who have come together to develop entire open source platforms. (Open source software is software that the owner permits other users to use, change, or redistribute, unlike proprietary software there is no licensing fee, so it’s essentially free)

These new open source cms now place similar features enjoyed by larger enterprises in the hands
of the small business owner at a fraction of the cost.

Several main platforms have evolved which are very popular today; one of these platforms is wordpress
it’s estimated that WordPress is used by 54.0% of all the websites that employ a content management system.

Is there any downside to using an open source CMS

The downside is these can be difficult to install, support and manage, that’s where we come in.

Our Service

We provide the following service as one single package:

• Advice and consultation on the best open source CMS for your individual needs
• Installing and configuring the CMS and its various components into one single Package
• Customizing a template with your individual design elements
• Transferring your existing content across to the new CMS
• Training you and your staff on how to use the new CMS
• Recommending and installing additional applications to extend its functionalities.
• Supporting everything together as one single pack package.

Why is this so important to your business?

1. These Opensource CMS are more cost effective to deploy, which puts the latest technology
in your hands at a fraction of the cost of alternative systems.

2. Once it is gone live, you are in total control. This allows you to keep your website up
to date without incurring the cost of hiring or waiting for an external developer to do this for you.

3. If you can react quickly to news, product changes, latest developments, this can put you
ahead of your competition online.

There are many more benefits..

We have advanced CMS packs built on wordpress starting from only 69$ per month.

See our advanced website packs here

Whether you’re planning a new website or thinking about updating an existing one, you’ve got
an important decision to make up front: Should your site be static or dynamic? The answer will
drive the design, implementation and operation of your site as well as how much it will cost to
create and maintain. In fact, no serious work can be done on your new site or redesign until
you’ve made a decision.

A static site, as the name suggests, is one that changes infrequently. It’s not unlike a company
brochure that, once printed, is difficult to change without a lot of work and money. It does not
change based on the interactions or interests of the visitor. Any updates require not only the
new content but also changes to the code. That’s because each page on the site contains both
the code and the content. Static sites are relatively inexpensive to set up and, as long as changes
are usually infrequent, cheap to maintain. However, visitors may not return because the content
is rarely updated.

Dynamic sites, on the other hand, can be changed easily and frequently. They’re powered by a layer of software called a content management system (CMS). Pages consist only of code that tells a server where to find the content, which is typically stored in a database. To make a change, the user uploads the content to the database and controls the appearance via an easy-to-use administration page.  The CMS takes care of updating Web pages. CMS-powered sites take more effort to set up, but they are easier to maintain and update. Also, visitors are more likely to return for the fresh content.

Here’s a closer look at the differences between static and dynamic, CMS-driven websites:

Implementation
Static sites can be created very easily and inexpensively. You only need a text editor and an
FTP client to push your HTML pages and content to a Web server. Of course, the pages must
be correctly coded or else there will be broken links and other problems. But this is not a
difficult task if the site consists of only a few simple pages.

CMS-powered sites are more difficult to set up because of the addition of a database and the
software that enables simple administration and other features.  Once the underlying software
and hardware are installed, you must determine what modules to use to give your site features.
There are thousands to choose from.  For example, if you are an e-business, you’ll want to
include modules for handling customer transactions, displaying products and searching within
the site. Most content management systems include modules for search engine optimization.
The setup of a dynamic, CMS-driven site may sound daunting, and it can be for those not familiar
with the process. Once this one-time job is completed, content updates are simple and quick.

Administration/Maintenance
Once a site is running, it’s got to be maintained. Your organization may have a new event or
product it wants to announce to the world. With a static site, each page needs to be updated
to incorporate the new content. At the very least, this involves opening each page, changing
HTML links and uploading new images or other media. Users need to understand HTML or
else risk breaking a page or the entire site.

This is the area where CMS shines. Users do not need any knowledge of HTML. Instead, they
visit an administration page from which they can upload new content and make changes to
existing text much like they would in a word processor. In most CMS sites, this posts the
content to a database. The site then automatically updates to reflect the changes.

Search Engines
If you are a business, you want potential customers to visit your site. But if they are not aware of
your business, how can they find you on the Internet? The answer: search engines. How your site
ranks in search results for keywords is determined by algorithms unique to each search engine.
With static sites, you must know exactly how to sprinkle keywords throughout the body text and
meta tags. Most content management systems take care of this work for you. You need only enter
your keywords once, and the CMS will make sure that your pages will get the attention they
deserve from search engines.

There’s another advantage to dynamic sites: Search engine algorithms give preference to sites
that are frequently updated. Search engines such as Google want to direct their customers to
the freshest and most relevant content, and dynamic, CMS-powered sites do exactly that.

Redesign
Eventually, you will want to update more than just the content of your website. You’ll want
to give the site a new look and feel. If you have a static site, once you’ve settled on a new
design,  every page on a must be changed to incorporate the new look. If your site consists
of only a few pages, this is not a problem. If it’s hundreds of pages, though, you might as well
start from scratch.

CMS-powered websites, on the other hand, are much more easily updated. The design work
only needs to be done in one place – the administration page. With a few clicks, all the changes
required by your new design will be instantly propagated across the site.

Ultimately, the answer to the question of static or dynamic depends on your goals for the website.
If your content won’t be changing and you wish only to present information to existing customers,
a static website may be the best choice. But if you expect frequent updates and high rankings in
search engine results, a dynamic site powered by a content management system is the way to
go.  It will take more time and effort to set up than a static site, but it will pay off in the future
with simpler updates and higher visibility.

Ultimately, the decision to use a content management system depends on your budget
and what you require of your website. Simply put, if you’re looking to build an online
brochure that rarely, if ever, changes, a static site will save you time and money. Such
sites, however, don’t take advantage of all the flexibility that the Web has to offer. If you
expect that your site will be updated frequently, interactive and easily maintained, CMS
is the best choice. It will cost moreup front in terms of time and money, but you’ll save
big in the long run over a static site that needs to be updated regularly.

Here’s a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of each type of website:

Planning & Deployment
To make administration easy and to support customization, CMS sites require more
planning and deployment work than static websites. One or more databases must be
built and connected to the CMS software, which must be installed on the server that
will host your website. Once that’s done, you will have to think about what theme to
use across the site, how users will navigate it and what features will be available. That
initial expenditure in time, thought and money will pay off in the future, however.
Once the site is running, new content can be added easily through an  administration
page. There’s no need for the administrator to know HTML, CSS or any other Web or
programming language.

Static sites are easy to set up, as long as you are familiar with HTML and Web servers.
You can write a page in a basic text editor and post it to the server. The complexity of
the site is dependent on your or your webmaster’s proficiency with HTML and
programming languages (for advanced functionality).
As long as the site is small and unlikely to be updated frequently, the static option can
be a quick,  affordable way to establish a Web presence.

Advantage: Static site for small, simple and infrequently updated sites; CMS
for larger sites that require frequent updates and advanced features

Maintenance
The biggest selling point of a CMS site is the fact that no special knowledge of HTML or
programming languages is required to update the site. If you can type and click your
mouse, you can administer a CMS. You or an employee can easily add new products,
announcements and other types of content that becomes immediately visible to your
site visitors as soon as it’s uploaded. If you decide to change the look and feel of your
site, you can switch the theme from one administration page, and it’s automatically
reflected across all your pages, whether your site consists of a few pages or thousands.

Maintenance of a static site is a challenge. Instead of a friendly interface, users must open
pages and manually adjust the links and text in HTML. If you add a page that you want to
link to across your 500 -page site, that means you must not only create the page but also
make the changes on every page that will link to it. The same is true when you decide to
adjust the overall theme of your site.  The risk of broken links is very high.

Advantage: CMS

Features
Static and CMS sites can support the same features, but there’s a huge difference in terms of
the cost and the effort in implementing them. To add a feature to a static site, a webmaster
must either develop

it from scratch or use existing code. Once it’s ready to be deployed, the server must be
configured to support it as well as every page that will use the new feature. . After that,
the site must be thoroughly tested to ensure no other functionality was broken.

CMS offers a simpler solution. Thousands of modules are available that need only be plugged
into the site. The installation, which can be done with a few clicks from an administration page,
takes care of server-side configurations automatically. If the new feature doesn’t work as expected,
it can be just as easily uninstalled – and everything returns to its previous state. Such modules
are often available at no cost and are developed by a community of thousands of volunteer
developers. If you want a feature that isn’t supported by an existing module, you can tap this
community to get one built.

Advantage: CMS

User Experience
You are building a site for your visitors. Whether the point is to share information or display
products, you want visitors to find what they are looking for and, above all, not be frustrated,
confused or bored.

If you choose a static site, it will be designed to work with the most popular Web browsers
such as Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari. This “one size fits all” approach can be limiting.
Moreover, problems can arise when your visitors use a non-standard browser or are accessing
your site from something other than a PC.
The solution is to write code that redirects each browser or platform to pages designed for
their browser  or platform. Thistriples or quadruples the amount of work required when
updating the site.

CMS sites, because they are dynamic, can take into account the differences in browsers and
platforms when generating each page. If your visitor is using a tablet, it will be presented in a
way that makes it easily navigated by touch. Smartphone users will see a version that’s optimized
for small screens. And PC or Mac users will enjoy a consistent feel regardless of what Web browser
they are using. All this is done with little or no work; it’s all cooked into most existing CMS software.

Advantage: CMS
Whether your site is a few pages or thousands of pages, a content management system can help
you post your content and present it in a way that will have your visitors coming back for more.

The Internet has given nearly everyone the power to share their thoughts and ideas with the
entire planet. It’s forever changed how goods and services are marketed, sold and consumed.
It’s made the wealth of human knowledge available at anytime from anywhere. But there’s a
great disparity among websites: Some take full advantage of everything the Internet has to
offer while others seem to be as flatand limited as paper brochures.

If you’re thinking about launching or rebuilding a website, take a close look at all the sites you
visit. Notice how some are constantly updated with fresh content, look consistent regardless of
what browser is used, and allow users to interact and connect via discussion boards, live chats
and social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. And then there are sites that never
seem to change, are hard to find via search engines and can’t be viewed on a smartphone.

The irony is that the sites that are the most feature-rich and take advantage of allthe Internet
has to offer are also the sites that are the easiest to maintain. They’re powered by a content
management system (CMS), software that takes away the complexity of building and
maintaining websites.

Here are some questions and answers on content management systems, and some of the
advantages over static sites:

What’s CMS?
A CMS site is also known as a dynamic site. Its content is usually stored in a database. When
a visitor clicks on a link, the page is built on the fly based on programmed instructions and
predefined modules. Administrators manage the content and themes of the sitenot through
HTML but via a user-friendly administration page. Once changes are made, they’re immediately
reflected on the site. Want to change the look and feel of the entire site? With a CMS, you click
on theme you want, and it’s applied across your site – whether it has two pages or 200pages

CMS software provides full control over the structure, content and design of your website.
Many CMS systems allow you to schedule the publication time of content on your site andset
permissions to control access. All allow you to do this without any knowledge of HTML, CSS,
scripting or programming languages.

What’s a static site?
As the name suggests, a static website is one that’s not likely to change. Why is that? Every
element – photos, videos and text – is hard-coded into the HTML, which Web browsers use
to display the page. In other words, everything your site visitors see on a page is contained
within the HTML (or points to a location on the Internet where the content can be found).
To update an image or another part of the page, simply change the HTML and upload new
elements (photos or videos) to the locations updated in the HTML. If your site has hundreds
or thousands of pages, it’s anextremely time-consuming process.

How Does a CMS Future-Proof My Site?
The content lives in a database and is not embedded in individual pages. Because of that, the
CMS system can slice and dice the content in a variety of ways, whether for specific browsers
or computers such as PCs, Macs, tablets or smartphones. If a new browser technology is made
available, it can be supported simply by updating the CMS software. Individual pages, when
they’re served to the new browsers, will support the new features while older browsers will
continue to receive pages that they can understand. In addition, most CMS-powered websites
support Really Simple Syndication, which allows your content to be distributed to your users
via RSS readers, email clients and any other program that supports the technology. Your content
can even be shared on other websites with this powerful tool.

What about Social Networking?
Content management systems offer thousands of modules that enable all sorts of features. If
you want your visitors to be able to tweet about your content directly from the site or like it
on Facebook, just install the modules that support thosefunctions. If you’re not ready to go
social, that’s easy too: Just don’t install the module.

The power of the Internet is within easy reach thanks to content-management systems. With
CMS technology, your website can be as simple or as complex as you want. Rather than focus
on code and laborious manual updates, CMS allows you to focus on creating compelling content
and making it available quickly to your site’s visitors.

The benefits of content management systems are well known to website administrators and business
owners. CMS-powered sites, for example, are easier and less expensive to update than static websites.
There’s no need to have a webmaster or distract your IT departments to update the site. Even the most
technophobic employee can make changes via easy-to-use administration tool.

But there’s another benefit of CMS – one enjoyed by visitors. They’ll vote with their mice and keep
coming back. Here’s why:

Fresh Content/Frequent Updates
With a static site, someone familiar with HTML must alter lines of code and manually upload graphic
elements for every change. Visitors are familiar with such sites – they’re rarely, if ever, updated and
quickly forgotten. Why bother coming back if there’s never anything new?

On the other hand, a dynamic, CMS-powered site is easy to update. When your company has a new
product, service or announcement, your website can let your customers know quickly because it’s
so painless for you or your employees to make changes. (Plus, there’s no need for you to have a
dedicated webmaster.)

Search Friendly
If you have a static website and want to search its content, you need to program that functionality, install
a third-party plug-in, or rely on a search engine to crawl it. The solutions can be difficult to deploy and
maintain. If something breaks, you need to dig into the code to fix it.

Content management systems are much simpler: Just install a module to expose a search box on every
page. Because your site is contained within the same database that’s being searched, your visitors will
always find accurate, up-to-date information.

In addition, all major CMS platforms are search-engine friendly. They make applying meta tags a snap
so that potential customers will be pointed to your site based on the keywords you use. (A bonus: Those
same algorithms give precedence to sites that are frequently updated. The links on your dynamic, CMS-
powered site will be given precedence over your competitors’ static sites.)

Interaction
Static websites are like brochures. Information presented on them is fixed and never changes. As a
business owner designing a static site, you have to anticipate exactly what information your customers
might want and how it should be presented.

A CMS-powered site, on the other hand, is dynamic and interactive. You can allow your visitors to
set preferences for how they would like the content displayed. Visitors also can provide feedback via
discussion modules. If your business sells products, you can let your customers supply reviews. Or
as they surf your site, you can collect data on what they’re most interested in – and use that information
for follow-up marketing or even for recommendations back to the visitor.

Content Everywhere
All browsers are different and websites must take into account whether a visitor is coming via Apple’s
Safari on a Mac, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on a PC or Chrome on an Android phone. If you’ve got a
static website, you have to keep the design simple or create unique pages for each browser and
program. You’ll also have to write a script to identify browsers and redirect visitors when they first
visit your site.

CMS-powered websites are much smarter. Because pages are created on the fly, they can take advantage
of the capabilities of the browser making the request. The result is your site will have a consistent look
regardless of the platform from which your visitors are viewing it.

In addition, most CMS-powered sites also offer the ability to generate Really Simple Syndication feeds.
That allows your visitors to grab a URL and receive updates through a reader as you make changes.
They also can take your feed and post it on their sites, which will drive traffic back to you.

These are just a few of the reasons your customers will benefit from your website’s  switch from static
to dynamic content delivered via a content management system. Ultimately, though, the biggest benefit
is to your bottom line. CMS-powered sites create a more satisfying experience for your customers.
Satisfied customers will return more often – and be more willing to pull out their credit cards or click
on ads when they visit.

Once you’ve decided to investigate a dynamic website powered
by a content management system, you’re likely to hear or read
some unfamiliar names, words and acronyms.

There will be talk of Joomla, WordPress, Drupal and others, modules and extensions, themes, open source versus proprietary solutions, and much more.  To help you get grounded in the world of CMS, here are some of the words you’ll see most frequently and what they mean:

CMS

You’ve probably heard this acronym dozens of times. But what is it? Simply put, a content management system (CMS) is a layer of software that sits between the user (visitors or administrators) and the hardware, software and content that makes up and delivers the page. The CMS is designed to be user friendly. Administrators, for instance, can add, update or delete content via an easy-to-use administration page. The CMS tells the underlying components what to do. In other words, it translates commands that are easily understood by users into commands that are understandable by servers and databases. Visitors won’t necessarily know that they’re interacting with a CMS, except that the content is fresh and the design consistent across the site.

Modules or Extensions

One of the advantages of all content management systems is their extensibility and flexibility. If you want your site to have a chat room, a discussion board, a shopping cart or some other feature, you will add a module or extension. These are much like apps for your smartphone. You pick from a selection (there are thousands available) and install via the CMS’ administration page. With just a few clicks, the functionality is available to users of your site. If the module doesn’t work as expected, it can be just as easily removed. Typically, module installers take care of all necessary backend work. You need not worry about creating new databases, setting permissions or making any configuration changes.

WYSIWYG Editors

Most CMS programs allow users to change pages using a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) tool. The text that you enter shows up exactly as you entered it. If you can format text using a word processor, you can make changes to your site via one of these tools. As soon as you save the document, the changes are instantly available on your site. There are WYSIWYG tools available for static sites, too.

Themes

With a CMS, you are in control of the overall look and feel of your site. If you get tired of it, you can simply change a setting and switch to a new theme in the easy-to-use CMS administration page. Thousands of predefined themes are available with most CMS packages. If you can’t find one that suits you, you can create one from scratch – or hire a developer to do the job. Once the theme is selected, it changes the look across your site. There’s no need to manually change each page.

Open Source or Proprietary

When exploring CMS solutions, you’ll often see references to open source and proprietary software. These terms describe two very different software-development philosophies. Proprietary software is owned and controlled by a single company. Microsoft, for instance, has a CMS called SharePoint. Its developers update the underlying code, and the company licenses the product to users. If there’s a bug, or you want a feature that requires an underlying update to the code, you must wait for the next update to see if the feature will be supported or the fix made.

Open-source software isn’t owned or controlled by a single company. Instead, its underlying code is freely distributed and updated by volunteer developers on the condition that any improvements they make be made available to everyone. Such software is usually freely available and very frequently updated. And because it’s maintained by a worldwide community of developers, there’s never any problem finding someone to make changes for customizations specific to your organization.

Popular Open-Source CMS Solutions
WordPress is probably the best known CMS and powers thousands of websites around the world. It got its start as a blogging platform, though today it can do much more. There are modules available to support almost any need imaginable, from search engine optimization to e-commerce shopping carts.

Drupal has an extremely active community and is ideal for everyone from individuals to large companies. In fact, it’s maintained by more than 630,000 users and developers around the world. Unlike WordPress, which still has remnants of its past as a blogging platform, Drupal has had no such bias. You can make your site look like a blog, a portal or anything else using this powerful software.

Joomla is another popular open-source CMS. It’s well known for an easy-to-use installer that works in most shared hosting environments as well as its attractive administration interface. There are more than 3,200 extensions available to add any feature under the sun. However, many of the plugins, unlike other CMS solutions, do come with a price.

Typical Scenario
Every website begins life with a big vision and grand plan.
It’ll attract visitors. Sales will double, triple or quadruple.
The Net will be abuzz with all that you’ve got to share with the world.

That initial burst of enthusiasm powers a great design.
Everyone talks about how easy the site is to navigate and find information.
But a few months later, the site quickly falls to the bottom of search results.
Nobody visits because the information isn’t updated.
You’d rather forget about it than update it.

What went wrong?
A well-built site by itself isn’t enough to guarantee success.
A site needs not only to be well-designed but also regularly maintained.
And if you don’t build a site with that requirement in mind, it’s most likely going to be a pain to keep up to date.
You could hire a pricey full-time webmaster to keep the site fresh.
Or you could just ignore it.
If you choose the latter, you can count on your visitors ignoring it, too.
Updated content, after all,
is what drives people to the most popular sites.

If you look closely at most abandoned websites, you’ll find that the majority are static and
require knowledge of FTP, HTML and other technologies to post content.
Once an item is uploaded to the server, the owner or their webmaster must do
surgery on the page on which the link is to appear.

At the very least, a hyperlink must be added without disrupting the elements that don’t require updating.
At the most, the entire page must be recoded and possibly redesigned to incorporate the new content.
It’s no wonder there’s never any new content on the site. It just takes too much time to add it.

There’s an easy solution to this problem – a dynamic website powered by an open-source application server.
Such sites are designed for easy updating via a simple Web form.

Content is stored in a database with instructions on how it should be displayed.
Once a visitor requests a page, the server builds the page on the spot with the latest
content in the database and following instructions coded into the site.
Once the site’s backend is finished, any authorized user can post content to the site
with a few clicks, and it will automatically flow into preset modules or templates.

The construction of dynamic websites can be a challenge, and that’s where we come in.
We’ll make sure your site is built to your specification, and that all modules that you’ll
need in the future are incorporated from the start whether you choose the Drupal, Joomla or Word Press platform.

Once your site is operational, you’ll be able to focus all your energy on creating the content.
When it’s ready to be published, all you have to do is upload it to a site via a user-friendly form.
The form will also ask you how you would like the content displayed and with a few clicks, your
site will automatically update to your specifications. As you can see, almost no effort is required
on your part to maintain your up-to-date presence on the Web.

Because your site will be hosted by us, you will have never have to worry about what happens on the backend again.
You can rest easy knowing that thousands of passionate developers from around the world are working to
secure and improve the engine of your site. If new features are added (and they will be) or a security
vulnerability is found, we’ll take care of patching and configuring the servers.

Why do people visit a website?
More importantly, why do visitors return to some
sites again and again while forgetting about others?

The answer is simple: It’s the content.
Content – whether it’s thoughtful text, products for sale, photos,
videos or interactive graphics – drives traffic to websites.
Frequently updated content gets noticed by search engines.
It not only attracts first-time visitors but also repeat customers.

If you operate a successful website, you know that content is king.
If your website is struggling, look at its content.
Is it unique? Is it updated frequently? If not, why not?

Most of the time, static websites are the reason that fresh content never makes it online.
Such sites are often meticulously and beautifully designed. The problem is they’re a pain to update.
To add or update content, pages need to be recoded and sometimes even redesigned entirely.
It’s inefficient and expensive. Often, a webmaster must be hired just to handle updates
and make sure nothing gets damaged in the process.

There’s a better way to build a website. It’s a bit more work upfront, but it is worth
the effort once the site is operational and needs fresh content. The solution is to have a dynamic website.

The difference between static and dynamic websites
The content of a static website is hard-coded into each page.
When the content needs to be changed, the page code also needs to be changed.
With a dynamic website, the content lives in a database.
Each page is assembled by an application server according to the instructions coded into the page.

As mentioned earlier, dynamic sites require more work to build, but they’re
a lot easier to manage after they’re built.

Here’s why:

• Because the content lives in a database, anyone who needs to update the site only has to worry about
getting the new information into the database. This can be done via a simple Web form that can be submitted by anyone.
It involves pasting or linking the new content and checking a few boxes to specify placement or special treatment.
Click “Submit,” and you’re done.

• The actual Web pages delivered by the server don’t actually exist until a visitor requests them.
If a page’s instruction is to show the latest content in the database, whatever has been submitted will appear on top.
If the submitter of the new content specified that the content should get special treatment, the page
will know exactly how it should be delivered.

In the earliest days of the dynamic Web, smart site owners learned the skills to build sites using
databases such as SQL Server or MySQL and application languages like PHP or ASP.

Today, it’s a different – and far simpler – story.
Several open-source projects, such as Drupal, Joomla and Word Press, have developed
content-management systems that simplify the design and maintenance of dynamic websites.
They largely take care of the backend work, such as setting up the database and coding the pages.
These robust systems support a variety of themes, and new ones are being created all the time.
As a website owner, all you have to worry about is generating the content and selecting a few checkboxes to update the site.

Dynamic websites also can be powered by other data sources.
If, for example, you find an RSS feed that would be of interest to your visitors, all you have to do
is plug it into your site via an easy-to-use Web form. With a few clicks, your visitors will have instantly
updated news and content – and another reason to return to your website.

Dynamic websites still can be a lot of work to set up, but we can help you convert your old, static site
into one powered by one of these powerful website engines. Once the conversion is complete, all you
need to worry about is generating the best content to bring new and repeat visitors to your site.

You have given up on your old, static website and decided to go dynamic. Updates will be a lot easier, and your site will always have an attractive, professional appearance even though you no longer need a full-time webmaster. How is this possible? You can thank the open-source movement.

Your dynamic website will be powered by open-source software such as Drupal, Word Press or Joomla. Unlike proprietary programs that are owned by a single company and its on-staff developers, open-source software is built and maintained by hundreds or thousands of independent programmers around the world. If there’s a need for a new feature or a security update, you don’t have to wait for the company to release the next version. Instead, someone on the project makes the change himself and shares it with everyone.

The driving belief behind the open-source movement is that the masses can create better software than any single company. Besides content management systems like Drupal, Word Press and Joomla, open-source developers have built the Firefox Web browser, the Linux operating system and the foundation of Apple’s Mac OS X. Sometimes companies such as Apple or TiVo base proprietary products on open-source projects. They contribute code back to the projects according to the open-source license.

Here are some common questions and answers about open-source software:

Isn’t all this sharing of code among developers a recipe for disaster?
No. Every open-source project has a well-defined project plan. Larger projects, including those responsible for popular content-management systems, use many of the same development tools as companies that develop proprietary software. Consider the Firefox Web browser. For years, it was faster and more secure than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, a proprietary program.

I’ve never heard of Joomla, Drupal or WordPress. How do I know if they’re the best platform?
Look no further than your favorite blogs and websites – many of them are powered by these programs. Joomla, especially, has taken off as the engine of choice for many companies and organizations. You may never have heard of Joomla, but you’ve probably heard of Kellogg’s, the Guggenheim Museum or IHOP. If you’ve visited their sites, you’ve used Joomla.

All this talk about source code makes me queasy. Will I have to learn to program in order to update my site?
No. The availability of source code means there are thousands of people already taking care of the programming. They’re developing easy-to-use screens that simplify the administration of dynamic websites. In addition, they are constantly coming up with ways to simplify the backend while at the same time building better templates for more sophisticated layouts. What’s more, if you ever need or want to build something that’s not supported, there’s a built-in community of developers available to help you out.

How secure are open-source content management systems?
Sure, the source code is freely available and while that means bad guys can see the holes, it also means many more eyes are looking for vulnerabilities and coming up with ways to fix them. Compare that with proprietary software whose source code is kept under lock and key and only the company’s programmers are allowed to review it. Plus, the free access to source code means that any discovered vulnerabilities are fixed more quickly than they are in proprietary software.

If open source is free, why should I pay to convert to a dynamic site?
It can be tricky configuring a website and optimizing its performance. It’s also unlikely your web host will let you make changes on its servers. Why not hire us to take care of everything for you?

We’ll provide the server, make all the configurations and update the platform when the latest updates are available. All you need to worry about is generating and posting the content via the simple-to-use forms.

Contact us
If you would like further information or to order a new website or a website upgrade then email us at
info@website-design-company.net or please complete our free enquiry form.