Dynamic websites allow you to change the content of your website. There are many web content management systems available on the market, but many are difficult to use and expensive. Most dynamic CMS systems do not index well on search engines.  Passion Computing dynamic websites are programmed to index on search engines and the system will give you full control to edit title tags, metatags and page descriptions. The CMS also produces search engine friendly URLs.

Over the last few years many website design companies have launched open source CMS or managed CMS. The major differences between our system and other CMS products:

• Each company website has its own MS SQL database. The MS SQL database is not shared, nor is the application a shared application. We do not utilize MS Access for our CMS system. MS Access is the poor brother of MS SQL and does not provide the performance of MS SQL.
• Clients have access to website statistics to track visitors and website performance (a feature not offered by many CMS providers)
• A separate hosting account in a secure data centre managed by experienced technicians 24/7, 365 days a year. Hosting is best outsourced to experienced technicians rather than handled in house by a website design company
• A CMS system that allows you to use SEO techniques like changing metatags, title tags, URLs, and keywords, add links, as well as have full control over images and text, alt tags and page names. You will be able to move pages, archive pages and add functionality like web forms, password protected pages, search, forums, to your website.
• Ease and custom fit - your site would be completely set up and customized to your requirements. If you buy off the shelf CMS, you are limited in customization because the code is compiled. Unless your business fits perfectly with the model that the off the shelf, or managed CMS is built for, you will find that it is like having a dress that covers you up but does fit you properly. We have the entire source code to the CMS project can customize a CMS to fit the needs of a company; many CMS providers sell one size fits all CMS solutions because they do not have access to the full source code.
• Competitive advantage - our success is dependent on your success and unlike companies that sell CMS solutions by the hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands, our business is far more personal and therefore each customer is not a number on a balance sheet. We know each and every customer, and work to understand their business and organisation.

Who should develop a dynamic website?

Dynamic websites are ideally suited to organizations that update their website frequently. If you are considering a dynamic website and you have a brochure website displaying products and services and that would not regularly need to be updated, a static HTML website is the best option for you. Static websites are written in HTML and the vast majority of our customers who have static HTML websites update their own website written content using a HTML editor and ftp program. Most small businesses are better suited to HTML websites than a CMS solution. Perhaps even consider our DIY website builder as a good alternative to building your own website without any HTML.

HTML is the language that enabled webpages to be created. A dynamic website generates html. ie code + database = HTML. Static HTML websites are really cheap to host and because it does not rely on server software, scripting language or databases, there is very little that can go wrong with a HTML website or ongoing maintenance and hosting costs.

So unless, you are building a website that needs to be frequently updated, if you are just building a brochure website with products/a bit of news/contact details/bookings – then HTML is the way to go. Not only can you easily learn how to keep it update with a few of hours of training but your site is not at the whim of technology changes that affect dynamic sites. Sites like ebay have teams of developers, who not only add more features but are constantly doing maintenance and securing their systems. You can add some dynamic features like a forum is a separate module that can be added, or you might have RSS news pages and although these features are subject to the effects of technology change, the fundamental parts of your website are created in HTML.

What is the process of having a dynamic website set up?

Firstly, you provide us with information, images, company logo, proposed layout and we create a website in consultation with you. There is no software to download or large manuals to read. We want you to enjoy the benefits of technology without the hard work. Initially the process is very similar to developing a static HTML site, we finalize the homepage, links and content both images and text and come to an agreement on design.

Why are dynamic websites more expensive?

To answer this question, one needs to understand the Internet and how it works.

The Internet started when in the late 1960s, researchers gained funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a computer network concept. In September 1969, the first pair of nodes was installed at the University of California and the first external link was to Stanford Research Institute (SRI), several hundred kilometers away. The network was dubbed ARPANET. The two crucial protocols thatform thefoundation of the internet areTransmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), and with the addition of the DNS (or domain name system) create what we now call the Internet. Basically, the internet is lots of computers networked together and as more IP addresses were added to the University of California (UCLA) and SRI – the network of computers expanded to what we now know as the Internet.
HTML (the coding language that creates webpages) was invented in 1989 and it is still used today. It has changed very little in 18 years.

Around 1996, programming languages like ASP, and PHP were developed that allowed us to build database websites (dynamic websites) where the database would hold the content and images separate from the code and an interface could be programmed, so that people without programming knowledge could change images and text.

Unfortunately, ASP and PHP are in constant flux – that is, since we first start developing dynamic websites, we have basically rewritten the system several times and had to do changes to the system whenever a major change in software occurred. Eg. ASP, changed to ASP.net v1 and then ASP.net v1.1 and now it is changing to ASP.net v3.5, the server that ran ASP, moved to Windows 2003 and that same server software is also on the verge of upgrading. When WORD changed to WORD 2003, we needed to change the code to make sure that cutting and pasting from WORD would still work, and every time there is a browser change like from IE 6.0, to IE 7.0 and when the system changes from Windows 98, to XP to Vista and when the database changed from MS SQL 2000 to MS SQL 2003, the CMS needs to be rewritten or adapted because the dynamic website relies on

1. local software that is on your office/home computer
2. the server software that is on the web server at the hosting company
3. the scripting language ASP, PHP, ASP.net.
4. the databases that run the site, i.e. Access, MySQL or MS SQL

Bottom Line - Staying on top of the changes and building a dynamic website is not for everyone.  Even though the state of the CMS has evolved nad it has become easy to create and build sites, it still requires much more work then most people realize. 

Hire us and Get the worX! You get everything in one package including maintenance and hosting!  BooYah!