Yeah, I know it’s taken me a couple of weeks to get to day 6. (Sad, I know.)

One of the big decisions you will need to make is how you are going to publish your information online. In Internet terms, what website format are you going to use? There are a lot of choices, and I won’t go into the technicalities, but here’s general overview of your choices in ice cream terms.

Vanilla:
The old stand-by. Static. You (or your web person) make updates by hand. Content is not stored in a database (called ‘dynamic’). This is the old school web, with all the hand-coded HTML & CSS (cascading style sheets). This is the more difficult way (if you aren’t well versed in such practices) and does not lend itself towards creating a content-rich website. Yes, they can look just as good.

Chocolate Ripple
A little bit of zip. Dynamic. You (or your web person) make updates into a light-weight content management system (CMS) and the content is in a database, including images. Great for blogging, small company/organization sites that want to easily make regular updates to the site and those wanting to couple that with good search engine optimization (SEO) practices. Some examples would be the WordPress blogging CMS or CMS Made Simple.

White Chocolate Rasberry
Definitely on the adventurous side. Ultra-dynamic and flexible. A CMS like this is much hardier (and, at times, unwieldy), but is ultimately more customizable and powerful. All the SEO benefits can be incorporated, and accommodations are made for large editorial teams and the large amount of content they can generate. Examples would be Drupal or Joomla.

Pick the best flavor for you

Now, could a mom and pop shop benefit from Chocolate Ripple? You bet! Do they have to have it? No. Just because a company is generating $10 million a year does it mean it needs White Chocolate Rasberry? Nope.

In the end, it all goes back to the plan. What you want to do with your website needs to dictate what type of technology you use. Just remember, a website is a tool. And, like any job, you need to right tool to accomplish the task at hand. Every one has it’s place, but not all are created equal.

image: karindalziel

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What are your thoughts? Post a comment and let’s talk.

Do you have questions about what how you can leverage the Internet to improve your customer experience and boost your company’s performance? Just ask.