While nearly all websites used to fit under this category (hence the term ‘traditional’), website technology has changed a lot. Traditional methods are still valid and work great. A lot of web developers use an Adobe product called Dreamweaver to build these kinds of websites.
I don’t use this method anymore because my mission is to give YOU as much control as you want to have over your website. With Content Management Systems YOU can go in and easily make changes to certain parts of your site with very little training. With traditional methods, the average computer user is not going to be able to make any changes.
Caveat Emptor: There’s always more than one way to skin a cat. If you hire someone to build you a general website, they are going to build it in a way that makes sense to them. However, if you hire someone else to upgrade your website later, they may or may not be able to easily follow what your original webmaster did, and even if they can follow it, they may feel that webmaster’s style was “philosophically wrong” as far as web development goes. You may have already run into this situation if you’ve had a website for any length of time. In this case, introducing a new webmaster can result in having to rebuild the site from scratch-again.
A traditional website is going to mainly consist of HTML/CSS code. Maybe you aren’t familiar with those terms. The bottom line is, if you don’t want to spend a lot of money having a Web Developer make every little change on your site (or by expensive web developer software), then a Content Management site is the way for you.
Good reasons for a small business to have a traditional website:
- You don’t plan to change your site ever again
- You hate bells and whistles and just want a simple site
- You don’t plan to sell anything from your site, or only one or two items
- You have a web developer on contract or in your employ who will handle all your website needs