Html, Flash, Plone or Wordpress?
If you are in business, it is expected of you to have a website. Though it is an expense to design and create, the savings made on physical brochure and sales literature far outweighs its cost. This is mainly true of SME companies. On the other hand, retailers such as Next and Argos catalogue requests are growing rather than declining; however, when you take over £1M a day on line, it’s relative.
Ideally, your site should be:-
- Well planned with a logical structure
- Well written with good keyword density
- Selling your product or service
- Reflecting your Core Differences and Unique Value Proposition
- Identify and promote your corporate or Person Brand and Branding
- Search engine optimised
- Visually appealing
- Informative
- Visually appealing
When you have sorted the above, there is another major consideration:
What programming language should you elect for your website. We are going to ignore Javascript ASP, PHP, AJAX, XHTML, and C++ for the moment:-
- HTML
- Flash
- Plone (Open Source)
- Wordpress (Open Source)
- Or a mixture of the above.
A further consideration is if you want to be able to amend the content. If you do which we highly recommend, this enables you to keep your site fully updated. The worst scenario is to see “out of date” information, and regretfully this is very common on the internet.
Therefore a CMS = Content Management System, will allow you to keep on top of content.
However, as much as you strive for a perfect and finished website, the reality is that it should be considered a “work in progress”! That’s not being disorganised - it’s being practical. In this fast moving society in which we live, we must be able to respond accordingly. Being able to update your web site in an instant is great and very useful, especially if you wanted to increase your prices as the US dollar has strengthened – you see!
HTML Web Site
For : Easy and cheap to construct. The best system for the current search engines to find your content.
Against: Not much but limited bells and whistles or dynamic content.
Flash
For: Flash offers more custom ability than HTML and is widely used as a navigation system. You can do amazing things with Flash, and HTML has trouble competing with such dynamism.
Together they make a formidable force!
Against: If a site is totally composed in Flash, the search engines have a problem searching it and therefore most search engine optimisation is lost. That said, the Flash and HTML combination is perfect and will allow the search engine robots or spiders to access your content. So, you can have a site with bells and whistles that also performs well within the search engine – perfect! Here’s an example we created: www.woodfordheating.com
Plone
For: Plone is an open source, a language that is supported by a community of programmers. We choose Plone as our sister companies are multilingual, and Plone offers a unique facility for these types of sites.
We can see them both here:
In the latter, you can see the flags of the various countries and view the information in the appropriate language.
Plone web sites have a reasonably easy “content management system” so you can update information on the fly.
If you are going down the multilingual avenue, do consider Plone.
Against: Not many programmers are familiar with Plone open source and unlike HTML and Flash they are not in abundance.
Wordpress
For: This type of web site is meant (for Bloggers see blogging) and this site is based in Wordpress open source.
So, why did we choose Wordpress? Wordpress is also very customable. If you require total client or visitor interaction then this system offers you that.
If you are or want to be a serious blogger, then this too is for you. Our blog allows visitors to post questions and receive replies. Wordpress is free and can act as a blogging system setting.
With an HTML or Flash structure, like Plone this is also customable.
Against: Again, your usual HTML and Flash programmers or designers are not always familiar with Wordpress. That said, anyone with some programming or technical knowledge can install the software.
Wordpress can sit within an HTML or Flash website and be seamlessly integrated (example www.bookmidwife.com/blog)
Conclusion
Your safest bet is to stick with HTML, and if you need to use Flash, do so just for the navigation. If the whole site is in Flash you will never be found by the spiders, though this may change as technology develops.
If you plan on being a serious blogger, then you should choose Wordpress.
Finally, if you are going down the multilingual route, Plone offers a low cost option for SMEs.
Important Note:
Your decision about which web platform and language should be part of your overall marketing strategy.
We hope you found this information useful. We would like to remind you that this subject is best served, and more effective as part of a complete marketing plan or strategy, rather than in isolation. For further expert advice please contact us to discuss your requirements or post a question in our blog.
Be Seen, Be Found, Be Accessible, Be Successful!