Although every website may use the same basic technologies and programming languages such as HTML, JavaScript, PHP or MySQL, what a website can do with these and other technologies is as varied as what an individual business can do.

The real question is – what works best for your business?

The best way to answer this question is to review some of the different kinds of websites.  Often, in fact, it may be that you need more than one website.  Why is this?  Well, let’s take a look at the varieties first:

• Informational website – a standard site with homepage, about us, services and contact page.  Gives the visitor a general overview of the company, product or service.
• Lead collector – this type of website is designed to focus on a specific topic and to get information from the visitor.  Often, these take the form of landing pages, squeeze pages or at least a special page on a larger site.
• Interactive sites – These cover a wide range, but are sites where users can interact with the company and with each other.  Interactive websites are membership-based in most cases, or they have opinion polls, chat rooms and so on.  Examples of these are sites like Facebook, dating sites, discussion forums and many others.
• E-commerce – websites that collect payments.  These can be online stores, paid membership sites, online scheduling and rental collection portals, among others.

Of course, this is hardly a comprehensive list of all the possible variations a website can take, you get the idea.  A website can be a simple one-page brochure all the way up to the most complex social media or banking sites in the world.

What Do I Need?

The type of website, or websites, that you require to really profit from your online marketing efforts really depend on what you hope to achieve.  However, for almost every type of business, we would recommend at least two websites.

Your main website, such as yourdomain.com, is your general overview site.  It may also contain e-commerce, or interactive features, but it’s designed to give the visitor a big picture.

On the other hand, at least one landing page that focuses on a single product or service is also highly effective.  These are great lead-generation tools and are easy to promote online because of how specific they are.

For example, let’s say that you’re a manufacturer of protein bars.  Your main website, yummybars.com, showcases your business, your products and lets customers buy online.  Now, you have a special new bar with a discount offer, so you create a URL called runnerenergybar.com.  This one-page website focuses only on the runner’s power bar and nothing else.  It has great text, pictures, maybe a video and a call to action that collects a name and email before the visitor gets to the sales page.  So this way, even if they don’t buy, you have a growing list that you can market to later on.

As you can see, in today’s digital market, a single website may not be enough.  By broadening the scope of your marketing efforts, it’s possible to capture a wider customer base and vastly improve your income!