Website Types
Web 1.0
Web 1.0 sites have been around since the beginning of the Internet. These sites are simpler to create, but are hard-coded. This means that while they are cheaper to develop, a web programmer must be hired to make any changes to the site content. The basic elements of a web 1.0 site are the website design, the individual webpages, and image and text content for those pages. Today these sites are used less and less, but in certain cases still are very practical.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 sites have been around for a few years at this point and are rapidly replacing static, 1.0 sites. This is because of the sheer power and flexibility of Web 2.0 sites on a number of different levels. The typical elements consist of a Content Management System (CMS), a database that holds page, user, blog, or e-commerce information, and a template design for making the database-driven content display nicely as a standard webpage.
Web 2.0 sites have an almost infinite number of advantages over Web 1.0 sites, such as:
Website Updates Made Easy
Website owners have the ability to login to the backend of their website using a standard web browser and can edit everything from page content to menus to entire e-commerce systems whenever necessary. A programmer may still need to be hired on occasion to do more complex tasks such as installing new features, new systems, or database maintenance, but the majority of day-to-day updates can be done through a browser-based page editor that looks like a standard word processing program.
Adding images, blog articles, new pages, and video content is all easy to do within the Web 2.0 framework.
Flexibility and Expandability
Web 2.0 sites are very modular, so when the need arises for additional features or a new website design, the new system or "look" can be implemented into the existing site without having to do a major site restructuring. Whereas Web 1.0 sites were often completely recreated every few years to keep looking up-to-date or to add new features, a Web 2.0 site has the ability to expand and change as needed without having to start over each time.
There are literally thousands of additional features to choose from with Web 2.0 sites. The key is to build a site's initial core elements correctly, then the sky's the limit afterward as a business grows and needs new capabilities from its website.
Social Networking
Web 2.0 sites have many site promotional capabilities using Social Networking methods. Social Networking allows a site to interface with social sharing sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, LinkedIn, Digg, and many others in a seamless process. Besides automated data feeds and links, website visitors themselves can even help promote a site by instantly sharing or bookmarking a webpage they're viewing.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Getting a site listed as high as possible in search results is more of a challenge now than ever before. Web 2.0-driven sites have a number of features to help with this task, particularly when combined with an Internet marketing and SEO campaign.
eCommerce
eCommerce sites can vary greatly in scale from a site having one item for sale or hundreds of thousands. Any element on a site meant to facilitate a transaction between the user and a seller is considered eCommerce. Simpler implementations such as Paypal buttons keep overhead low for startups, but have a few minor drawbacks. Full-scale integrations using a custom shopping cart, payment processor, and gateway are generally more expensive to setup and maintain, but can give the website and its owner full control over the process and ensure that their customers have the most convenient and time-effective purchase and checkout process possible.
Responsive
Responsive isn't technically a website framework or code structure, but refers more to the website template itself. A responsive site/template allows a website to appear one way on regular desktop computers, laptops, and browsers, and adjust automatically when on a pad-style computer, smartphone, or any mobile device. Responsive template programming means that in many cases, a specifit mobile-device-only site is no longer needed. Elements on the page will simple appear, disappear, rearrange, or resize as needed in order to fit a smaller screen.
Flash
All-Flash sites were once popular in the late 90's and early 00's, however as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and mobile devices have taken precedence, these sites for the most part have been phased out. Apple mobile devices cannot display Flash elements on a page, rendering an all-Flash site useless on them. Search engines cannot read the content inside Flash elements, so they score a big zero when it comes to trying to get listed in search results. While there are certain cases where Flash elements are still useful (and Flash video is still the norm in many respects), newer technologies such as jQuery are paving the way for interactive features that only Flash used to deliver.
Putting It All Together
A website may be Web 1.0 and have eCommerce elements, or it could be Web 2.0 and have eCommerce elements. Either combination could feature responsive templating or not. A Flash site can have eCommerce capabilities, and although visually scalable, are not considered technically responsive in the modern usage of the word. In the end, there are some complicated terms and aspects to consider when starting a web project.
Let Majestic Imaging help you wade through all the technobabble and identify the best course of action for your purpose.