Static and Dynamic Website Content: Pros, Cons, and the Final Verdict

What Is a Static Website?

The bottom line: it’s a website that looks the same to all website visitors. Much like an online brochure, a static website allows users to explore different pages as they see fit. With the addition of forms and hyperlinks, this interface provides an equivalent user experience to everyone. Usually created with CSS and HTML, these websites tend to remain the same for a long time. 

For instance, if you choose to make any changes to your static website, you likely wouldn’t be able to do it yourself. Not unless you are a skilled developer, or genuinely tech-savvy. Any updates or added material require a long time and coding knowledge to make. This is why most businesses need to hire a third party whenever they want to make changes to their website.

What Is a Dynamic Website?

Again, the bottom line: it’s a website that looks different to different website visitors. A French man might see an ad for a €10 shipping discount on the home page. An American man, on the other hand, would see the same ad for $11. Neither would be aware of the other’s user experience, not without a VPN. Moreover, there is no way that a man browsing a dynamic website would see a carousel ad featuring women’s hygiene products.

Dynamic websites are usually built on top of static ones, using Python, JavaScript PHP, etc. This cutting-edge technology is able to generate interactive, personalized website pages and campaigns. The dynamic website personalization model can adjust to individual website visitors based on user data such as geography, time, and user type. All this information is available on a sizeable database that informs the dynamic code.

The Pros and Cons of a Static Website

When reading up on these pros and cons, keep in mind that you will mostly get to see websites that are either fully static, or static with dynamic elements. A static website is a skeleton on which developers add dynamic content elements. 

Still, many websites today are fully static, and here is what this sort of arrangement brings: 

Pros:

• Quick. It takes less time to create and deploy a static website. Also, from the prospect’s point of view, it takes less time to load website pages. 

• Safe. Cyber-security is a huge advantage. Static websites do not rely on databases to execute user requests, and this can make it more difficult for hackers to find weak points. 

• SEO. It’s normally easier for static websites to rank on Google. The reasons why include quick loading speed, the ease of including keywords, and the interlinking of static web pages.

• Low costs. Since it takes less time to develop and the software required is not too complex, it costs less to build a static website. 

Cons:

• Stagnant content. Any change on the website such as a new logo would require manual adjustments to every relevant HTML file. This is costly and time-consuming.

• Damages the user experience. With personalization being the norm for so many online businesses, a user experience that isn’t tailored to the user’s needs feels awkward.
• Limited scaling potential. The ambition to grow your business might be too much for a static-only website. Scaling a website to add more content can be challenging once the fundamental framework has been established.

The Pros and Cons of a Dynamic Website

Dynamic websites can pick up on user data via cookies, the user’s own registration details, their on-site actions, etc. Either way, we usually build dynamic content on top of a static website, creatking a kind of hybrid user experience. Despite the increased competitiveness, this comes with a bunch of drawbacks. 

Pros:

• Personalization. A tailored user experience surpasses the now primitive online brochure spirit of a static website. Users only see content displayed specifically to fit their needs.

• Making changes is quicker and cheaper. You can make design and interface changes on your website in a jiffy, for a fraction of the price.

• Scalability. In connection to the previous bullet point, it is simpler to update dynamic websites in reaction to business changes like rising online traffic or fresh security risks.

• Encourages brand loyalty. A dynamic website is more likely to build a devoted customer base. The personalized user experience boosts your company's commercial performance. This, in turn, increases the number of recurring visitors and clients.

Cons:

• Costs more to build. There’s a chance you might pay as many as four figures per year to assure the continuous functionality of a dynamic website. This might be too much for some small businesses.

• Increased susceptibility to cyber attacks. DDoS (distributed denial of service) and security breaches become easier on websites with dynamic content. It’s because dynamic websites rely on databases to handle user requests.

As a dynamic website is suitable to perform different functions with complex technology, this results in it becoming slower to load and process.

The Verdict

A dynamic website is too costly? Not in the long run.

As you could tell from the bulleted list, the cost of building a website with dynamic content is higher. It's easier to assume, then, that any business looking to save money would opt for the static option. Still, keep in mind that, eventually, the costs of maintenance for a static website, surpasses the cost of maintenance for a dynamic one, and any changes to the design or the interface cost less with dynamic content.

Worried about cybersecurity? Hire a third party to build your dynamic features.

A yearly or a monthly membership in a company that builds dynamic campaigns can help you handle potential cybersecurity issues. With a dependable, experienced partner and template service offering dynamic content, you can delegate your cybersecurity concerns.

In conclusion, the access to a subscription-based library of  dynamic website features allows you to enjoy the benefits of dynamic content, without any of the drawbacks. If you are interested in taking this step, feel free to schedule a demo with Zoom Engage, and see how you can enhance the digital experience of YOUR website visitors!