Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I just thought I would throw this question out to the community.  The reason why I ask this question is that I have been noticing a lot of the key words I search on the big three return mostly blog sites.  Especially Google.  I would like to hear what you all have to say about this.

In the mean time I will voice my opinion on this. 

It is my belief that in less than one year you will not see any HTML web sites in the natural listings of any search engines.  The search engines are and will be taken over by blogs.  There I said it!






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Arsenal Marketing
WEB 2.0 Internet Marketing for Business
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Joe@arsenalmarketing.com

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HI Joe,
Even Blog sites like WordPress, Jumala, Drupal are still html. HTML is the markup language used for the internet web-browser.  I believe what you are referring to is static websites -vs- dynamic websites.

In that case I must agree the days for static are fast closing. However, I don`t think you will see them extinct with in a year or two.

Static sites will most likely always have a place on the web. And the ranking or listing in search will be dependent upon the content.  A good static site  that is maintained  and the content updated regularly will still be able to gain high rankings depending upon the topic etc.

Now as far as comparing Blog-sites to non-blog sites. I think we will see as the major search engines develop new algorithms to check the validity of the content among other things, blog sites actually start dropping in popularity over non blog sites.

For example - I may be searching for a certain product, I want to go to a shopping site that sells that product, not a blog site that talks about that product. That is what I see a lot of right now the the popularity of blogs in the search engines distract from what you might really be looking for. That being the case the search engines like Google will develop a way, (and soon), to preference non blog sites that actually deliver what the searcher may be looking for, while at the same time giving preference to blog sites appropriate to the search phrase.

I am finding blog sites useful when comparing products, services or companies. When I type "review" for something I searching I too see blog-sites ranking first and appropriately so. As, this is where I am most likely to find independent reviews.




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Well said!  The reason why I titled it HTML was so that it would be better understood.  I do agree with what you said, except the fact that I do believe that within a year, you will no longer see the static sites on the first page of any search engines.


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Arsenal Marketing
WEB 2.0 Internet Marketing for Business
http://www.arsenalmarketing.com
Joe@arsenalmarketing.com

Reach a larger audience!
Start blogging today!
Using WEB 2.0 strategies & techniques!

I agree, this is not an issue of HTML.

This is an issue of flat sites and those that use a CMS. A blog is just a good content management system (CMS), the way Joomla and Drupal are.

But they use .html rewrites so many of them still look like they are an html page.

I do think that making sites in flat HTML is silly. There are so many tools out there ... PHP, Ruby on Rails, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, etc ... why would you update anything by hand? It`s mostly an issue of centralization for me ... I want to make a change in one place and have it reflected throughout the site. Think of it less as a move towards the "dynamic" and more a move towards the "centralized" - where your site is template-based, database driven, and has centralized stylesheets and shared images.

Great this is the kind of things I was looking for.  When I see folks still recommending static & flash websites it makes me cringe.  I see it everyday. Small businesses investing money in to a static corporate web site.




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Arsenal Marketing
WEB 2.0 Internet Marketing for Business
http://www.arsenalmarketing.com
Joe@arsenalmarketing.com

Reach a larger audience!
Start blogging today!
Using WEB 2.0 strategies & techniques!

Many years ago....lonnnnnng ago, people predicted that within a few years, we would be in a paper-less economy. Computers would completely supplant the need for paper.

Then there was the dumb-terminal, running all applications off a server. "Nobody will use a desktop anymore," was the prediction.

Of course there was the FAX machine that would immediately go out of business as soon as email caught on.

I`ll get back to you in a year, and we`ll see how extinct HTML will be.

As for this thing about how static Web sites are going to disappear, I doubt it. Plenty of people today believe that Hip-hop, Rap, and Beat music are actually music, dominating the entertainment industry, and will supplant other forms. So too, plenty of people who live and breathe politics, can`t believe there`s a market for fictional novels.

In the same way, people who`ve grown up with 10-second attention spans likely would agree that dynamic Web sites are the only possible way anyone would be interested in viewing a Web site. That`s fine. But not everyone has that sort of world view.

I`d be interested in a reliable poll asking people whether or not they`re happy with the 2-week product lifespan we see these days. Just as you discover you like something, it`s gone. "Too static, not enough change, boring." Okay. But I think this is similar to people who want Web sites that change constantly, never build any sort of customer comfort level, and are all about the boredom level of the site owners.

Craig,
Thanks for the insight.  You always have a way with words! 

I appreciate all the feedback on this topic.  I am not saying that static sites will becomes extinct.  I used the HTML extinct for the headline so folks would read it.  I do believe they will become extinct on the first page of the major search engines (Natural Listing).

Again what gets me is how there are companies out there spending 5k or more on corporate web site that is a static or flash web site.


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Arsenal Marketing
WEB 2.0 Internet Marketing for Business
http://www.arsenalmarketing.com
Joe@arsenalmarketing.com

Reach a larger audience!
Start blogging today!
Using WEB 2.0 strategies & techniques!

This is a question posed to the proponants of OsCommerce & ZenCart.

Since we all agree that "dynamic" websites appear to be a trend for the time being ...

Is there a way that a static web site`s Front Page can utilize "dynamics" ... to randomly feature products on the Front Page, rather than simply having a static front page with static featured products, using ZenCart or OsCommerce? And have that featured product click thru directly into the store area of that product? 

(Not attacking or boasting or setting anyone up ... just simply asking a question.)

I think a static vs. dynamic site is relevant to the business/topic of the site. Many small businesses may only want a site to spread the word about their business, share information, get a little promotion, etc., without setting up a huge program to do it. Many may not want to spend the time to do updates and create new pages, even if it is an easier-than-it-used-to-be process with current programs; they want to focus on other things.

As far as searches, static or dynamic should not, in my opinion, make any difference as to how a site is ranked. SERP`s are supposed to be based on the relevant content of the site as it relates to the keywords being searched for, not the programming or scripting used to make the site.

If a 10 page static site can give searchers better information/content for their keyword search than a 1,000+ page CMS, should a search engine really think the CMS is more valuable and rank it higher simply because its dynamic? I hope not.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Now, lets really get you thinking ...

What if creating new "static" pages from a "dynamic" data base was as easy as a click ... What then???

Because remember ... search engines look for "time stamps" on HTML pages. They go to index the site and find new "time stamps" on the HTML pages that were just created by using the "dynamic" data base and guess what ... they re-index the pages and the site.

Now, better yet ... what if you had the ability to take you 200 item data base ... and convert them individually into HTML pages with a single click??

Now you go from a 10 page "static" HTML site .... to a 700 page "dynamically designed" static HTML site. (Why 700 pages? Because your items are going to be cross-indexed within the data base with multiple catagories.)

Cool, eh??