Different Website Types compared

For whom is this suitable? Companies, agencies, and the self-employed

Purpose: Presenting your own business and providing contact options

The classic corporate website is what might first pop into your mind when you picture a website: a compilation of several individual pages with the primary goal of providing information to the visitor.

The company presents its services and team and provides different means of contact. The corporate website functions effectively as the company’s digital business card. However, websites can also contain dynamic elements, like a news or blog section, whose content is regularly updated. Large websites often integrate other types of website, like landing pages or microsites, so that organizations can pursue different goals with their Internet presence.

In order to make their brand or website known to the target group, companies should implement additional measures such as search engine marketing.

An example of a classic corporate website is the KPMG site:

For whom is this suitable? Artists and creatives

Purpose: Presenting primarily visual work samples

Portfolio websites are optimized to present visual works in an appealing way. This kind of website is ideal for designers, photographers, or artists.

Website themes for portfolios are characterized by an airy, often minimalist design that focuses on the graphic elements and work samples presented directly on the homepage. In contrast to the corporate website type, there is usually a reduced amount of text.

A portfolio website can also be easily implemented without a lot of technical knowledge: CMS like WordPress offer a huge selection of themes that you can easily customize and fill with content. The only technical hurdle is hosting. Choose a provider that specializes in WordPress hosting and supports 1-click WordPress installation. IONOS offers low-cost packages suited for beginners with their WordPress hosting packet.

What does a portfolio website look like? Portrait photographer Martin Schoeller’s site is a fairly typical example of this kind of website.

For whom is this suitable? Bloggers, businesses, journalists, influencers

Purpose: Regular editorial content or entertainment

A blog or magazine website focuses on editorial content. Do you want to make a regularly updated report on Bitcoin? Are you planning a local online newspaper? While blogs sometimes greet visitors with a static homepage, online magazine homepages are usually similar to classic print magazines. They give a direct overview of the latest content.

Some blogs and online magazines also offer products and services centered around a particular subject. However, this is not their primary function. Current and regularly updated content is the most important aspect, which is also reflected in the website’s design.

You can see how this look is done in practice on the Smashing Magazine website:

For whom is this suitable? Businesses

Purpose: Information or entertaining content on a specific topic/product

A microsite is the corporate website’s younger sibling: Providing information is the main focus. However, the microsite is limited to just a few subpages or even just one main page. A concrete new product or clearly defined topic is presented, as opposed to a full website that addresses a broader range of topics and service information.

Microsites are often characterized by eye-catching designs that showcase a product or theme. This type of website relies on interactions, animations, and media diversity to create a positive user experience.

For whom is this suitable? Businesses, the self-employed

Purpose: Lead generation or purchase completion

Landing pages are one-page websites, whose purpose is to inform visitors about a specific product and motivate them to take a specific action. This kind of website has a distinctly advertisement-heavy character, and there are no subpages. Instead, landing pages resemble a detailed sales page and are often enriched with videos and graphics.

In the best-case scenario, the user consumes content in a flow and is ultimately willing to pay for a physical or digital product or service, or simply to provide their email address to a mailing list.

If you are looking for inspiration to build a landing page, you will no doubt find something helpful on the American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI) website. The association for copywriters promotes their courses using classic landing page examples:

For whom is this suitable? Companies

Purpose: Sale of digital or physical products

Individual products can be sold successfully through landing pages. However, if you are planning on selling multiple products, you will need an online store.

Products and product information are easily presented in online stores. A clear menu will help users quickly find the products they are looking for. Although guide content can be integrated to attract Google users to this type of website, the focus is on the product range itself.

Whether it’s Asos or Amazon, large online stores follow a similar structure that has proven to be successful:

For whom is it suitable? IT companies, SaaS companies

Purpose: Providing an online application

Web apps are not the kinds of websites which promote a specific product: Instead, they themselves are the product. Whether it’s an app for project management, bookkeeping, or calculating travel expenses – it’s more and more common that software does not need to be downloaded, but can instead be used as a browser web app.

Just as with a corporate website, a web app will need a few pages that provide information about functionality, benefits and prices. However, unlike traditional business card websites, the visitor can start using the advertised product or tool as soon as they have registered.

Trello is one of the most well-known project management tools, and the application is designed as a pure web app. Users just need Internet access and can log into the app from anywhere through their browser. Web apps are a convenient solution, especially for remote teams.

Our overview should have given you a hint as to how different websites can be. Are you still unsure as to what type of website is best for your project? Here is a quick decision-making aid to assist you: