Dynamic Websites that Work for Your Business

What is a Database-Driven Website?

Most websites on the Internet today are simply static pages. They only change when someone edits the page and uploads it to the web server. Dynamic, or database-driven, websites by contrast retrieve all or part of the page contents from a database.

Delivering Dynamic Content

There are a number of advantages to this. One is that you can tailor the content that individual visitors receive. It makes it possible for each visitor to customise what content they want to see and how it is displayed. One mechanism for achieving this is to store such information on the visitor's machine in the form of cookies - small text files.

By creating sites with a login facility you can store visitor information created at a registration page on a database. This information can then be used for improved communications and marketing purposes. They can register their interest in receiving newsletters about your products and services. We can also build you the newsletter system to automatically mail newsletters according to the visitors' preferences in the database.

Online Catalogues

The most widespread use of databases on the Internet is to display a list of products and enable online purchasing. The overwhelming majority of e-commerce sites on the Internet (e.g. eBay, Dell, Amazon, Expedia and eBookers) store all their product details in a database. You then retrieve the information from the database according to the criteria you enter when you browse or search.

The increased flexibility in terms of how you retrieve and display the catalogue data - along with the lower maintenance costs versus statically edited pages is tremendous.

Online Ordering and Sales Tracking

We can also integrate the database with one of our e-commerce solutions. This integration will give you an online store with orders submitted automatically by e-mail to your distribution department. If you need a more personalised system we can design and build a integrated Intranet system that interfaces to the order database with bespoke tracking options.

Staying in Control of Your Website Content

At InterrnetLogic we design systems that can be maintained by your business. We will develop the 'front-end' system - i.e. what the visitor sees when they navigate to your website. In addition we develop a 'back-end' system where your employees can maintain the data in the database - such as updating, adding and removing product lines. What data is in your database is up to you. We can tailor the database content and Intranet interface to your needs through in-depth Business Analysis which we offer free as part of our database development service.

Forum Integration

Communicating with your Customers

Another use of website databases is to create online forums. Dependent upon your business type it may be desirable to have an area on your website where customers can communicate with each other or with your support staff. We can install access-controlled forums where visitors to your site can pose questions about your products and services.

When a visitor asks - or posts - a question an e-mail can be automatically sent to your support or sales team with a direct link to the post. Once an answer has been posted another e-mail is sent to the visitor with a direct link to the reply. To reduce the risk of inappropriate material being posted onto such a site - we can configure approval controls so that only appropriate content is submitted to the site. The approval process is as simple as clicking a link in a an e-mail.

The major advantage of such is a system is that over time you create a valuable knowledge base of information that customers can view and search. So any previous response can answer the queries of countless numbers of future visitors. This minimises the drain on your support staff. Most major computer manufacturers use such a system. Forums can also be integrated into Google thereby improving your search engine exposure. This is especially powerful because many of the messages will feature the keywords you wish to be found by thereby improving you search engine ranking.

Building Online Communities

There are a multitude of uses for such a system - indeed they can just be used for chatting to a community. Once you have a regular set of visitors and contributors to your forum - you also have a regular audience to market your products to.