What Are the 6 Basic Types of Websites, and Which Do You Need?
Web agencies quote wildly different prices for 'a website' because they are quoting different things. Knowing which of the six types you actually need makes the brief clearer, the quotes comparable and the result more likely to do its job.
1. The brochure site
A few pages that say who you are and what you do, with a contact page. Its job is to exist and look credible when someone searches your name. Cheap, quick, and for most businesses that depend on new enquiries, insufficient: it does not answer the searcher's questions, it is not built to rank for services, and it treats contact as an afterthought. It is the type most small businesses end up with by default.
2. The lead-generation site
Built to turn visitors into enquiries. One substantial page per service and per real service area, proof throughout, phone and form above the fold on every page, guides that answer pre-purchase questions, and tracking on every enquiry. This is what almost every local service business actually needs. Why strategy beats design is the planning method for it, and optimising lead conversion covers making it perform.
3. The e-commerce site
Sells products directly: catalogue, cart, payment, shipping, accounts. A different discipline entirely, with its own platforms, its own conversion science and ongoing operational demands. If you sell a handful of products alongside a service, a simple order form or a hosted checkout page is usually wiser than a full store.
4. The content site
A publication or resource: articles, guides, tools, organised by topic, funded by advertising, subscriptions or as marketing for something else. This site is one. The structure is hubs and articles with dense internal linking, and the work is editorial rather than design. Most small businesses should not build one; they should add a small content layer to a lead-generation site, as the content marketing hub describes.
5. The web application
Software delivered through a browser: booking systems, client portals, dashboards, calculators. Built by developers, not designers, and maintained as software. A small business more often buys one of these as a service and links to it than builds one.
6. The portfolio site
Shows the work: photographers, designers, builders, architects. Visual-first, usually few words, and its weakness is that it often forgets it is also a lead-generation site. Add the phone number, the process and the pricing guidance and it becomes one.
How to choose
Match the business model to the site type
| If your business… | You need |
|---|---|
| Depends on new enquiries for services | Lead-generation site |
| Sells physical or digital products at volume | E-commerce site |
| Is chosen on the strength of visible work | Portfolio built on lead-generation principles |
| Closes sales in person and only needs credibility online | Brochure, but a good one |
| Makes money from an audience | Content site |
| Delivers a tool or service through the browser | Web application, probably bought not built |
Pick a primary type and let the others be features
A lead-generation site can have a guides section and a small shop. A portfolio can have lead-generation pages. What fails is the site with no primary type, where the home page tries to be all six and the visitor cannot tell what to do. Decide the primary type, brief for it, and check the quotes against it. The web design hub covers the rest of the process, and the redesign mistakes are worth reading before you replace what you have.
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