What the Hell is a Brochure Website?

We confess to being geeks – hey, we’re web designers, what did you expect – and might sometimes be guilty of using terms that are unfamiliar to non-geeks. One such very commonly used term is “brochure website”. We use this a lot on our website so if you haven’t a clue what it means, please read on and all will become clear.

Brochure sites are normally built as static, HTML websites. This means that their content all gets stored in separate, static files, rather than in a database. HTML websites are easy to create, so can be an affordable option for smaller businesses. But they have a major flaw: unless you have specific IT skills, you cannot update them yourself.

Websites can serve all kinds of purposes these days: they can store information, process financial transactions, improve business efficiency and much more besides. Brochure websites (or “brochureware”) do not normally do anything like that. A brochure website basically exists to give a business an online presence – it acts, appropriately enough, as an online brochure.

A brochure website will typically contain useful information about a business and its products or services, opening hours, terms and conditions etc. But customers won’t be able to log in and create an account, make any purchases or anything like that. Websites that do that that are known as database-driven websites, which is the topic of another blog post.