More people are spending a lot of time online searching for information and content. As they do so, they stumble upon different types of websites. This has led to the creation of different kinds of sites intending to attract people to visit them. Types of these websites can be broadly summarised into the following.
Social Network sites
A social network site is one where people visit to interact with other people. These websites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+. Since Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004, social sites have become popular with billions of people joining them by creating and controlling their profiles. People share photos, information, and even business profiles on these websites.
E-commerce
Over recent years, businesses have noticed that they can reach more people through the internet. Not only can they share information on what they do but they can also sell and offer services successfully through the internet. This type of interaction opened up the e-commerce trend. With e-commerce, a business creates a website where people order products/services, put them in carts and pay for them through credit cards, debit cards or online payment sites. Some services such as consultations can be done online thanks to Skype and other communication softwares. After a product is ordered, it is delivered within a given amount of time to a specified location hence finishing the e-commerce process. Some of the popular e-commerce websites include Amazon and Alibaba.
Content sites and blogs
Websites such as WordPress, Blogger, Medium, Wix, give people platforms to share information in the form of blogs or even personal diaries. These are the kind of websites where a person who is good at writing looks to share their content with the world. If a blogger knows how to play their cards well, they may end up earning a lot from their blog. Topics are diverse depending on the writer’s interest. They range from product promotions, motivational content, how to guidelines, etc.
File sharing websites
It is much easier to get files from the internet these days thanks to file sharing sites. These websites allow people to upload and download files from music files, videos, documents, books, images, etc. Emails can also fall in these categories since one can share almost anything through an email. Other file sharing websites include Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, etc.
Corporate websites
Companies are quickly catching up with the internet by creating an online presence. A kind of site where a company has its logo, motto and vision plus a clear description of what it is about and how to hire their services or buy their products makes a corporate website. Information here is strictly professional and sometimes monitored by the company’s corporate lawyers to make sure it stays that way. Some corporate websites may include blogs, career opportunity information and allow visitors to share or download files as well.
Money transfer websites
The world might not be accurately termed as a village if it were not possible for people to transfer money from one corner of the world to another. This has recently been made easier with the coming up of websites where one can transfer money through the internet in a split of a second. Before people would use banks which took a couple of hours if not days. However, thanks to sites such as PayPal, Skrill and Payoneer people are able to send money, buy goods and services and even hire freelance workers from all over the world. These websites have strict verification policies to ensure that transactions are safe and users are assured of security for their money. They are efficient enough to allow one to link their profiles to their bank for smooth money transfer.
How to know if a site is commercial or not
Many websites are commercial with owners of the websites hoping to make a decent if not an outstanding living out of their websites. Sporting a commercial website gets easier as one gets more conversant with the internet. Here is how to know that a website is commercial:
- The site’s URL. The link that gets you to a website can tell if the kind of website is commercial or not by the domain they use. Mostly a website that ends with .com or .co.uk/.co.(a country’s initial) is definitely commercial.
- Use of cookies. Thanks to private legislative law called the Cookie Law, website owners are obliged to make sure they let visitors know and allow them to use cookies since cookies allow the owners of websites to collect data as visitors browse through the sites.
- Ad placements on the website.
- Affiliate links within articles.
These six types of websites summarise the types of websites you can find on the internet. Other classifications may include, personal websites, forums websites, search engine websites which can find their places on the above rankings as well. Websites nowadays may fit in more than one of the categories above. Other sites will link you to different types under the same name or brand.