There are two different ways for website content to be presented to the web browser; they can be categorized into 'static' and 'dynamic'. The type of website data presentation should match the functional requirements of the website.

The determination whether to have a static website, a dynamic website, or a hybrid combination of the two, is typically madeby examining the functionality requirements of the website and the available processing capabilities of the website server.

A 'static' website is one which has all of its content prepared in advance and waiting to be presentedby the server. When a website visitor requests a page, it is sent immediately to that visitor. This is the most efficient serving method in terms of elapsed time from page request to page delivery. However, it requires that all pages be created in advance and loaded as files onto the server so they can be sent when needed. The downside of this sort of site is that the data may not be very easy to update and each page that needs to be changed must be changed individually. This update activity can be labor intensive and somewhat time-consuming, especially for larger websites.

A 'dynamic' website is one which assembles the content for delivery at the time it is being requested. This type of website consists of a series of scripts which are used to create the pages once requested. A dynamic website requires a bit more 'computing power' than a simple static website, but it presents the opportunity to have the data as current as possible. For example, a visitor counter is an example of dynamic data as opposed to static data. For each visitior, a count is incremented...pretty simple. But to present that updated count value, the count value must be placed dynamically into the page that get presented to the visitor.

A 'partial' solution to this scenario is to have the static data saved and served locally, at your own site, while the dynamic data is served from a '3rd-party site' as is common with visitor counters. This solution is good for small sites that do not have the dynamic data or scripting capabilities. Most websites of any size are now capable of scripting and dynamic page creation.

As stated earlier, the determination of whether to have a static site, a dynamic site, or a combination of the two is typically determined by the functionality needs of the website and the capabilities of the web server with respect to script execution and processing power.