Hi! I am Virginie Dorn from Business Website Center. We are located in California and we specialize in custom website design, search engine optimization, and online marketing strategies. Today’s video blog is about database. We often get those questions from our clients, “Do I need a database? What does it mean for my budget? Is it going to cost me more? Truly, what is a database? Why can’t I just have simple website?” A database is a way to store data and information. A standard website that is only portraying static information doesn’t truly need a database. It just needs HTML and CSS, perhaps some Javascript or jQuery coding. A database would be necessary, first and foremost, if you need a content management system. You’ve heard of the word ‘CMS’. So CMS stands for content management system. It’s your ability for you to either add pages, delete pages, make some edit, change photos in your photo gallery, add new questions in your FAQ page. You will require a database. The database will be stored on the cloud, you would be able to go there, change the information, and the database will send the information back on the website, so the visitor can see the fresh content. So for this type of website that requires a CMS, you need a database.

What other types of website need a database? Any e-commerce website. Any time you have a shopping cart, where you have to hold the information for your products, how much do they cost and description of products, special promo code, all of that information then goes back and forth between the database and the website. So again, this would be considered a database website. Another form of website that require the use of a database would be a membership site. People go on your website and they subscribe for some type of membership. So they have to not only create a profile, they also have to enter their credit card information. So all of these requires a database.

Here in Business Website Center, we specialize in MySQL databases. They are used by very large companies around the world and let’s take a step back here and I will explain to you how it works. So, your website itself is using HTML. You’ve heard the name many times. HTML is the basic of coding. Every website in the world is using HTML. When you have a database, there’s a different way to communicate the information back and forth. You will require either PHP or ASP. At Business Website Center, we specialize in PHP. PHP is a higher level of programming. This is the form of programming that Google uses, Wikipedia, YouTube, Yahoo, Bank of America, you name it. Everybody is using PHP. Now, there’s nothing wrong with ASP, I guess. But PHP is definitely a favored among programmers of quality.

Wherever you host your website, it will come with hosting. But hosting is not just for your website, it should also be for your MySQL database. So you should not have to pay more for having a database website. What might cost you more is the type of programmers you need to use. So some people say that programmers are truly, all they can do is HTML, so you will not want to work with them if you required a content management system or an e-commerce solution. Some companies have a different types of database. So perhaps, they are a big retail stores or they have their accounting system inside their office, they need to integrate somehow with their website, we can help you here. And again, it requires a higher level of programming skills. It’s for the ability to make everything work together. Not just your website and the database that holds your information, but also the connection all the way to your POS or point-of-sale system or your accounting program or your unique software situation. We make everything run smoothly and we use PHP programming to make all those connections.

If you’re unclear on what type of websites you need, “Do I just need a simple website or do I need a database website?” Just call any programmers and they should be able to help you with that questions. If you can’t find good quality programmers near your place, just give us a call at Business Website Center. Our telephone number in California is 707-794-9999. Thank you and have a great day!