Websites are a lot like snowflakes. No two sites are the same. From layouts to user experiences and functionality to content, every site should uniquely meet the needs of its users.
If you're unsure what options you have, here are several of the most common types of websites this year, along with tips and resources to help you create your own.
Some Common Crucial Elements of Most Websites
Every website may be one-of-a-kind, but certain "building block" pages show up on most sites. These include:
- Home page: This is the center of your website. It often makes the first impression, can include call to actions (CTAs), and funnels users toward specific areas of your site.
- Landing page: A landing page is a stand-alone page on a site dedicated to a specific purpose. That purpose could be to provide details about a product, host marketing content, emphasize a call to action, and more.
- User page: A user page provides personal information for any users of your site, like edit their personal information, profile appearance or access settings.
- Feed page: This is common for blogs and social sites with a steady flow of new content. It is a page designed to present a site's content, often in blocks or lists, for someone to scan quickly.
- Article page: An article page displays large amounts of text (and accompanying multimedia) in a clean format with proper spacing and sizing to make it easy to read and skim.
- Boilerplate pages: These types of pages include basic, thin content, like “about us,” contact us, search, and registration pages.
There are many other types of website pages. The important thing is deciding which type of website you’re creating. That will help dictate which pages you’ll need as you create your site.
7 Top Website Types
As is the case with page types, there are many different kinds of website types. Each one serves a distinct purpose. Here are seven of the most common types of websites in use this year.
1. E-commerce Sites
E-commerce or marketplace sites are websites designed to buy and sell products and services. They can be both for a single company as well as for multiple businesses.
Businesses of all sizes can build their own e-commerce site using Bubble's no-code website building solutions. They can also use Bubble to create interactive app versions of their sites.
E-commerce sites tend to have key features, including search pages, filter functions, and embedded shopping carts and payment options. They come with key structural elements on the back end, such as an inventory display page to help with logistics.
2. Personal and Business Sites
Both personal and business sites provide information about an individual or company. These sites exist to create a healthy online presence. They also function as a central hub for other online activity (via social platforms, emails, etc.).
Personal and business sites can represent a broad range of entities, but many have common types of pages, including:
- Galleries for personal portfolios, company bios, and more
- Contact pages to facilitate networking and professional interactions
- About us pages to propagate information about the person or business
It’s possible to have an e-commerce element on a personal or business site. However, these sites don’t have to focus on generating revenue. A personal site could have a blog, but that also isn’t a prerequisite.
3. Media, News, and Entertainment Sites
Media, news, and entertainment sites collect and display different forms of entertainment content. These sites could be anything from blog pages filled with reviews and editorials to a music site like Pandora.
Entertainment sites often lean heavily on feed pages to display their copious quantities of content. These sites can also require user pages to help manage individual subscriptions.
Some entertainment sites feel like oversized blogs and are fairly easy to replicate. With Bubble’s no-code builder, it’s easy to replicate more nuanced sites, like Spotify, as well.
4. Social Media Sites
Social sites make online interactions possible in many different and creative ways. Facebook enables community. LinkedIn is great for networking.
As with entertainment sites, social sites lean heavily on feed pages populated by various multimedia elements. In addition, user pages are essential to house individual information and preferences.
Social sites feel massive, but they aren’t difficult to reproduce. Bubble’s no-code site builder has templates to build websites similar to multiple kinds of social sites, including giants like Facebook and LinkedIn.
5. Work and Productivity Tools
Most sites on this list focus on outward-facing B2B and B2C interactions. However, many websites can also function as powerful internal tools — both professionally and personally.
Sites like Google Docs and Trello provide data storage, organization, and workflow capabilities. They often focus on function over form and require complex information management software.
A dashboard is one page that all work and productivity tools require and can come in the form of a dashboard app or an in-browser equivalent.
6. Dating Sites
Dating sites function in much the same way as social platforms.
This means they require key social interaction elements, such as a dedicated feed page to view matches. In addition, these sites need user pages to house information as well as pages to host and facilitate messaging.
This may seem complex at first glance. However, using a no-code builder like Bubble to build a site like Tinder makes the entire process simple and straightforward.
7. Food Delivery Apps and Restaurant Review Sites
For many, the pandemic made food delivery a common, even daily, occurrence, spurring countless restaurants and delivery services to create their own apps. All of these need certain elements to function correctly.
For instance, a meal delivery platform app or site requires dynamic landing pages to present food items and their various details. They also need an embedded payment option for checkout.
Restaurant review sites won’t need all of these features. However, they do require things like landing pages for each restaurant as well as search results pages.
Building the Right Type of Website With Bubble
If you're building a website, the critical first step is identifying which of these sites is right for you.
With so many subtleties and details involved, it's equally important to have a good website builder to help you along the way. Bubble's no-code solution is comprehensive and able to adapt to the needs of different types of websites, ensuring that your final product is able to meet the specific needs of your target audience.
About Bubble
Bubble is a leader in the no-code movement. Bubble offers a powerful point-and-click web editor and cloud hosting platform that allows users to build fully customizable web applications and workflows, ranging from simple prototypes to complex marketplaces, SaaS products, and more.
Millions of users are building and launching businesses on Bubble — many have gone on to participate in top accelerator programs, such as Y Combinator, and even raised $365M in venture funding. Bubble is more than just a product. We are a strong community of builders and entrepreneurs who are united by the belief that everyone should be able to create technology.
