Brochure website

Example

An accountancy practice in Ruse needs a site. Its clients arrive by referral and call on the phone, so the site has to confirm that the firm is real: who runs it, what it does, where the office is, and how to send a question.

That is five pages — home, services, about, contact, and one page holding the terms and the privacy notice — plus a form that emails the enquiry and stores it. Nothing more. Customer accounts, subscriptions and a catalogue are not needed for the site to do that job.

Two years later the same practice starts selling online courses. Now it needs accounts, payments and access to recordings, and that is no longer a brochure website. The difference is not in the design; it is whether the site only explains or also serves.

Why it matters for a business

A brochure site is the shortest route from “we have no site” to “we have an address where people find us”. Its boundary is worth knowing in advance, though: it persuades, but it does not transact. It takes no orders, holds no customer data and connects to no warehouse or accounting system.

Small is not the same as careless. The same site still needs speed, a mobile layout, structured data and monitoring — those belong to every site, not only to a shop. What goes into one is described on the website development page.

What to ask

• How many pages are included, and what happens when there are more?
• Can it grow into a shop or customer accounts without being rebuilt?
• Who changes the text and the photographs — you, from an admin panel, or the builder every time?
• Whose name is on the domain and the hosting account?
• Are backups, updates and monitoring included, or agreed separately?
• What gets measured after launch: enquiries, calls, visits?