Introduction
Having a great website is inevitable for eminent growth in business. Competition is too intense today to limit marketing efforts to physical contacts alone. Because products cannot be handled online for users to vet their quality, your remaining hope of winning their purchasing decision is to give them a top-notch browsing experience.
A lot has been said already, both in the tech and business industries, about the changes an active web presence could make for businesses, so we will not dwell much on that. However, merely having a website is not the winning move? The real deal is having a website that wins.
JAMstack is a winning web development architecture with ground-breaking features. But, before we exploit how the provisions of JAMstack can grow your business, we’ll let you know what all the fuss is about first.
What Exactly is JAMstack?
JAM is an acronym for JavaScript, APIs, and Markup. So, JAMstack is a web development solution built on these three technologies. It is an advanced approach to building websites. Even though it has been booming in the web development sphere for some time now, you might be unfamiliar with what it does if you are not IT inclined. However, splitting it up into its components, as this article does, should help you grasp it quicker.
One of JAMstack’s revolutions in web development is the significant reduction it has brought to how long users would have to wait for web pages to load. This is because it leverages the static website system that allows the bulk of what it takes to load a website to be moved to the client’s side. This may still be ambiguous till you understand what a static website is. And that would be done best with a general outlook at the types of websites we can have on the world wide web. So let’s look at each briefly.
Types of Websites
By and large, websites are of two types: static and dynamic. A static website has its files already preloaded to a server. So, whenever a user requests a web page from a website, delivery is carried out directly through a Content Delivery Network (CDN). The implication is that it won’t take long for web pages to load. Static websites display the same content for users until a manual change is in effect.
Now, what about dynamic websites? Its name alone gives us a clue about how it works. Dynamic suggests something that changes all the time. The changing factor for most of these sites is their content. A dynamic site delivers different content to users. Thus, unlike static web pages that load quickly, dynamic sites take time to respond. You surely do not want this for your customers.
In response to this downside of dynamic sites, the static web movement produced JAMstack in 2010. And ever since, it has been a pacesetter. But, of course, to understand the real deal in JAMstack that makes it this amazing, you’d need to learn about static site generators. So let’s go over that next.
Static Site Generators
A static site generator (SSG) is an essential tool behind the services of JAMstack. It provides an effective solution for the management and delivery of web content. In contrast to the traditional dynamic sites, static site generators automate the generation of pages for static sites. So, instead of loading and delivering pages when demanded, SSG does the work beforehand. This means the pages are ready for viewing even before they are requested. And that’s the explanation behind the quick response rate of JAMstack.
Apart from the edge of good speed, a static site generator enhances the overall performance of websites and as well eliminates security fears. So don’t worry; you will get to know more about its benefits when we delve fully into the pros of JAMstack. But before we do, let’s talk about the choice of static site generators that we have.
There are many variants of static site generators for web development. However, the best ten commonly used are Hugo, Gatsby, Next.js, Jekyll, Eleventy (11ty), Gridsome, Nuxt.js, Sapper, Scully, and Sculpin.
Now that we’ve talked a little about the static website and its generators, let’s tie the knot by pointing out the fantastic ways JAMstack can help you grow your business.
How JAMstack Supports Your Business
1. Top-notch Website Performance
A website that’d win customers must be highly responsive, functional, and user-friendly. There’s a marketing concept called business ethics for businesses leveraging on physical contacts. It entails the kind of conduct and values the staff of an enterprise should practice to win and retain customers. Similarly, the quality of user experience your website gives your customers will significantly influence their buying decision.
A hallmark of a great user experience is speed. So, how quickly do web pages load when users click on your website? Unfortunately, every business, including yours, has an alarming number of competitors. Some of which have even built stronger reputations over time. So, if your website wastes time unnecessarily, your customers have other places they can run to.
You would remember that while explaining static website generators, we mentioned that JAMstack is superb at loading webpages promptly since everything users need even before requesting has already been preloaded.
2. Easy Maintenance
Websites need to be maintained appropriately to remain active. So adequate maintenance will keep your website highly functional. And JAMstack happens to be one of the easiest web development frameworks to maintain. This is because it operates a client-side system, and its files are delivered over the Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Static sites, because of their simplicity, are easier to maintain, unlike dynamic sites with numerous complexities. For example, to maintain a dynamic site, you’d need to give all-day attention to it because it’s highly prone to attacks from hackers. And you know the more significant the complexity, the higher the cost required.
3. Secured Web Environment
Security is critical in web development. Having a website with nice graphics and speed alone is not enough. What is the essence of a house with a superb architectural outlook that thieves can break into any time they want? No one would want to hang around in such a place.
The same is true for websites. An undebatable fact of a great website is that it must be secured. Website hackers are always on the lookout for sites with weak security outlay. JAMstack protects you from all of these dangers.
Dynamic sites have quite a lot to put up with to maintain their safety because of their huge dependence on external plugins. Static site generators do not work this way. As we noted earlier, JAMstack doesn’t use external plugins, making it entirely different security-wise.
4. Scalability
Your main goal is growing your business. You want more patronage. Regardless of your business size, you want your product to gain more recognition in the market. And when that happens, the traffic on your website will spike. However, efficient web development is not just about meeting the demands of today. There must be plans to sustain functionality even at the wildest increase in patronage. This is what brings the concept of scalability to play.
Scalability is the ability of a website to maintain its functionality regardless of the increase in the number of its users. If your site is not scalable, it won’t be long before your customer strength begins to fall. Business is unlike a marriage, where partners remain loyal amid inconsistencies. If your website drops in site speed or how it works, only a few of your customers will officially lodge complaints. Others would leave your site and look for another enterprise that can give them what they want.
Static sites are highly scalable. Hardly will you find another framework that can beat JAMstack in this sense.
5. Reduced Cost
One of the things a business can do to be financially stable is always go for cost-effective solutions. However, we all know that value does not always equate to cost. And web development isn’t just about having a functional site. You must look beyond this, especially if your business is small scale. What’s the joy of spending most of your turnover to keep your site running?
Unlike database-driven websites that require a lot to host on servers, static sites are different. First, you won’t have to spend a fortune on them. Second, its maintenance is relatively cheap too.
Jamstack indeed offers top-notch services at a ridiculously low amount.
Conclusion
So there you go, JAMstack could entirely change the story about your web presence and help you serve your customers better. It has everything it takes to give a brilliant user experience while saving your time, money, and energy. It’s a win on all fronts.
