Here is a project that got a lot of attention in late 2012. I tested it for one of my sites and I was convinced.
Here is the link to the official project.
Having a dynamic site requires performing computations on every request, since data must be fetched (usually from a SQL or object database like ZODB), then formatted and returned. And that is without mentioning PHP which, without optimisations as is often the case, needs to re-read all source code on every request.
This is a necessary evil that makes sense for a constantly evolving site. However, it is absolutely not justified for a personal page or a company showcase site that will only be modified once a year or a few times a month. Although you can always optimise data access by caching, the ultimate solution would be a purely static site.
This was an idea I had been mulling for years. But before starting to work on it, I did a quick survey to see if such a tool existed. I found some and settled on Nikola.
My experience is that you need to spend some time on the general layout and site organisation, especially when you have strong opinions. But in the end, I reached a result quickly, perhaps even faster than I expected.
The point is that now, any update can be done quickly. And updating a static site without hassle is a true art. All with a few relatively simple commands and a bit of elbow grease at the start.
An excellent project to test.