Why Your Business Needs a Website

Even with the steady growth of the World Wide Web, many businesses do not have an online presence and some think that they do not need to have a presence at all.

"My business is doing fine as it is." That's great! But, it's almost impossible to answer 'no' to the question, "Can my business be doing even better?" One of the easiest ways to help your business gain more exposure and potential customers is to have a professionally developed website. There are many advantages to having a professionally designed website. Consider some of the points below:

1. Make a great first impression of your business to first-time visitors to your site
2. Reach a wider, global market
3. Increases credibility
4. Use as a promotional tool
5. Increase sales
6. Generate new leads
7. Improve customer service
8. Use your site as an informational tool for your customers, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
9. Unlike printed material, your website can be changed very easily, anytime
10. Reduce operating costs

In order to compete in a local to a global market, you have to be available to it. Having a professionally designed website gives your business an edge, saves time, reduces operating costs and improves your image. You can increase your sales by being able to complete transactions online, anytime. Whether you are a large corporation, or an individual who simply wants to have a personal space on the internet, your site can serve as an informational tool you can refer your customers or interested parties to.

Sherry Holub received her degree in design from UCLA in 1995. She is now the Lead Designer and Creative Director at Southern California Studio, JV Media Design. http://www.jvmediadesign.com

MORE RESOURCES:

RELATED ARTICLES

Allocating Your Web Site's Budget Properly
I had a client say something to me the other day that I thought was rather interesting. He mentioned that he almost considers SEO as a marketing expense even though its really a web expense.

What ROI You Should Expect From Your Web Site
Is Your Web Site an Expense or an Investment?Why don't you think of your web site as of an investment rather than of an expense? Having a web site is very similar to having an investment property.Let me show you why.

You Need To Treat Your Website Like An Employee - Heres 5 Ways To Do It
People often come to me in a state of crisis and say their website isn't working. Usually they're in a cold sweat:"Mike, give me some practical things I can do to get more sales from my website!"You want practical advice? Stop treating your website like an object in your business and start treating it like an employee.

Setting Up A CGI Script On Your Web Site
Before you set up any scripts you will need some information about your server. You can get this by e-mailing your web hosting provider.

A Web Site for Your Small Business: How to Set Up a Website
Your web site will be your window to the world. Even if you are not selling any product online still you need your customers to access you 24 hours a day 365 days in a year and you can pass important information to them by hosting frequently asked pages, product descriptions, product improvements etc.

The 5 Biggest Mistakes Almost All Web Designers Make
Huge Mistake #1: Creating a Website with Flash -- Did you know in a recent study, top internet marketers discovered that having a website created with Flash, actually DECREASED the response from prospects and customers by as much as three-hundred-and-seventy percent?Here's why: Your prospects and customers are most likely visiting your website using all types of different computers, connection speeds and internet configuration settings..

Launch Your Own Website Today - Its Easier Than You Think!
Thousands of people are now making a living online and the opportunities are abundant as the Internet continues its growth. An added benefit of running an Internet business is that you can usually start one part-time while you maintain your job and steady income.

Effective Webdesign
D.zigns dzignerwebs The Basics Before starting on how to design a website effectively, how about clearing some basic web design concepts? Designing Effectively Now that you know what web design and related terms mean, lets get down to the real thing: Designing Effectively How to balance artistic design with practicality and functionality.

Make Your Web Site Stand Out
When visitors add your web site to their Favorites or bookmark your site, what shows up in their list of sites? There are at least two things you can do to make sure your site stands out on anyone's list of Favorites, including a great idea that very few sites use. If you have a webmaster, he or she should be able to make these changes quickly, and those who maintain their own sites can easily handle these simple tasks.

Profitable Websites for Exclusive Industries
In the region where my company is located, South Bend, Indiana, the demand for web design and associated services could be described as: leery. It's not that the locale is horribly lacking evolvement technologically; rather that so many proprietors in this area are very uncertain as to what the internet can do and how they can go about forming profitable web sites for their exclusive industries.

Better Web Site ROI: Efficient Online Business with SEO, PPC, Split Testing, and Forums
If you're looking for better web site ROI, chances are, the web is only one part of your business, you have a specific budget for your web site, and you want the site to not only carry its own weight, but why can't it make you some extra dough, too?The corporate situation: budgets need to be closely watched, and tech people can't get carried away with unnecessary frills.My own experience making money online and becoming and SEO expert was more guerilla than corporate.

Enhance Your Website With A Yahoo-Style Directory
Does your website have a links/resources page?Do you exchange reciprocal with other websites to help boost your targeted traffic and search engine rankings?Do you believe that a relevant, yet comprehensive resources page provides tangible benefits to your site's visitors?If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, then you should consider adding an inexpensive (or free!) Yahoo-style Directory to your website. A quality Directory script will add an air of professionalism to your website and provide valuable content for your users.

High Quality Website at Low Cost
Although designing a great web site is an important part of developing a successful online business, it is often becomes a problem for newcomers to the internet business.The vulgar problem is the lack of money.

Building eCommerce Websites that Work - Part 3
An interesting eCommerce success factor that isn't precisely overlooked, but which is often thought about more in terms of being a way of feeding the search engine spiders has to do with providing content. In a very real sense the customer's job is to consume.

Selling Your Site: Outsource or Homemade?
To the starting internet entrepreneur, there is nothing more discouraging then the erroneous realization that your dream for a self sufficient business cannot be realized without a heavy investment. This may be why so many people shy away from the internet; seeing all the flashy sites, many of which are $50 templates, people are afraid to enter the world of internet sales and marketing.

Cost Effective and Powerful Dynamic Websites w. Fantastico Web Hosting
If you are developing your website on a host that charges less that $5 a month, make plenty of backups as you are likely to loose your website files when the webhost goes out of business without notice. Indeed, be extremely wary of any such host.

Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) & Web Accessibility
There's been widespread speculation about the new legislation being introduced under the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act), which will ensure that websites are accessible to blind and disabled users. Try to find specific information about it on the Internet and chances are you'll come up empty handed.

Is Your Website Innovative? Increase Your Business Over Night!
While studying online for IT investment opportunities, I found that one main factor was constant. All of the biggest money makers have eye-catching, simple, innovative, and the cleanest websites online!Having a corporate style website may greatly increase your business!Looking professional online is extremely important, especially if you want to attract big money to your door.

What and How to choose the Right Keywords for Mega Traffic
Keywords in Search Engine Optimizing and Search Engine Marketing are the building blocks and foundation of your website on the search engines. If your foundation is weak or poorly put together your webpages won't have much to be based upon for the engines to rank with.

Direct Sales and Your Corporate Website - A Creative Marketing Plan that Works!
Creatively marketing your corporate site takes time in the set up but you will learn that building your customers isn't about marketing your products but getting your name and reputation into the minds of internet customers.I have randomly chosen Watkins to design a marketing approach but you will see how to apply this concept to any direct sales company.