It was not too long ago when a web site was a novelty to most businesses. Now more and more businesses are asking if a web site is right for them. There can be confusion on exactly what a web site is supposed to do . It's extremely important to plan out exactly what you want to achieve. There are two ways your site can be found. Directly, that is you gave someone your web site address or through on of the Search sites like Google.

1. Who is your audience?
2. Does your existing client base use the Internet?
3. What geographical area represents your clients?
4. Do you sell products or services?

Your audience is going to play a major role in the decision to create a web site and the strategy you may want to employ to capture and retain the interest of your visitors. A younger audience is going to have different expectations and needs then a older audience. If your business is services oriented you need to think about the geographic area you plan to cover. The broader the coverage the more powerful the reasons to provide a full service web site. Certainly any retail type business selling products has a tremendous gain in developing a e-commerce web site to expand their geographic pull.

Services based business primary advantage to creating a web site is lead generation (developing new clients) and a virtual billboard containing contact information and occupation. If you have a closed client base and no need to build your client base then it's not going to make a lot of sense in developing a web site. Web sites take time and money to build and there needs to be a return on investment if you are a business.