These are questions business owners ask when they are thinking about either venturing onto the Web, or redeveloping an existing site.

In this series, we will explore the points to consider when you approach a Web designer or development company.
Who do you hope to attract to your site?

This is the possibly the most important factor to consider, as it can play a major part in determining how much your initial and ongoing investments need to be, and also who you need to choose to create the site.

If you are a smaller business, with limited range and want a site as a reference point for people, then your initial outlay need not be much more than your design costs. Since there is not much more needed than creating pages and putting them online, , you could probably save money by approaching a talented design individual. Once the site is developed, you shouldn't have much more outgoing cost than monthly hosting, and occasional update charges from the designer. However, you still need to ensure that your site address is promoted somehow, such as traditional print advertising, on your business cards, brochures, vehicles etc.

Alternatively, if you are a company that can operate or sell over a much wider geographical area, you would definitely want people to find you via search engines in order to maximize your potential.

As I have said many times, the search engines are a discipline all of their own. They take experience, a great deal of patience and time in order to fine tune your site for the best results possible.

This can create a great deal more expense, as you not only have initial extras to search engine optimize the site, but also most designers charge large ongoing monthly fees to keep submitting your site to the search engines, which is essential.

This is one of the most predominant reasons why Web sites, once created, are not promoted or updated by the company, simply because they can't afford to pay thousands of dollars a month to the designer.
However, all is not doom and gloom, which is why we developed our WebUpdate range of sites.

There are no future update costs, and they submit themselves to the search engines for free.

Not only are these sites competitively priced, but there are no future update costs, and they submit themselves to the search engines for free, immediately saving money on an ongoing basis.

If you're ready for the next level of business, visit us at http://www.internetmark.com to read about our clients and see first hand the remarkable results we bring to their businesses.
Next Month: How can professional web sites reduce business costs?

Remember, on the Internet, a Web Site is only the beginning.

Terry Young is the founder and CEO of Internet Marketing and Design. Since 1997,
his computer programming and graphic design knowledge have kept his company
at the forefront of the latest technology in web development.