Furthermore, it would be very beneficial if you could have some means of standing out from your competitors to attract more customers. This is especially important if you are positioned among several other businesses, like in a strip mall.

Of course you could do what many other businesses do, such as pay someone to stand on the side of the road or buy a place on nearby flashy video billboards. Anything to tell people where you are, what you do and how well you do it.

If money were no object, you could really go all out and mount TV screens and posters in your windows, and put your glossy brochure in an easily accessible box outside.

All of this would obviously raise visitor visibility and create an attraction to you, which is extremely important right now, and even more important if your business has a lot of competitors in the area.

Unfortunately, the cost of investing in such a diverse range of real-world advertising requires a much higher budget than most smaller companies have.

This is why the Internet has always been a perfect medium for any size of business to reach out and increase visibility without breaking the bank.

Unlike the real world, where it seems that larger companies who advertise more get all the business, online the business playing field is more level.

An online business is different from the real world because it doesn't need to compete dollar for dollar with its larger competitors. It doesn't have to have as large a location or staff; it only has to compete technology to technology and image to image.

The best opportunity for you is if your competitors have sites that were created in house or by less experienced designers. You could definitely benefit from hiring a professional company to design your site. One of my favorite analogies over the years has been this: online, it's all down to image. If done right, a man selling used tires out of his garage can look like the largest tire dealer in the U.S. However, done wrong, the largest tire dealer in the U.S. can look like a man selling used tires out of his garage.

In the long term, if your site looks good and functions well for the visitor, it can attract and retain many more visitors than your competitors' sites.

Because the Internet is not space limited like a physical premises, you can place almost infinite information about your company for people to see, including photos and videos.

You can keep on your customers' radar by sending out newsletters or writing blogs to keep people interested.

And the bottom line on a web location is that you can do all of these things for probably around the cost of the initial deposit on a small store or office lease.

Even better is if you can also obtain prominent search results, without costing a fortune. Just as with a billboard, you can be sure to be seen by passersby as they are searching for products or services like yours.

All of these things, when combined, will lead people to your door.

Online, your site is one among thousands of others offering the same products or services. Believe it or not, you can look your best without breaking the bank.

If you have concerns with your web presence, now is the perfect time to look into our WebUpdate system sites, which take advantage of advanced marketing, SEO and promotion features to give your business the best competitive edge online.

Buddy Smith

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.