If you own a business and you are asking yourself the question ''Do I need a web site?" then the simple answer is yes, without a doubt, no question about it.

But why?

Well, even if you do not sell products or services online, you can still create extra revenue in the form of offline transactions as a direct result of having a professional web presence, in the same way you can using conventional means of advertising but at a fraction of the cost.

You should have a web presence so that customers, business partners and perhaps even potential investors can quickly and easily find out information about your business and the products and/or services that you offer.

However you need to have more than just a web presence, you need to have a professional web presence. Many consumers search for information on the Internet before purchasing a product and/or a service at a bricks and mortar business these days. If your web site looks like it was designed by a boat load of colour blind and incompetent monkeys then there is little chance that you will turn that visitor to your web site into a paying customer. First impressions count and you want to make a good impression!

Anybody with a PC can put together some kind of web site with little or no knowledge of what they are doing, but do you want a professional looking web site that enhances your business prospects? or do you just want a few web pages cobbled together so that you can tell people you have a web site?. If you have no knowledge of HTML, cross browser compatibility, W3C standards, usability, search engine optimisation, image optimisation, meta tags, alt tags, FTP and a multitude of other techniques and technologies then a DIY web site for your business is a bad idea.

It does not matter if you are a one man band or a corporate giant with 20,000 employees. If you do not have a web site, you are loosing out on business to those that do and if you have a web site that could easily be featured on web www.webpagesthatsuck.com you may as well take your web site down as it will only be detrimental to your business and a waste of your time, money and effort.

We are living in the 'information age' and the PC with an Internet connection is not a luxury, it is not reserved for educational or business purposes, it has become a household commodity. It is little wonder though considering what you can do on the Internet these days; booking a holiday, online banking, grocery shopping, buying anything from a book to a property....the list goes on.

If you do not have a web site for your business the question you should be asking yourself is not 'Do I need a web site?' but 'Why haven't I already got a web site?'.