So you have decided you actually will benefit from having your own web site for your business, you have made a wise decision.

But what is involved? How do you go about it? Will it be a lot of hard work?

First of all you need to decide on what type of web site you need. There are basically two types of web site. Information (brochure style) web sites and e-commerce (online store) web sites. If you want to sell your products and/or services directly to customers via your web site then you will need an e-commerce web site (see our e-commerce section for more info). If on the other hand you just want to advertise your products and/or services online then a brochure style web site will suffice. Once you have decided which type of web site you need it is time to start thinking about how you would like it look, what do you hope it will achieve, what information you would like it to contain and what domain name (address) you would like.

Once you have a general idea of what you want, you will then need to find a professional and reputable web development company to create your new web site. You will probably want to contact a few web development companies and request a quote for the work you need to be carried out, you can then compare prices, features etc until you find one that you feel is right for you.

When searching for a web development company to design/develop your web site always take a look at the companies previous work, this will give you an idea of the standard of service they offer. Most web development companies have a portfolio with examples of work they have undertaken for previous clients.

Once you have found a web development company you are happy with, it is time to sit back and let them do all the hard work for you. This will consist of designing, testing and implementing you new web site. Setting up all necessary e-mail accounts, optimizing your web site for inclusion into search engines (search engine optimisation) and then finally submitting you web site to all the major search engines and directories.