Having a website developed for your business. This can sometimes be one of the most debatable decisions that your business may possibly make.

Should I have a website developed for my business or shouldn’t I??
In other words - to be or not to be... that is the question.

Talking to a few business owners in the past has given me an insight as to some of the Pros and Cons debated over, especially when it comes to developing a website for businesses.

Some issues raised in having a website developed for most businesses are:

1. My business is still new and may not be ready for a website
2. Some people prefer to rely on traditional marketing methods
   • Word of mouth i.e. referrals
   • Yellow Pages
   • Mailing methods
   • Reputation
   • Cheap advertising schemes
3. Don’t have the time, knowledge or even a computer
4. Don’t understand much about websites let alone the internet
5. Size and type of business may not suit having a website
6. Some business may already have a website but aren't getting the desired results from it, as was first anticipated

Being a developer myself and seeing first hand some of the joys and successes that a lot of businesses have had in the past, made it a little hard for me to comprehend some of those issues raised.

For example:

1. Having a website is by far the most cost effective way to market your business to customers
2. Believe it or not; if you are able to say to your customers "look at my website" you gain credibility, your business is seen to be professional and well managed
3. A website address is usually a lot easier for people to remember than a phone number
4. A website provides your company with more forms of exposure for advertising
5. Having a website makes your business more competitive especially when it comes to advertising and marketing
6. There is no timeline as to when a business can and should have a website developed for them
7. Any business can have a website no matter what size the business is
8. Websites can be easily developed and managed
9. You don’t need to have a computer to have a website
10. Websites can be developed to do pretty much all the work for you

    But wait... there is still more:

11. Google conducts around 16,000 searches per minute, so having a website listed in the search engines such as Google can bring phenomenal success to any business providing that the correct SEO techniques have been used throughout your site
12. With its popularity growing on a daily basis, more and more people generally tend to look to the internet first to research information before making decisions on services
13. Although still some-what new, the internet is one of the best and most popular sources of information available

Those are just some of the answers that I managed to come up with in regards to having a website, which is more than double the answers of not having one. So maybe now you can understand why it was a little hard for me to comprehend some of the issues raised.

Think about it, just having a website no matter what size it may be, can open up a lot of new doors for your business. Being able to modify the website means being able to personalise it, to satisfy not only your needs, but the needs and requirements of the business as well.