The Past
In today’s world, every small business needs a web site. Gone are the days of the Yellow Pages. These days, more and more people are throwing away their phone books and turning to Yahoo and Google to find local business services. As a business owner, in today’s technology driven marketplace, you MUST have a web site to stay competitive. In years past, small businesses were faced with ridiculously high costs associated with establishing a web presence. Web masters would often charge thousands of dollars to build sites and they were additionally strapped with monthly maintenance costs to keep them functional. This model made it almost impossible for small businesses to participate in Internet Marketing.
The Future
Fewer and fewer people are looking to paper based advertising for information on local services. Fewer people get their news from the newspaper. Instead, they fire up their computer and search for the news, products and services on the web. Once a list of businesses offering those services appears on their computer screen, those businesses that are listed with web sites are then ones most visited. The potential customer may be looking for phone numbers, hours of operation, specific name brands name products or specific services. You want to be on that list and have those potential clients navigate to your web site. When they do, you have a much better chance of getting their business. If you don’t have a web site, rest assured, they are going elsewhere.