Your website is your online brand. It is your identity. It is also your company’s reputation. Years back, websites were stand alone and for many companies, having a simple website was good enough. For many also, flashy websites were their way of showcasing their business online. If you don’t have a website, you are not a reputable company. For new and old businesses alike, website design/deployment has become a vital component in every branding initiative and strategy.

Nowadays, however, the web community is moving towards standardization, not only on the way websites are being developed but also on how they are being designed. Standards for usability and user-friendliness has to be considered. A standards-compliant website will help confirm that you are a reputable company (proof of the careful thought and planning put into it).

Your website must support social media networks and must be search engine friendly. Whoever thought that you have to make sure those “robots” and “spiders” should be able to “crawl” your website if you want your site to be indexed and added to major search engines’ database? Ignore the robots and your site will sink into the oblivion of cyberspace.

And then comes Internet Marketing. You may not have considered Adwords, Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Campaign before. But now, if you want to be able to attract more visits to your website and especially if you intend to sell your products online (allowing online purchase and payment, which is what your competitor is already doing), you will have to go back to the drawing board and reconsider the entire design of your website. If print and media advertising is important but is expensive for you, you cannot afford to ignore the benefits of online marketing. And good web design will determine whether or not people who visit your website stay to buy your products.