A website allows you to attractively showcase your product or service using an array of multimedia tools (such as photos or videos). Websites help you communicate with your customers more efficiently, provide information to them quickly, sell products or services directly, improve customer service relationships, and much, much more.

With a website, you have the ability to reach a broad audience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Most people will start their search for a product and service online, and this search often occurs outside of normal business hours. In a survey by The Nielsen Company, 81% of web buyers cited the "ability to shop anytime during the day" as the reason they chose to shop online. Other popular reasons for shopping online included saving time, the ability to comparison shop, and finding things easily.

However, a website is not just for online shopping. In many cases, you may not have a need for customers to make purchases online, however, a website has the ability to generate leads and inquiries without you even being there. It also allows you to be found by search engines, use online marketing services, or supplement your existing marketing materials or advertising by allowing you to include your web address on your business cards, store window, flyers, post cards, etc.

By supplementing your existing advertising with a website, you can increase its effectiveness, allowing a potential customer to see additional information about your products and/or services and therefore increasing your ROI (Return on Investment) on your existing offline marketing efforts.

We can go on forever about all of the ways a website can help your business. So we'll make it short: there is almost no situation where a business should not have a website. As the internet continues to grow into nearly every aspect of both professional and personal interaction, having a website has become a requirement for any business to compete in today's marketplace.