Professional is key. Remember, internet has a global reach. Some of your new potential clientele may be learning of your business for first time by visiting your website and old cliché, "you never get a second chance to make a first impression", still rings true.

When a business makes decision to gain an internet presence, whether they are largest corporation or smallest home business, they may be tempted to take what appears to be "easy way" to get company website up and running fast. The three major potential pitfalls here are:

1)Some hosting comes with "do it yourself" capabilities and pre-made templates. Although this is a great way to upload photos of your summer vacation for your family and friends to see, this is not a good way to make that great first impression for your business. In short, these "solutions" really do not present a professional image, and often use very minimal templates and overall poor layout and design.

2)Many companies now sell website "templates" for low cost, making it easy for you to get up and running quickly. While this is true (you can get up and running quickly and many of these companies do sell more professional designs), you run risk of other businesses using that SAME design. And to buy a "unique" copy of template cost is often just as, or more expensive, than if you were to hire a professional company to create a custom design for you.

3)Complete websites for $100! This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I have actually seen advertisements for complete websites for very low prices. You must remember that you are investing in your business when you decide to have a custom website developed, and you really do get what you pay for. A professional design firm creates original designs, from scratch, tailor-made for each individual client - and prices for that work can vary a lot, but do expect to pay a reasonable amount for services.

These three potential pitfalls aside, process of getting your business onto World Wide Web does not have to be a confusing, time-consuming, and costly affair. Below is a succinct outline of process.

Why your business benefits from adhering to web standards

Web standards are created to give benefits to developer and visitor. As a business, your website must be accessible, usable, attractive and convey a message of trust and professionalism. Getting this right can be both expensive and difficult if done outside of W3 standards.

Let's look at main benefits of web standards.

Accessibility

Valid XHTML and CSS will ensure that a site is constructed in a way that seperates content from presentation.

There are huge business gains to be had from this method such as less maintenance, more control, lower costs etc., but importantly, accessible content. Not everyone uses a common browser to access web and a valid site will mean your information will have widest potential audience.

Usability

Semantic markup creates a usable website. We have all seen cluttered sites with no per-page focus, navigation that leads you into abyss and forces URL amendments as well as document structure that makes a web page unreadable and hard to follow. You have a point to make. Every page has a focus and content is clear. Web standards will ensure that people get to point of your site, quickly and effortlessly.

Compatibility

We are in 21st century and there are now a wider range of platforms, devices and browsers than ever before. More and more people are accessing internet and due to this diversity, building a website by following guidelines is only way to ensure uniformity.

Substantially increased performance