When you are considering building your website, there are a few obvious things to think about. What graphics should you use? What text should you include? What's your color scheme? Who is your target audience? What keywords are you targeting?
But don't fall into the trap of believing that your website is nothing more than an advertisement. Don't underestimate your site by defining it as simply an on-line store.
The fact is that no matter how much effort you put into SEO, it is going to take a while before your website reaches the top of the search engines. However, this does not mean that your site has to be useless until people start clicking.
The advantage of a custom-designed website is that it can be made into a powerful program specifically designed for your business. Further, you can access this program from anywhere with an Internet connection.
You might transfer your files to an on-line database, making them accessable to your employees from anywhere. Potentially, you could run an office from home, saving yourself and your employees the time and gas money that it takes to make a daily commute to and from the office. Alternately, a catalog of products can be designed with all the graphics you want - even animations. Since you won't have to print it out, you don't have to concern yourself with the cost of paper and toner. Better still, once you update it, it is automatically adjusted for anyone who views it; no need to print a new batch. You can create invoicing and payroll programs that store information into a database for quick calculations, using search queries to check by location, time period, employee, or client.
Again, the greatest benefit here is the accessability and customization. Updates are automatic for all users, from wherever they may be accessing the web pages from. The programs are designed for your business specifically; you get exactly what you need without having to deal with functions and protocols that you will never use. And, best of all, unlike a store-bought program, you can always change a custom program to evolve alongside your business.
