If we can't tell you exactly what a Web site costs, we can help you understand where the costs lie so that you might be a more informed consumer. We've put together six questions to ask yourself in the early stages of planning your Web site. You might as well ask them of yourself because as soon as you contact a Web site developer, he's going to ask you pretty much the same questions. That may be enough to start with for a small company with a limited product line. On the other hand, large corporations spend several hundreds of thousands of dollars developing their first Web site.
Many companies build Web sites because their competitors have Web sites.
If that's the extent of the motivation, then pretty much any old Web site will do. But companies making the best use of the Web consider who they hope to reach through the Web site. Once you have made it clear what you intend to achieve through the Web site, you can begin to be explicit about the information or experience required of the site to accomplish the goals. Many companies start off by putting annual reports and product descriptions on the Web. But what's easy is not necessarily what would be most useful for Web site visitors or most effective for the company.