Whether you plan to sell products online or just want to tell customers about your business's services, you can do so with a business website. Mom and Pop operations, small businesses, and large corporations alike are promoting their businesses using the power of a website.

Keeping Up With Commerce
In today's fast-paced business world businesses without business websites will be left behind. Online shopping and product search is becoming the norm and millions search for services everyday on the Internet. With such a vast and active market available through the World Wide Web, a company would be foolish not to take advantage of the Internet as a business promotional tool.

Taking on the Competition
E-business is a competitive field, where search engine placement, web design, and domain names can make or break the success of an online business. However, with the proper steps, including smart use of the website, a business can launch itself into the online arean big time by utilizing business websites.

Selling Products with E-commerce Websites
Business websites that plan to sell products or services are called e-commerce websites. Good e-commerce websites include tools for customers to easily navigate, purchase, and receive online purchases. Some of the web features that make good e-commerce websites possible are:

• Shopping cart software - a software program that allows customers to collect all items together so they may purchase all at once, this is a good option for most business websites.
• The ability to accept various types of payment- including credit cards, pay pal, checks, etc. Businesses are able to accept credit card payment online when they sign up to have a merchant account, which is like a bank account to immediately process credit cards.
• SSL- Secure sockets layer is available on business websites for encryption services. SSL secures websites so customers' private information is encrypted and protected from online identity and credit card thieves.

Promoting Business with a Website
Websites for businesses that are used for communicating information and no products or services are sold are referred to as a business website. These websites can be a valuable asset to all businesses, offering customers supplemental information on the company, services, products, customer information, store location, store hours, job openings, and more. Every business should have one of these websites where they can send customers and clients for more information.

Marketing Strategy
Getting business websites in a position to be seen by the masses can be difficult. Through online marketing strategies like banner advertising, email promotion, search engine submissions, and optimization, businesses can reach the online audiences. The amount of visitors a well placed and advertised website can receive is phenomenal. Unless you will only be using word of mouth advertising for your business websites, you will need to look into using online marketing strategies.

Business Web Hosts
Some web hosts specialize in business web hosting and include e-commerce and merchant services and marketing options free with the monthly web hosting fee. These hosts are targeted toward small businesses and offer useful software and ideas to get an online business online and off of the ground. You can find a merchant account at our sister site.

We recommend using iPowerWeb to host your business websites. They offer excellent e-commerce tools and are as reliable as any we've found.