It is very important to note that a well designed website can lead to online success but a badly designed website can have adverse effect on your reputation and hamper the potential growth of your business.

The chief reason why so many businesses fail to tap the potential of internet is due to the fact that although their products/services are better than their competitors, their website does not reflect the same, thus turning away potential clients and damaging the repute of the company.

When designing a website it is very important for you to understand that your on-line success depends on your website and if it is poorly designed the potential clients will not waste anytime in pressing the back button. So it is very important for you to have a professional web designing company handle the job of designing your website because they have the adequate knowledge and know-how to help you create a website the can cater to the needs of your target audience.

Apart from designing your website, professional web designing companies also offer various other services like web hosting, Search Engine Marketing and website copywriting and take care of your other web related needs. This can help enhance the visibility of your website and help you attract potential clients and lead to online success by building a unique brand for your products and services.

Although a professional website designing company can garner to a lot of your website related needs and offer a variety of services for improving your online business, website designing has many other crucial aspects that require an active participation on your part as well.

The most important thing for you to find out before going on with your website is to have clearly defined goals as to what you wish to achieve with your website and having a clear idea about your targeted audience is very significant. This requires lot of efforts and in depth research on your part as it will be of no use having a website which fails to grab the attention of your potential clients. It is also very important to highlight on your website what makes you different from others who offer similar services and also why should a client choose to work with you instead of your competitors. In other words it is very important that you identify your unique selling point and highlight it on your website. It is very important that a person visiting your website knows what makes you different from your competitors and other similar companies.

A professionally designed website can go long way in not only increasing the growth of your online business but also helping you build a brand image and enhancing your repute. A well designed website puts the right impression on your clients and helps you build a long term brand image for yourself and your company.

Although it is widely believed that putting up a website and having a Search Engine Optimization company (SEO) do the rest can lead to instant online success, it is hardly the truth. A SEO company may improve your web site design company is worth its cost and can go a long way in enhancing your online success and developing a brand for your company.

So although web provides unlimited opportunities for success and different avenues for developing your business, it also takes a lot of efforts and thinking on your part before you create a website and take a plunge into the world of web.

Some are now aimed at stealing credit-card numbers, bank-account information, Social Security numbers and ultimately, our identities. Others are designed to commandeer our computers and turn them into “zombies” that send millions of spam e-mails or launch hard-to-trace denial-of service attacks on other computers.

With e-mail attachments now suspect, an increasing number of infections reach our computers through “drive-by” Web downloads. Just landing on a booby-trapped Web site can cause your computer to install a program that takes advantage of a security flaw in your browser - or Windows itself - to turn your life upside down. Messages containing links to these sites - often disguised as links to popular or otherwise safe Web pages - are replacing the infected e-mail attachment as the hacker’s attack of choice.

Microsoft posts security patches to ward off the latest attacks on the second Tuesday of every month, and publishers of security software issue updates even more often. But the cops are always days or weeks behind the bad guys in these cases, far enough behind to make smart surfers leery of clicking on links to unfamiliar Web sites that come in unsolicited e-mails or on pages of Web sites they’re not sure of.

As a result, hackers have found new avenues of attack. According to Didier Stevens, a Belgian Internet security specialist and blogger, one avenue involves tricking Google and other search engines into displaying links to booby-trapped Web pages when innocent search terms are entered.

Some crooks are taking an even more brazen approach by buying Google “adwords,” an increasingly popular and legitimate form of advertising on the world’s most popular search engine. Similar paid results show up on other search sites.

Here’s how the system works: A business pays Google (or some other search engine) to look for particular words or phrases in every user search. If a Google user enters that term in a search prompt, Google will display the advertiser’s ad as a paid listing on the right hand of the page containing the actual search results.

So if you’re the president of the Handy Dandy Binocular Co., you might buy the search word “binoculars.” When someone searches for that term, Google will deliver your paid binocular link. No problem so far. In fact, this is an excellent and relatively noninvasive way to match advertisers with potential customers.

But according to Stevens, it’s also relatively easy for a crook to buy an adword that produces a paid link to a booby-trapped page. If you click on one of these ads because it looks interesting, your computer could be infected before you know it.

Stevens says that these pages often have addresses that use the relatively unpopulated .info domain (as opposed to the crowded .com or .net domains). So that’s one clue to a suspicious site. But how many people would click on an ad even if it were suspicious?

Stevens decided to find out. He registered the domain titled “drivebydownload.info,” then bought the Google adword “drive by download.” When a user typed in that term, or something close to it, Google displayed Stevens’ paid link, which read: “Drive By Download. Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here.” Over six months, Stevens reported, Google displayed his ad 259,723 times. And 409 people actually clicked on it. That’s right, they clicked on an ad that said, “Get infected here.” Stevens didn’t actually infect his “victims.” All they got was a thank you message. And the percentage of click-throughs was relatively small. Still, Stevens noted, the entire ad campaign cost him $23, or 6 cents for each compromised computer. Not a bad deal. Imagine the return on a link that didn’t give itself away.

For details, visit http://didierstevens.wordpress.com. So now you’re probably asking how to protect yourself against these sites. One is to keep your security software up to date, so that it recognizes attempts to download malicious software.

Another is a free program from McAfee called SiteAdvisor, which does exactly what its title suggests. Installing as a plug-in to your Web browser, it displays a small icon next to every link returned by most popular search engines. A green check means the site is OK, while red signifies risky downloads and a question mark means an unrated site.

Based on its own research and reports from thousands of users, McAfee now returns ratings for most of the sites my searches turn up on Google, Yahoo and MSN. An upgraded version of SiteAdvisor, available for $19.95, adds ratings to links in e-mails and other features. But the free version works quite well. Visit www.siteadvisor.com.

Of course, none of these programs will work if you’re not alert. Pay attention to links in your e-mail and the results from search engines. And don’t click on any link that says “Get infected here.”

One is Lynelle Walker, who runs a geriatric care service in Orange County, Calif. She says she hesitated to use the Internet to market her business, but she's planning to launch a website in the next few months with the goal of obliging potential customers who "want to get a lot of information before they even speak with you." Walker said she's still trying to decide whether to hire a Web designer or learn how to do it herself...

Internet tools help business owners increase their visibility and provide useful information that pulls in customers, says Anita Campbell, editor of the blog SmallBizTrends.com.

"It has widened their circles of people they know well beyond their normal areas," she said. "Typically, we were limited to who we could meet, but now we can be meeting people all over the world and doing it all from the comfort of our offices."

Even a rudimentary site with basic information, such as location and hours of operation, can draw potential customers, especially if it appears in a Google Maps search.

Victor Liu, CEO of an Irvine, Calif.-based Web-design firm called Web Advanced, recommended using an array of Internet tools to market a business, including setting up a website and creating a profile on a professional networking site.

Although Liu's company designs websites for other businesses, his service could be too costly for start-ups or small-business owners. He charges businesses about $3,000 to $10,000 to design a basic website, depending on the content.

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