Once you’ve made the decision to start a website, when should you begin?

The best way to answer this question: right now! Here’s why.

First, you can’t enjoy the benefits of owning a website until it is actually launched. The benefits may include additional revenue, and also can mean less time invested in customer service problems. One common use of a website is to provide documentation and instructions for using your products on your website.

Secondly, aged domain names have a tendency to rank higher in Google searches than younger domains. So the older your domain, the better advantage you have in web searches.

Third, once your site is up and running, you can begin promoting it. Since the effects of such promotion are cumulative, and you or your representatives can only do so much every day, you will want to start on promotion as soon as possible. Some of the promotion you can do include articles, video, press releases, commenting on blogs, and forum marketing.

Fourth, the sooner you get your website up and running, the sooner you can start “catching up” with your competitors.

Fifth, any effort that you put in today will give you a lead over your competition who are not online. People often put off starting a website, believing it will be time-consuming and difficult.

Sixth, if you have a website, it lends a certain credibility to your business and causes people to be more likely to want to do business with you.

Seventh, because the average person requires several different interactions with you before they will buy, a website can lessen the personal interactions required to induce your prospect to spend money with you. By including articles or documentation on your website, you can help the prospect get to a buying decision with little direct effort on your part.