Only in about 30% of cases do we encounter companies that appear to have the balance just right.

Here are 5 classic problems we encounter all of the time.

1/ Using Microsoft instead of Linux

There is absolutely no excuse for using a Windows server for your website when Linux can do everything for FREE. Why pay hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year to Microsoft when there is a world of developers out there who will let you use their software for nothing! Everything you could possibly want for your business from credit card systems, e-commerce shops to content management systems are all out there supported by a shareware community of thousands of engineers around the world who will attempt to modify or fix any problem almost by return email!

2./ Over dependence on Google.

We speak to so many companies who seem to think that Google is the Internet. All credit to Google for creating this unique marketing position but for businesses who get brainwashed by this they are missing out on potentially thousands of other Internet related possibilities.

Being listed in other every day websites can be a great benefit also. If for instance you make 'Baby Soup' then being found on a respected Baby related website will be as important if not more important than coming back on a search engine. The same can be said of any industry. Suppose you make saddles or are a personal fitness trainer. Then it is very important that you feature on a Horse related or fitness related website - even if their traffic is smaller. It's the quality of the reference that's just as important.

3./Hocus Pocus

A number of industries have spun off from the Internet in recent years - some good, some bad.

One that I believe is frequently overrated is Search Engine Optimisation.

Of course having properly optimised pages on your website is important because without proper optimisation, the 'spiders' that are used to collect information, can't read your page/s very well and therefore won't index you.

In reality however, most SEO can be done at the time the website is being set up and as each new article is added.

Instead what we see are companies paying $1,000's of dollars a month in fees to return high in Google through a hocus-pocus cocktail of websites that are 'Optimized'.

In many instances the same number of 'sales leads' or 'enquiries' could have been achieved with normal advertising or a decent PR campaign!

4./ Slick Flash Designs that can't be changed.

This is a classic mistake - buying in a beautifully designed website that only the designer knows how to change. It offers a great life long career for the designer but whenever the small business wants to make changes or a short term offer - it can become prohibitively expensive.

So the website stays there gathering the Internet equivalent of dust because noone in the office knows how to get into the back end of the website to make changes!  

Our advice - no matter how small or large your website, in this day and age it should run from a CMS - Content Management System. That way, at least one person in the office can learn how to manage the content with text, photos or even video uploads!

And the complication of learning this is no more complicated than using a Word document and a photo editor.

In the Linux environment - CMS systems are free.