How does 'your website' relate to 'your business'?

Something I've always had a strong opinion about is the relationship between a business and it's website - all too often we talk to people who see this as nothing more than a loose affiliation and a perception that the website isn't really very important.

I suspect that these days a lot of you will agree with me that this couldn't be further from the truth and that for the majority of businesses (even I will accept that there exceptions), a website is a critical component of the business and it's marketing strategy.

For some - those selling via eCommerce and offering services online - it goes beyond this and you could argue that the website IS the business to some extent.

However, in the name of curiousity, we posed the question on facebook. You can see, answer or comment on the original question here.

Most businesses have a website - and in the majority of cases, business owners would say their website is a very important part of their strategy, but how would you describe the relationship between your business and website?

• The website IS my business - 10%
• The website is my main point of contact with customers - 10%
• The website is an important part of my advertising/promotion - 70%
• We needed a website because people were searching for us - 10%
• We don't have a website (but we will in the future!) - 0%
• We don't have a website (and we don't want/need one) - 0%



The most interesting aspect for me is probably that search activity had driven the investment in a website - it's not surprising that the last two options were unused, at least not given the fact that we were asking our contacts on Facebook.

What do you think? How would you answer this question? Some answers are bound to be more complicated than just picking one from the list above - luckily there's a comment box down the bottom and you can express yourself to your heart's desire!