I am guessing you may have gotten that impression by now if you have been looking for web design for even a short time.  Your eyes may of rolled back in your head a time or two and you may have given up more than once, but you know you need this so you soldier on!

First, lets make a couple of assumptions:

1. You own a product sales or service business and you are not planning on doing an on-line store, at least not yet.
2. You want your current customers to be able to get information about sales, hours, etc...
3. You want potential customers to be able to find, contact and show up, at your business when they search the internet.

In that case, the answer is...... No, you do not need "Traffic" in the web marketing sense.  The world is not going to come to an end and you will not go bankrupt.   Many companys will try to convince you to buy their S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimization) or Site Marketing package, in the situation above, you DO NOT need anything like that, they will argue that people must be driven to your site using these methods.  Not so!  

In the scenario above that is overkill.  What you actually need is, a website designed with your target customer in mind, using specific keywords in specific places on your website.   You need placement in google maps, submission to the main search engines, and you might want to toss a few dollars per day into something like google adwords, until your site gets crawled, but even that is optional.   Other than that, you do not need some crazy expensive "marketing package".

On the other hand, if your business is selling the same items many other companies are selling on-line, you have to stand out in the sea of sameness, then yes you do need an aggressive internet marketing strategy.  That strategy is going to be different again if you are a manufacturer, and you are looking for wholesale vs. retail customers.  I hope you are beginning to see my point, there is not a "one size fits all" answer to this question.

I am a small business owner, I understand you just want to get a web site up and running, you want it to help your business, and you do not want to waste your time or your money.  My name is Bob, my phone number is   I'm happy to help you.

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