Online presences constitute a continuum from a static brochureware website that simply takes basic company information online to the highly sophisticated and dynamic enterprise portal which ingrates all processes of a business.

Wherever the web presence in question may be located within this continuum, as long as the web is used as a customer facing channel to generate sales and revenue there are four basic criteria that can be applied to determine the success of a website. These four criteria form a logical sequence and have to be addressed in the right order.

1.) Visibility