Web development is quite complex, because there are so many disciplines concerned. It takes some skills to construct a web site that delivers exactly what you want, with a good layout and with society building and you need to know technical aspects as well as research and marketing, encouragement, writing, etc. Web development also means hard job. It's an ever-ongoing effort as you will see under and if you don't have enough resources for it it's going to be hard. It's not the money that count so much as well as time, energy, persistence and a great will.
A very popular motive to create a web presence is to have a web presence. "Competitors have it, so should we" is often heard. It is a suspicious strategy. That is absolutely the wrong way. Companies or small businesses should have a better motivation to be on the Internet. Some steps are for the web development.
Product or service suited for the Internet.
Develop a USP, a Unique Selling Proposition.
Develop a site that sells with deadly precision, build content, and write sales letters, the technical stuff.
Get traffic!
Testing the site.