When the Internet burst into the awareness of the public in the late 1990s, Eric Miller wanted to make sure that Miller Welding & Machining, the company founded in 1963 by his grandfather, took advantage of the new technology. So in 1998, he did what many business people did -- he designed a Web site.

"We saw the need for it," he said. "We knew it was coming."

Over the years, the Web site occasionally was updated, but by last fall Eric Miller, the company's information technology manager, felt that it was in need of a complete overhaul. He approached his father and company president David R. Miller with the idea.

"We knew that we needed to be on the Web, and we were on it, to a point. But we weren't seeing the results that we thought we should be seeing there," David Miller said. "Eric came to me and said that he felt it was time to consider a more professional approach."

An employee in the company's IT department recommended that they consult with Elliance, a Web site design and hosting firm based on the North Side.

Elliance Chief Executive Officer Abu Naoman reviewed Miller Welding's Web site before visiting the company.

"It was very text-heavy, very unpersuasive," he said. "It did not tell a story."

Only when he visited the company in Brookville, a small town nestled at the juncture of Routes 28 and 36 in Jefferson County, did he begin to realize the story to be told.

"When we walked into that facility, it was phenomenal," Mr. Naoman said. With the high degree of automation there, including the use of robots, "There was this sense of efficiency, there was a sense of buzz on their floors."

"We didn't get any of that feeling in their Web site at all."

For Mr. Naoman, the challenge was not simply to update the Web site, but to make it convey some of the "buzz" that he noted during his visit.

"How do we show that they are a mighty giant in their space? That they are a real player, because they service tier-one manufacturers? That they have cutting edge robotics and other manufacturing processes?"

The answers worked out during the six-month redesign of the site centered largely around the verb "show." The new Web site, while still providing plenty of text, including the company's history and mission statement, also takes the viewer into Miller's facilities to show what the company does and how.

The business impact was almost immediate.

Miller had been courting a pair of potential customers "for a number of years," David Miller said.

"Shortly after we unveiled this Web site, we contacted those companies and told some of their people to go on and take a look at the site and give us their feedback. ... It was just a short time after that that we started getting real action."

The companies made Miller a vendor.

He said he expects both companies to land in the top 10 among Miller's customers, some of whom spend between $5 million and $10 million a year with the company.

Obviously the Web site by itself did not land those accounts. But both Millers give it credit for bringing those customers in the door.

"I think it was the fact that they could tell that we weren't your average fabricator," Eric Miller said. While an average fabrication shop might be staffed by 25 employees, Miller Welding employs more than 400. "Anybody can make a widget, but can anybody make a widget and deliver it on an hourly basis to multiple facilities? Those are the things that are a lot easier to see with the new site.

"I don't think I can overestimate the importance of marketing online," he said. "You have to have it."

But the days of being able to do it well with a do-it-yourself Web site may be over. As the senior Miller put it, "There's no question that a well-designed and professional Web site, in our experience, is much more effective than what we were trying to do by ourselves."

For Mr. Naoman, the Miller story is a prime illustration not only of the difference between amateur and professional Web design, but also of the difference between sales and marketing.

"Marketing builds trust and preference in the minds of customers. Sales takes that trust and preference and turns that into real transactions between buyers and sellers.

"Marketing is a sales accelerator. Most manufacturing companies really focus on sales only and on relationships with existing customers," Mr. Naoman said. "As a result, they're working harder than they need to."

A company that thinks of its Web site as "a strategic sales accelerator" will plan and develop it "very differently than if you think of it as a golf-outing conversation piece," he said.