Most companies are on their second or third design since they were first on the World Wide Web, and have learned tough lessons about their online image and what visitors and potential clients want from a web site. The skills you require from your web designer must include excellent search engine placement abilities, because if they don't it's highly unlikely that your web site will reach the dizzing heights you envisioned for it, when you first went online. Search engines change their indexing criteria and algorithms almost quarterly; making many search engine and design techniques that were highly valued even 2 years ago, useless today. With Technology advancing constantly, those developers who don't stay current - get left behind. Regardless if you are looking at getting your business online, or are shopping for a new Web Designer - these are some key points you may want to know before engaging a design service. 4th Straight year of growth for E-Commerce in Canada

• Most professional web designers know little or nothing about the design techniques favoured by the major Internet Search Engines. Your Web Developer better - the success of your website hinges on it. Click for some design elements - not to use.
• All Flash and no Dash = no Cash. A small amount of FLASH is fine, but it must be incorporated within a HTML design. The same applies to Java. If the developer designs strictly in Flash - you'll never get indexed by the major search engines in any significant way. Why? There's no content for the search engines to read from a flash file.
• Can they hand code HTML? Few developers hard code web pages anymore - but it is absolutely crucial that they be able to. Almost every designer uses an HTML editor like Dreamweaver. These are called WYSIWYG programs - or short for What You See Is What You Get. The code that's produced may have errors, and is not organized in such a way as to make the search engines happy. A designer needs to read HTML so problems or hiccups can be fixed. The way the code is organized is one of the key criteria - amongst several dozen - that the search engines look for.
• How's their web site? Does it inspire confidence that they can deliver on what you want? A good Web Designer will be a strategic partner to your business. Find a good one and stay with them.