This week we analyzed a corporate website for an acquaintance. The more we examined the website which he undoubtedly paid good money for, the more we realized that his website designer didn't know what she was doing. So here again an outline of five must-have capabilities to make any sense being on the worldwide web.

Competent website design requires at least:

 1. Graphics software ability and an artistic sense. Computer guys can run graphics programs, but unless they are trained with an artist's eye, these graphics most often won't look right. You need to pay a person with graphic design experience. An alternative, if you have to, is to use a pre-designed template with build-it-yourself web tools, such as Site Build It! or Yahoo! Small Business Hosting. At least these templates were designed by a professional.

 2. HTML ability. Lack of HTML knowledge isn't usually the problem. You can find good website design tools, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage. With one of these tools, you don't really need to know much actual HTML code. The design program creates the code for you. But, they tend to build websites that are a bit bloated, at least in terms of the amount of mark-up code used. Not good, especially not for corporate sites

 3. Navigation and usability design experience. Without such experience your designer is likely to produce a website that can't expand beyond five or six webpages as your business grows and which will cause a poor visitor experience. Software here is no substitute for experience. If you're a budding website designer, don't despair. These things can be learned with practice.

 4. Basic search engine optimization skills. Sadly, many website designers don't have a clue how a site is found by the search engines. My acquaintance’s website ended up with the home page titled with useless verbage in the title tags. Like that, the site will never appear under a search for his business or products. Before you contract with a website designer, make sure that he/she knows something about SEO. If need be, buy a copy of Dr. Wilson's Plain-Spoken Guide to Search Engine Optimization and get an education on the basics. Your designer doesn't need to be an SEO guru to understand and insert appropriate keywords in the title tag, description meta tag, headings, and body text. But your designer must do this or you'll be dead in the water.

 5. Provision for the site owner to make changes. Far too many websites look beautiful but can't be altered by the site owner. If all changes must go through the site designer (who is now working on someone else's project), they probably won't be made in a timely manner. Two easy ways to fix this are: (1) Have you site designer build your site within the structure of a site-building system with a web interface, such as Site Build It! or Yahoo! Small Business Hosting. That way you can add webpages that will be based on the existing template and will have automatic links to the navigation system. (2) Use a tool that allows any webpage to be edited by the site owner using a web interface. Two applications to consider are edit.com (monthly fee) and interactivetools.com's Page Publisher (one-time fee).

Yes, there are other important disciplines, such as installing an online contact form, setting up a shopping cart capability, JavaScript programs to improve the customer experience, etc. But the five above are essential. For more information on building a website right from the start, read Dr.Wilson’s popular article, "12 Website Design Decisions Your Business Will Need to Make."

http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/12design.htm and then realize that if quick results are required, hire a true professional.