1. What is my website going to contain?

I always suggest keeping it simple. Writing a 30 page brief for a five page website is a waste of time.  Isolate the key points and make sure these are outlined for the web design company. Specifics such as design elements, animations and text should be left out at this stage as they will only complicate things. You can look at these elements at a later stage.

To start with think about what information you want to put on your website and what its purpose is. If your aim is to sell a product or service, consider what information your customers need to make a decision and choose your business for their needs.  Also think about what information could be used to manage or communicate with your existing customers, and how you envision doing this. 

2. Research similar businesses online

Google is your friend! Look at your competitors in the field and what they are doing online. Make a short list of competitors and take note of anything they are doing that you think works well.  Also, look at other companies in other states or overseas to research possibilities for your website. If possible, the aim is to be a trend setter, not just emulate your competitors.

3. Do you want to be able to edit your website yourself?

A key decision with your website is whether you want to be able to edit the site yourself with a CMS (content managements system) or have a standard website that the web design company will update for you.

The initial cost for a CMS is more expensive, but over time it will save you money as you can update it yourself.

If you're unsure which one to choose, ask your web design company to quote for both scenarios so you can way up the costs a make a decision that suits your business’s needs.

4. Choose a 'web design company'

If you are serious about your business, then choose a company that specialises in 'web' design.

Don't leave it up to your geeky 16 year old nephew who offers to design your page as his year 11 Design Studies project!! This will of course be the cheapest option, but will not cut it in today's Internet market.  10 years ago, you could get away with an average or second-rate website, but now it is detrimental to your business and it is probably better not having a website at all, as a sub-standard website can seriously damage the image of your brand or services.

Although graphic designers are a great place to start, they generally are not great at web design. It is a different medium and a specialised field that they are not normally trained in. In the event that you use a regular graphic designer and are considering them to design your page, always check the websites they have already built (if any) and check that they know the fundamentals of web development: html, css, databases and programming languages like java and php.

I am not suggesting that your web designer should know all the programming languages in the world  (that is for web developers and software engineers!), however it is essential that they have a comprehension of the web tools available to them as it will change the way they design a website. For example, graphic designers generally do not understand the concept of screen sizes and then design sites based around their own screen and may miss simple elements like the ability to scroll down the page. Scrolling down the page is an essential part of a website structure. Need proof? All the largest website in the world use scrolling and we all use them everyday -  facebook, youtube, google, yahoo, bing, ebay, amazon and wikipedia to name a few .

Conversely, don't ask a programmer or web developer to design your website. Developers are an interesting bunch - generally highly intelligent but not fantastic at communication. They often also have a fundamental flaw - they are not creative in an artistic sense. The knowhow and gumption needed to write code, generally does not go hand in hand with a sense of style, colour or artistry. They may deliver a great usable, working website, but it will not look fantastic or communicate effectively.

Having said this, a good web designer is always backed by a good web developer.

5. Who is doing the work?

If you hire a company to design your site, be sure you know who will be working on your all aspects of the design and build. Be careful when dealing with advertising agencies or companies that outsource their web design. Although they may say on their business cards that they do web design, they end up sending the job to a designer like me and putting a huge mark-up on it for acting as the middle-man.

Also, ensure your web designer is age appropriate. If somebody is in their 50's and telling you how they have been designing sites for 40 years - they are lying!! Web design has only been around for 10 years and is a relatively new industry. Look for young, exciting designers, not someone who used to design layouts for the newspaper as it requires a very different skill set.

Part 2 of this article will be coming soon! It will cover marketing, budget, briefs and social networks. Watch this space!