The design of your business website is the first face that you will present to your online visitors and customers, and first impressions are extremely important. Customers will quickly make a judgement about how professional, trustworthy and efficient you are, based on the quality of your website. This may seem unreasonable if yours is a plumbing or floristry business, but it is nevertheless the case, so it is imperative that you offer the right "handshake" to your customers by presenting a businesslike website, even if your company is very small and running out of your garden shed! Your customers can use your website to order products and services, find your contact details, investigate and compare prices, and learn more about what your business has to offer. The vast majority of web browsing activity is for "research purposes", so you need to make sure that you are not notable by your absence online.

Professional web design is far from cheap, however. Paying for a large design company to produce your site may not be an option, especially if you are a small business or are just starting out. There are several cheaper options available if you think that this sort of design outreaches your budget.

You can produce the website yourself using Dreamweaver or a similar site design software package. This option is only recommended if you have a reasonable knowledge of site design in html or some other suitable programming language. Whilst most of these packages offer a WYSIWYG option, sites designed using this interface will usually be limited and the design will suffer as a result, particularly in the fields of fast page loading, multiple browser compatibility and navigation. Unfortunately, these are some of the most important factors which will determine whether your customers stay or go. Also, you will need to have some pretty good design skills; there is much more to website design than you might think, so unless you have some experience, it could be a lot of wasted effort and will cost you sales. Therefore unless you have the ability to produce your website using html or similar, and have some experience in web design, building your site yourself is probably not an option.

Another option is to buy a template online, or even to use a free one. These are customisable to a certain extent, and if your website is just going to be a "business card" page, displaying your contact details, a short biography, and little else, one of these may be all you need. If you need a more complex site with ecommerce features, however, templates are probably not appropriate. Bear in mind also that you will be sharing the design with others.

Many freelance web designers put complete website designs up for sale on eBay, Etsy, and other online shopping sites. These can be very cost-effective options, but make sure you know exactly what you're getting and that the seller is willing to give you at least a bit of support in setting up your site. Alternatively, you can rely on the goodwill of helpful people on forums and the like to offer you advice on this. People are usually only too willing to give you information and tips.

Freelance designers can often be a cheaper option than large design organisations with dozens of large company commissions on their records. Freelancers can be just as talented as the designers belonging to big design firms. Freelancers in the US, the UK and Australia might not be much cheaper, although it depends where you look, but there are many freelancers in India and China who will be willing to build your site at a knock-down price. Be careful that language barriers will not be a problem, and make sure that the designer can complete your site to deadline and that they are reasonably reliable. Ask them for links to other sites they have designed, and contact the webmasters of these sites for references.

In short, a good-quality 4-6 page website shouldn't cost you more than a few hundred pounds. Any more than this, and you are really paying for the credentials of the design company, not the individual designer who is working on your site. Shop around, ask questions, and hopefully you will be able to find an option that is within your budget but also presents the professional and businesslike first impression that you need to win visitors and sales.

By Natalie Catchpole

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