Having a website created for your business is almost essential these days.  It's almost inconceivable that someone would be in business today without one since a website can be such a powerful part of your business marketing and sales process.  That being the case, before you decide to hire a web designer or web design company, there are some key questions every small business owner should ask.

1. Do they have online marketing experience?

You definitely want to work with someone with experience selling products and services online.  I've met too many web designer with minimal, if any, online marketing savvy and that's just going to cost you down the road.  Simple things like having an checkout process with minimal steps or having a call-to-action on each page should be something your web designer knows in their sleep.  Otherwise, you might end up with a beautiful website that doesn't help you make any sales.

2. Do they offer any elements specifically designed to help you make more money?  Which ones and how?

Speaking of that first item above, does your web designer offer anything that's specifically tailored to help you get more sales?  That could be something as simple as adding an email marketing campaign to follow-up with website visitors, a prominent call-to-action on each page, testimonials from happy customers, or photos of people using your product or enjoying the results of your service.

3. Will the site be easy for you to manage?

The last thing you want to do is end up with a website where you have to play "Mother may I" with your web designer every time you want to add something to your site or make a simple change.  Be sure your website will be easy for you to manage, at least for basic stuff.  Otherwise, you'll end up being nickled and dimed every time you need a change made or you'll have to wait longer than you want for those changes to happen.

4. Will the site be in HTML, Flash or a combination?  What do they see as the main differences?

You definitely want the site to be in HTML, not Flash.  This is a search engine optimization issue, since flash sites still aren't as easy to rank in the search engines.  If you're not planning on getting a lot of search engine traffic to your site, then this doesn't matter so much.  But otherwise, you want HTML, or at most, a combination of the two, with the flash elements being something like a simple banner or other graphic.  Just not the whole site.

5. Will the site be search engine friendly?  Why is that so?

Everyone is going to tell you their sites are search engine friendly.  The good news is that most sites are.  But search engine friendly can just mean that the search engines will be able to index the site, not that the site will rank well for keywords that will bring you visitors.  So be sure to ask "why" the site is search engine friendly.

Hint: If they don't do any keyword research to find out what terms people are using to search for what you offer, it's probably not going to get you much traffic.  If they do offer that sort of research, you've found a winner.

6. Will you own the website and all content and be able to move it to any webhost you choose?

Don't get locked into some deal where you have to stay with some company forever to keep your site online.  I've seen plenty of real estate agents and investors buy these type of "all in one" packages and is really stinks when you get sick of paying the fee and are forced to lose your site.  If you pay for a site, you should own it and be able to move your files anywhere online that will provide you with web hosting.  You shouldn't be tied to your web designer or the company you bought the website from.

That being said, if your web designer or company is offering you good service at a reasonable price, it might be best to stay put.  There are a lot of BAD web hosting companies out there that can be true pain to deal with, with unreliable service, poor uptime and other headaches.