Whatever business you're in, it's essential to have a presence on the World Wide Web. Your business web site moves your company into the global economy and provides your customers or industry with the information and service that they're seeking. Without a web site, a business loses its competitive edge; many potential clients either search the Web when seeking a company with which to do business, or review a company's web site prior to making their final selection. Although a Web presence is essential, few companies have the in-house expertise necessary to undertake web site design or web hosting. Unless a company is heavily into e-commerce, it typically doesn't have technical personnel on staff. As a result, businesses must contract out services ranging from registering a domain name to web site design to web hosting. When doing so, it's crucial that companies look to providers that have a proven track record. Otherwise, they run the danger of either having an inferior web site design or paying exorbitant prices for custom web design. When choosing a company to develop your web site, it's important that they deliver the highest possible quality at the lowest possible price. Here are some tips for finding a quality web site design service: * Ask friends and colleagues for recommendations. * Surf the Web to find web site designs that appeal to you and that would work for the information you wish to convey on your own web site. Web sites often note the design firm's name and contact information. * Look for a company that does web site design by writing the code themselves, rather than using template design software programs. Your site will have a more unique

look and the code will be cleaner, making it easier for search engines to crawl your site. * Use a company that can provide web hosting. A good web hosting company will not only register your domain name, but will also provide an online file service where customers can share file folders or use the space as an offsite backup for their critical data. This feature should have an easy-to-use web interface. * Use a company that can provide an SSL certificate and encryption for security of your company's data and peace of mind for your customers or clients. * Look for a company that provides low-cost or no-cost customer support, preferably with U.S.-based customer support representatives. Although support staff in other countries may have the technical knowledge to solve your web site's problems, language barriers sometimes make the process cumbersome and frustrating. * The company you choose should also be able to set up email accounts for you and your staff using your company's domain name. They should also be able to host your email accounts on their servers.

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