“Specifications and costs can vary enormously from one provider to another, and often the most essential basic functions will be described as if they were an option,” he says.

“Accessibility is the key to a successful site. If browsers cannot access your site, it will be a complete waste of money and will be detrimental to your business instead of an essential part of your marketing. In order to check out the ability of the providers you are considering, it would be worthwhile to test them on the following areas. Whilst this is not a comprehensive list, it will provide insight into the experience and capability of the provider.

• Can the site can be displayed properly in Firefox and Safari? Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari web browsers are both taking market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer and a well programmed website should accommodate them.
• Will the site conform to W3C standards? The UK and Ireland W3C Office (W3C-UK) is the national contact point for W3C activities in the UK and Ireland and it sets standards for the accessibility of websites. _ Will the site fit into all monitor windows? Monitor sizes vary so the site must be designed to suit all sizes if it is to be viewed properly.
• How quickly will the site download? Visitors simply will not wait for slow sites – the speed is down to the quality of coding and also by having the knowledge to design around the limitations of the internet. This needs to be decided at the visual stage, which is why designers and programmers need to work as a team.
• Is the information on the site scalable for those with visual impairment? This is essential and should not be considered as a chargeable extra.
• Will the site be optimised as it is built? Optimisation is often presented as an expensive additional service which can be provided once the site is live. An experienced programmer will instead build the site so that it is search engine friendly from the outset. This involves meta tags, titles in header areas and alt tags on images. This should come as standard. The site text should also be written with search engines in mind in order to achieve high ranking. Additional optimisation can be added by researching the most commonly used keywords and phrases and ensuring that these are used appropriately.
• Will I be able to edit the content of the site myself? Content managed areas can be added to websites easily and inexpensively by an experienced programmer. This will remove the need for expensive ongoing site maintenance and give you control over your site. Maintenance fees are a thing of the past and hosting should cost no more than £50 a year for a corporate site or around £200 a year for an on-line shop.
• Will the site be aesthetically pleasing? The internet offers endless opportunities for creativity - make sure that any proposed design is as visually stunning as it is functional and you will have no shortage of visitors.

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