Did you just look at your website and think 'damn that needs a facelift'? Or did you hear from someone else? A friend, family or even worse a customer, client or consumer? If you have heard this from a customer then you have issues that need to be addressed. Obviously don't jump the gun here if one person has said it then you may have nothing to worry about, however if a number of consumers are bringing up the same issues then you have a cause for concern. Remember it's not just about how the site looks it's about how it functions aswell because a poorly functioning site can destroy a users experience on a site.

Let's take it now as if you have decided to have a new site built. Well there are a myriad of options available to get the site you want and in the first case you may consider designing and building the site yourself. It is advisable to leave this to the professionals attempting to do this yourself will only cause you stress, time and money to be lost especially if you get things wrong. Another option is to have a friend, family member, a student or your niece's dog's best friend do it for you that lives down the road. Seriously this is not a good idea at all and it is always best to avoid the puss filled student that looks like he is going to explode in any minute.

Professional web design companies can offer a myriad of technical expertise while keeping the creativity your website craves. For example a typical web company will have experts in the following fields:

• Web design
• Web development
• 3D work
• Animation / motion graphics
• Search engine optimisation
• Logo design

A number of companies out there can also offer you a cheap web design solution depending on your requirement, essentially the more bells and whistle you require the less you can expect your project to be a cheap web design. In almost all cases it is advisable to use professional web companies to ensure you get the perfect website, however before approaching them you need to do your research and know what you want so the project at least has some direction. The first place to start is to look at your competitor's site and take note of:

• Trends in the design of the sites
• Calls to action
• Usability
• Function
• Navigation
• Readability
• Your own likes and dislikes

The biggest thing to consider here is what your consumers would like but also expect with your site. For example if you are an electrician then you should have your accreditations clearly on the homepage to ensure that potential customers know you are competently trained to do the job from the outset.

A quick tip I would like to offer is to avoid web based content management solution as you lose a lot of flexibility that you would have with hosting your website solution.