We've got a website design company coming in to see us tomorrow at 10.00am to talk about re-doing the web-site for the company I work for.

Any tips on what to look for and ask them?

I guess checking out examples of their other web-sites is a good start, but can anyone give some tips to a non IT person like me as to what technical things I could question them on.

How do I find out how good they are at getting it appearing at the top of search engine lists.

Is there any particular software / programming language that they should use? Or should avoid?

What stats should I expect on number of hits / locations etc?

Is it a good idea to have at least some part of the site that we can update ourselves in future (eg press releases etc)

Just to put this into perspective, I work for an engineering company, suppying predominantly to the paper industry. The majority of potential customers are non-UK based. We don't sell anything direct to the general public, so don't need an online shop etc.

This might not be of much use, but............

We email over our news or updates to our email designers and they update our site very quickly.

Fancy graphics isnt the best type of layout as google and other search engines only search text so embedded logo's names, pictures cannot be searched.

They should give you an account log on to you web hosts so you can check your hits to see what words, pages are being seen, searched the most.

Our website Starlock Push On Fasteners from Baker and Finnemore is now nearly at the top on google when searching for our products, this has come from a redesigned web site and identifying keys words that will be search when people are looking for products your company provides.

We use Website Design Sheffield Chesterfield South Yorkshire Web Site Designers Sheffield Website Design Chesterfield for our web design and soon to be web hosts. They are a husband and wife setup and you get the one 2 one on everything from them. A really nice couple and they know there stuff. Worth a call if you havent chosen your web designers yet.

Sorry if i rabbled a bit, hope all goes well tommorrow.

We've got a website design company coming in to see us tomorrow at 10.00am to talk about re-doing the web-site for the company I work for.

Any tips on what to look for and ask them?

I guess checking out examples of their other web-sites is a good start, but can anyone give some tips to a non IT person like me as to what technical things I could question them on.

How do I find out how good they are at getting it appearing at the top of search engine lists.

Is there any particular software / programming language that they should use? Or should avoid?

What stats should I expect on number of hits / locations etc?

Is it a good idea to have at least some part of the site that we can update ourselves in future (eg press releases etc)

Just to put this into perspective, I work for an engineering company, suppying predominantly to the paper industry. The majority of potential customers are non-UK based. We don't sell anything direct to the general public, so don't need an online shop etc.

Let me know what they suggest, I can offer an impartial and less impartial view depending on what hat I wear; bearing in mind I do the above for a hobby and the less impartial view a living as part of a team.

Your list of items is not quite a how long is a piece of string, but it's not far off, for the discussion we could have.

Suffice to say I don't want to know who they are, just what they try and sell.

There are only three types of website, info, e-commerce and vanity, you've already identified your mainly an info site. It's not a big project, but with seo, language and accessibilty it's enough to be cautious; avoid flash for more than one objective you've mentioned.

I'd also be looking to give you near full control of your site, that way if you need to release news, you can and not wait on me to get into the office etc.

Hope that helps.

Make sure they are experienced and have a proven track record - ask for online examples of their work - there are lots of novices with degrees in IT who can't get jobs at a decent level and see Web design as a part time easy money option.

Check up other websites by them search on google for those sites using keywords you would use as a customer looking for thhose companies products. Dont just go with keywords suggested by the designers. Your site needs to be findable by someone not looking for you specifically but for your products or services.

Look for results not sales pitch. Any good designer will have an "eye" for what looks good, they should be able to design an interface to suit your business rather than fitting your site to their style. When they make a decision based on good design principles they shouldnt have to argue a point it should be obvious as soon as you see it that its a good idea. For me personally though there are always lots of small design decisions that made all the difference between an ok site and a great looking site that could be a difference of a few pixels here and there that an untrained eye wouldnt pick up, but overall just made a polished looking site. I had my personal preferences for what I liked in design, lots of white, uncluttered, clean and simple, but that simply wasnt suitable for every site. I Personally feel the google homepage is a triumph of design so much power so little clutter..

When it comes to website design I had to create interfaces as varied as hotels catering to the bucket and spade holiday crowd, antiques shops, and a database design company. All of whom needed a very different look. This was a good few years ago back when many "web designers" were creating template sites where you changed the colourscheme and copied and pasted the text and dropped in the logos....

I havent been active in website design for about 5 years now ... Time flies, I ditched website design about the time broadband started taking off, my main interest was in innovating to give the customers a really outstanding site, I could do a lot with dialup connections that really made sites stand out but when broadband became popular a lot of what I offered could be done easier with off the shelf software and I didnt want to be reduced to doing "brochures on the web"

Bizarrely enough I had 5 years of web design experience when I quit which is more than many out there plying the trade today . I was designing websites for mosaic and was handcoding html long before microsoft started making bloated html producing software.

You need to get along with the designer themselves for things to work well in my opinion. You will get a better result from someone whos working with a positive frame of mind rather than just someone whos looking for the payday. Look for a designer whos asking lots about you and your company, they are trying to build up an idea of what you need who your customers are and how they should target the site, if they are just talking about what they do they probably wont be so good at designing to suit your needs.

Of course Ive been out of it for 5 years, the world moves fast and the way designers work will have changed, I cant offer much advice on the technical side anymore. I dont think though that design itself has changed much as theres still a couple of guys who come to me for design ideas and advice from time to time and tend to go away happy .

I would imagine theres still people out there who are only able to make a living because they have the technical ability to make websites and their customers dont rather than because they have any real design abilities.