There are many different website design companies, offering different facilities such as flash design, however what should a small business look for when seeking an internet prescence?

When choosing which company you would like to build your website, there are many factors which you need to take into consideration.

Firstly how much is the website going to cost to build and host. We all have different budgets, however there are some very good deals to get, if you are willing to search around.

When choosing a company it is important to look at their portfolio, this will give you a good insight into the type of work they do.

Most web desgn firms will offer additional services such as optimisation, website promotion and may also submit your website to the search engines.

For me the website they have created for you should be fully optimised anyway and I would also expect the web design firm should submit the site to the search engines as a matter of course. It is always worth asking to make sure.

It is always worth asking the company to add a link to your website, preferably from their homepage, as the more backward links you have, the higher page rank you will eventually obtain. The higher the page rank, the more visitors you are likely to obtain.

If you want to promote the website even further, google adwords is a favourite of mine. This is where you pay per click to your website and your advert is likely to appear in the first or second page of the results, on the right hand side.

You can also write articles, like the one I am here. This will potentially obtain you even more additional links and visitors.

These are the websites I advise you to submit your articles to:

http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.searchwarp.com
http://www.goarticles.com

Stephen Hill has a number of websites, examples are http://www.impotence-male.co.uk and http://www.free-self-hypnosis.co.uk