Web site designers are popping up everywhere and they have a wide-variety of expertise and pricing.
A business' web site needs vary greatly:
Not-for-profit web sites are typically treated as an advertising tool. The website is just one arm of a company's advertising plan, thus it must be carefully integrated with all the other aspects (ex. brochures, business cards, TV and magazine ads) of a company's advertising. As a result, it is important to include graphic design, marketing/advertising design, web page design, and search engine ranking design elements. All of these elements need to be described for the initial implementation and in terms of web site maintenance over time.
Store-front web sites need to consider all the elements of a not-for-profit web site, but also need to consider:
Granted websites are an outstanding way to measure what customers are interested in. However the cost of developing and maintaining a website must be kept in perspective. One way to accomplish this is through a multi-phase design that starts with a simple web site and evolves over time as a web site demonstrates its worth.
Web-based applications are sophisticated web implementations that require special expertise that can develop interactive elements of a web page that provides outstanding work flow. Basic web page elements are not sufficient to meet ease-of-use requirements (ex. a drop-down box that only allows you enter the first character before having to use the arrow keys doesn't work well for a list of 3000 entries).
When looking to have a website or web-application developed, make sure you select a developer that has the set of expertise required to make it a short and long term success for your business.