Factors to take into account when having your site developed . . .

Aesthetic Appeal
The overall look of your website including colour combinations, proportional spacing, crispness of graphics and visual impact.

Speed
How long your website takes to load. This could be affected by how well your site is optimised , your graphics, animation and sound and the web host that you chose.

Navigation & User Friendliness
How easy it is to find the buttons and get around the site, whether the layout is logical and if there is continuity between pages.

Cross-Browser Effectiveness
Your site should look good on Internet Explorer and decent on Firefox, because according to the W3C IE is the most used browser, with Firefox coming in second.   

Maintaining and refreshing your site
The ease of  revising and maintaining your website online is probably one of the most important factors to consider when choosing your  web developer.

Keep your pages short.
If you minimize the scrolling, chances are, your readers will get your message. A good screen size is 640 pixels wide by 480 tall.

Use tables of contents.
According to Jakob Nielsen only 10% of users will scroll beyond the first screen of text. If that first screen has a table of contents viewers will click on the links to the explanatory text.

Keep images small.
Large images annoy people. If it takes too long to download, many people will never see it, as they will have browsed somewhere.

Use Web colors.
The browser-safe color palette will ensure that most people will see your page and images in the colors you intended.

Avoid lots of text.
People don't read the Web, they skim it.

Check your spelling.
Use a spell checker, either in your editor or on-line.

Keep links current.
Check your links often to make sure they are still valid. Using a link checker speeds up pages with many links.

Annotate your links.
If a page is good enough to link to, then it's good enough to explain why you like it.

Put contact information on your pages.
The Web is interactive and dynamic, and you should welcome comments on your pages. Also, if there is a broken link or other problem, your readers can let you know, easily.