A: That's a good point. Some businesses probably don't need to be online. But if you advertise in the Yellow Pages, you should probably have a website as well. Why? Because more and more consumers are using their internet access to research companies before even picking up the phone. A well-designed, informative web site can make the difference between getting that first call, and losing it to a competitor who does have a good web site.

A: Anyone who already has a website knows how difficult it is to get their site to rank high in the search engines. There are numerous techniques for trying to get higher search engine positioning, but since everyone uses them, they are practically useless. Aside from paying for top billing, one of the best ways to rank high is through longevity. Sites that have been on the internet for a long time already have a good foothold. The costs for maintaining a basic website are very low... far cheaper than placing print ads and directory listings. There's no reason to wait.

A: We will optimize your site so that the search engines will be able to see it and rank it, and we will give you advice about what to include in your content to make sure the search engines pick up the right key words. If your business depends on having a high ranking in the major search engines, we can refer you to an internet marketing company that specializes in this highly technical and constantly changing process. We've seen them move one of our clients from showing up farther back than the tenth page, to showing up on the first page.

A: Although the web is our specialty, we sometimes design brochures and things for our clients. We also have a little fun creating t-shirt designs, although we don't find as much time to do this as we would like. Our t-shirt shops are at CafePress, and if we design your logo, we can create a CafePress shop for you.

A: Don't necessarily hire somebody just because they have a degree or a certificate. Our designer does have a degree in Graphic Design Technology, but it's the experience that really matters.

The best way to see if a designer is right for you is to look at their portfolio. If a designer does not have a page that lists links to other sites they've built, you have to wonder why not. Don't they have any experience? Are the sites ugly? Full of errors and dead links? Does it open too slowly?

A: Your neighbor's kid knows how to build websites. Why should you pay somebody if he can do it for free? Good point. Take a good look at this person's site. Is it well done and easy to navigate? Is there a minimum of goofy animated gifs? Is the layout easy on the eye? Does he have access to stock photography and clipart that's royalty-free so you won't get hit with a copyright infringement suit? Does he understand optimization so that your website doesn't open way too slowly and the search engines can rank it based on the textual content?

The truth is, there are a lot of easy-to-use website building programs out there, and if you can design your own site and be happy with the look, you should go for it. But if you need something that looks more professional and has better interactivity and no dead links and slow-downloading or missing images, you should probably go with an experienced web designer.

A: There is no standard, which you've probably noticed if you've compared prices. Some design companies charge more because they have a large staff of experts in each area of web design, and they probably deserve every dime they charge.

However, there are also plenty of companies out there who charge a lot just because they can get away with it. And we've seen a few who charge around the same prices we do, but they obviously have no idea what they're doing. (The site may look good to the inexperienced eye, but there are countless little problems with optimization and accessibility that only an experienced web designer could point out to you.)

Many companies don't list their design prices at all, insisting that you contact them for a quote. But we do list prices for a basic web design so that you can get an idea of what a site will cost you. (Click here for our prices.) We can't understand why so many designers decline to list their prices. Maybe they're afraid people won't be interested if the price seems too high. We would prefer that potential clients know what to expect before they even go to the trouble of contacting us. That way, nobody's disappointed.

A: If you need a huge, complicated site, Riotta.Com might not be right for you. We've built some pretty big ones, but obviously nothing like Amazon.Com. Browse through our portfolio and see what we've done for other clients. If you're not sure, just ask us and we'll give you an honest answer if it's something we can't do.

If you require plenty of face-to-face communication rather than conducting business via email and phone calls, you'll be more comfortable with a conventional design firm. We keep our web design prices low by having a low overhead: We don't have to pay office rent, and we don't have to factor into our prices the time spent traveling to and from meetings with clients.