Like in any situation you only get one chance to make a good first impression, and the same goes for your web site. The only difference is that a date can last all evening, but you only have seconds and I mean seconds to grab a person who is visiting your website's attention before they are gone. Now there are a lot of statistics out there and most of them say you have anywhere from 4 - 10 seconds to give someone the information they are looking for before they go look somewhere else. 4 - 10 seconds! That's not even an elevator speech, which is why it is so critical that you have a great looking, easy to use web site.

I ran across this the other day, and although I didn't write it, I think it really covers the 15 Key Elements All Top Web Sites Should Have. Now, these were written for freelance web designers, but I think that it is important for you to know as well especially when trying to choose a web designer or web design company. If you want to read more about each of these please visit http://freelancefolder.com/15-top-site-elements/

1. Good Visual Design - First things first… Visual design. I don’t know about you, but if I go to a web site that is not visually pleasing, it is a quick turn off.
2. Thoughtful User Interface - Along with good design comes a good user interface. The user interface is the foundation of any good functional web site. When designing a site, you’ll need to take into consideration your average user. Who is going to be visiting your web site — who is your ideal customer? Are they tech-savy? Are they computer illiterate?
3. Primary Navigation Above The Fold - Part of having an easy to navigate web site is ensuring that the primary means of navigation — links to the key areas of your site — are kept above the fold. With today’s large computer monitors and growing screen resolutions “above the fold” is generally considered to be within the top 500-600 pixels of your site design.
4. Repeat Navigation In The Footer - If you use images (or even flash) for your main navigation, it’s especially important to offer a duplicate set of navigation links in your footer. Even if you use text links at the top, the duplication is still helpful. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find the content they are looking for on your site.
5. Meaningful Content - You know the saying… “Content is King” — you might have a pretty web site which will catch someone’s eye, but if the content is no good, you can be willing to bet that they aren’t going to stick around.
6. A Solid About Page - Among the top 10 most popular pages of my own site (after the home page, blog, 3 specific blog posts and my portfolio) is the About page. I have more clicks to my about page than to my services or portfolio pages, if you can believe that!
7. Contact Information - Nothing can turn off a prospective client more than not being able to find a way to contact you. If they’re interested in your services, and can’t find a simple contact page with a way to get in touch and hire you they’re going to end up going over to the competition.
8. Search - If you have a large web site or blog, having a search field is incredibly helpful, as well. There’s nothing like wading through hundreds of pages to find specific content without a search feature. If a potential customer can’t find something easily on your site, but Joe Designer over there does… odds are they are going to go with Joe whose content is easy to search through.
9. Newsletter Sign-Up / Subscribe RSS Subscription - If your web site offers content on a consistent basis — such as with a blog — you’ll want to make it as easy as possible for people to sign up for updates.
10. Sitemap - There are two kinds of sitemaps – one for humans and one for the search engines. An html (or php, etc.) sitemap meant for visitors to your site can be an invaluable tool for finding just what they are looking for.
11. Separate Design from Content - Long gone are the days of using html tables for layout and design. The best developed sites use a combination of XHTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which create a separation of design vs content.
12. Valid XHTML / CSS - It’s not just enough to develop your site using XHTML and CSS, though. It has to be accurate code. Two invaluable tools for checking your source code are offered by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
13. Cross Browser Compatibility - Although you might live and breathe inside Firefox, your client may not. There’s a good chance your client is using Internet Explorer. Unfortunately there’s an even better chance they’re using Internet Explorer 6 (please don’t get me started on this issue – lets just say I know I’m not the only web developer who wishes this browser will simply GO AWAY!)
14. Web Optimized Images - When designing for the web, it’s important that you save all your images in a compressed format. Not too much that your images become pixelated, but as much as possible while retaining quality.
15. Statistics, Tracking and Analytics - Although this element is behind the scenes and not one you’re likely to know about as the web visitor — as a web site owner it is crucial, if not down-right addictive!

I guess my point is be very careful when you choose a web design company and make sure that you like the designs that they do before choosing a web design company, and be careful when using some of those systems that allow you to build you own web site because chances are they are not following all the recommended guidelines and most of the time those designs are plain, boring, and there are probably hundreds of them out there just like it.