That is amazing that so recently companies that touted themselves as web development companies didn’t even have web sites themselves! It just goes to show that too many industries have companies that hang out a shingle without core competence. Scary.

Along the same lines of what you say in your comment, and along the lines of #10- clients expect you to have a website! EVERYONE needs to remember that while you may get an offline referral, the first thing that potential client is going to do is look you up online. If you think that’s not the case, you may be an ostrich and not a human because you’re burying your head in the sand.

From that list I tried typing in the name of the agency in the web browser i.e. http://www.agencyname.com. Failing that, I would try Google (first page of results only). That exercise whittled the list down to less than a 100.

The next iteration was to visit each web site and see if 1- they offered web site design; 2- they offered web site examples. You would be surprised at the number that said they did web sites, but offered no examples (or only a static image of a site). That was the next cut, which I believe took it down to less than 25 agencies.

Isn’t that sad? First, out of 250-300 companies I could easily only find web sites for less than a 100. That told me they either didn’t have a web site or they had one but had no idea of the impact of search engine placement (which went to credibility). And of the group of 100 only about 25 offered examples of there work. I’m sure the numbers are much better today, but the point of this long winded comment is that 1- you don’t know how a potential customer may be searching for company in your line of service; 2- having a web site can make a big difference in whether you have customers or not.

BTW, we ended up sending RFPs to eleven agencies, got seven back and interviewed I believe four or five. It was an interesting process to say the least.