What will the Web site be used for 4. Although these features are nice and even necessary, it's far more important to carefully think and plan about your Web site, before you even touch a mouse. Either way, solicit the advice of your intended audience as you think of creating your Web site. You may being trying to put in some fancy live chat feature and they could care less about it. Also - how technically savvy are they.
Web site is chock full of information and is perfectly designed for geek self starters.
This is a cousin to my first point above. If your audience is not using fast cable or DSL Internet connections, you DO NOT want to put some fat, slow downloading graphic image on the first page of your Web site. If you're selling clothing and graphics are important - then put smaller thumb nail images, with the option for users to view larger images if they want. This question is probably one of the most important questions to ask. Of course great customer service, just as if they walked into a retail store is equally important.