Your web page is your internet business' front to the world, and the impression it makes is what will make or break your business. There's been an awful lot of design thought put into making web sites more attractive, some good - some bad. Here are a few Web Marketing Strategies we've learned since the web first started going commercial in 1993.



In addition to the colors being consistent, the theme and layout should also remain the same throughout the site. This is part of your image and you want it to be consistent.

Building off of a consistent color scheme, make sure the theme and layout are consistent throughout your site. It's a part of your image, and it's a part of what people will remember about your site. Put the navigational tools in the same place on every page, and consider using server side includes to make sure that they're present on all pages.

OK, now that we've de-cluttered the site, let's look at navigability. Most readers won't scroll past the third screen full of text. So if it's going to be important, put it on top. Use the journalist "inverted pyramid" and start with the most important information at the top and work your way down to the minutia at the bottom. While you're at it, make sure your lovingly search engine optimized content isn't written as gibberish for web spiders, but still makes sense to human beings.

Your theme choice and color scheme will compensate for missing out on the snazzy gee whiz options. It will do you more good in the long run to focus on the message, on the content, within a decent framework that won't cause your readers to stick their eye out with a fork.

In the interests of making your site more easily maintained, use a content management system to control assets; use Cascading Style Sheets (well, the subset that are implemented properly in both IE 7 and Firefox) to keep your formatting separate from your content. That way, if you need to tweak the design, you do so in one file, rather than in 300.

While you're investigating what your site is going to look like, remember that people read at 400 words per minute; they listen at 100 words per minute. Keep this in mind when putting content out - anything that has to be clicked on and listened to is an invitation to use the back button.

Maximize your audience potential. Focus on clarity of communication above all else, and focus on human readable web pages. A lot of internet sites focus on Search Engine Optimization to the extent that while web spiders get lured in, human readers hit the back button fast. It's your information that's pulling people in and making them read the site. Cater to that. Lastly, update, update, update. Remember the mention of a content management system? The purpose of that is to make sure that you can update the site painlessly and easily, and give people a reason to come back. Always be on the look out for a new informational value add for your site which is one of the top web marketing strategies.