The search engine experts will tell you that the best web sites provide the content to the search engines of the top of the page followed by links and other content . This normally means that the best position for a menu is on the right hand side. However by using CSS (cascading style sheets) it is possible to block the content so that you can position the content blocks for search engines at the beginning of the code for the page and show it in the middle or to the right as you wish. So with this in mind we will look at the most suitable choice of design for your website

The majority of web sites come in three different formats. They are one column, two column or three column web sites. The choice of each should be dictated by the amount of information which needs to be shown .

Then there's the size of the displayable web page. We have to take into account monitor size. Four years ago 35% of monitors were 15? monitors allowing of viewable width all of 800pixels which everyone designed for. Actually 760px so that a horizontal scroll bar were not appear underneath. Times change and now we have to consider widescreen monitors and legacy monitors. Again the decision needs to be made dependent on what information is to be displayed. If there's not much information to show then a single column fixed width 760pixel page would suffice . if a lot of information is on the page a three columns system which fits to the size of the screen would be ideal.

When we have decided which type of layout to use we can then elaborate on the style of the header. The header should not be to large in height as this pushes the relevant information down the page . There is an expression called ?above the fold? and this is what you can actually see on the screen when you open up a web page. You want your user to see your relevant content so be in mind of the height of your header. The heading is where the initial focus of the site is found, so combining good imagery with a strong company logo you should be on to and a winner.

Now comes the detail. We have initially decided on a clean layout, so a large block like images are out. The images should be relevant to the content and should guide the user to read or in the case of shopping carts guide the user to click on a product. Borders on the images are often nice And simple single line borders can keep images looking uniform unless of course a white background brings out the best in that image.

With detail in mind menu buttons which are mostly text but have a nice design to stand

out increase the affordance that they are menu buttons. Content separators can be a stylish a way to separate text. Text headings can be made a little more elaborate to focus on what the content is about. Small touches like read more buttons, go back buttons and search buttons, really do add to the clean effect of the web site if they complement the overall colour scheme, not too dramatically but sensibly.