is not strictly about design, the Web is about Marketing! Or rather, the Web is about the intersection between the goals of your business and the needs of your customers and clients. The Web is about information, not entertainment. It's about results, not awards. The Web is not just about creativity as much as it's about communicating with those whose needs you must satisfy in order to succeed.

A Web site that looks great but is vague and unclear about what it is trying to convey to the visitor is not very effective. Before one graphic is created on a Web site, you need to define who your target audience is and define what their needs are. A Web site is a coupling of the goals of the business and the needs of the visitors. The focus of the site becomes the satisfaction of both the goals and the needs. This is basic Marketing 101 Strategy, and it is just as true on the Web as any other form of media.

Web sites which offer impressive graphics naturally attract and retain Web "surfers", especially since there are many poorly designed Web sites on the Internet. You need a good graphics designer who can create graphics which will portray your company's "image" as effectively as possible. One which will bring out the warmth and feel of your place of business.

Since the cost of creating a good Web site can be quite reasonable, when compared with other forms of advertising, there is no reason not to provide plenty of useful information about the products and services customers are considering buying. Studies show that people choose information 76% of the time they access a Web site. Satisfy this desire for information and you will create more sales.

Web sites require careful link architecture and at every page, Web site visitors have to know what their options are. If your visitors can't locate easily the information they desire, they will quickly move on - even if the information is really there! Don't make visitors to your Web site puzzle out the meaning of the icons and graphic links employed at your site. Icons and graphics can add visual interest, but they may also add confusion.

If you are hoping that Web visitors will come back again and again, you should update the information on your Web site frequently. A "What's New" page or a "tip of the month" section provides a reason for Web visitors to bookmark your site and return. The more they visit, the more they will receive your message.

A good Web site is more than just an electronic version of your company catalog or brochure, visitors are interested in ways of becoming involved with the material you provide. An on-line order form, an interactive discussion about a related issue, or some other way to interact with your material is essential.

Most Web surfers access the Internet through a modem, which receives data at a limited rate. Web sites which contain large graphics and special effects often consume large amounts of data and take a long time to load onto a Web user's computer. In order to have a visually appealing Web site which also loads quickly, you should use techniques to minimize and optimize the size of your Web files without sacrificing their quality.