There are basic rules to designing any successful marketing program, regardless of whether it’s a web site, advertising, a printed brochure or an electronic newsletter. 

A professionally designed site should be:

• Easy to read
• Easy to navigate
• Easy to find, and
• Your web page layout and design should be consistent throughout the site
• Your web site should be quick to download

Your web site should be easy to read

One of the most important rules in web design is that your web site must be easy to read. This needs careful research and skillful text writing. Your web site designer should choose text and background colors very carefully to appeal to the target audience.  You don't want to use backgrounds that obscure your text or use colors that are hard to read. Dark-colored text on a light-colored background is easier to read than light-colored text on a dark-colored background.

In addition, you don't want to set your text size too small (hard to read) or too large (it will appear to shout at your visitors). All capitalized letters give the appearance of shouting at your visitors.

Keep the alignment of your main text to the left, not centered. Center-aligned text is best used in headlines. You want your visitors to be comfortable with what they are reading, and the most familiar text, newspapers, are left set.

Your web site should be easy to navigate

All hyperlinks should be clear to your visitors. Graphic images, such as buttons or tabs, should be clearly labeled and easy to read. Your web graphic designer should select the colors, backgrounds, textures, and special effects on your web graphics very carefully. It is more important that your navigational buttons and tabs be easy to read and understand than to have "flashy" effects.

Link colors in your text should be familiar to your visitor if possible. (blue text usually indicates an unvisited link and purple or maroon text usually indicates a visited link), If you elect not to use the default colors, your text links should be emphasized in some other way (boldfaced, a larger font size, set between small vertical lines, or a combination of these). Text links should be unique -- they should not look the same as any other text in your web pages. You do not want people clicking on your headings because they think the headings are links.

Your visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in your site within three clicks. If not, they are very likely to click off your site as quickly as they clicked on.

Your web site should be easy to find

How do visitors find you online? Unfortunately, "If you build a web site, they will come," is a commonly held belief among companies and organizations new to the Internet. People will not come to your web site unless you promote your site both online and off-line

Web sites are promoted online via search engines, directories, banner advertising, electronic magazines,(e-zines) links from other web sites and paid for positioning. If you are not familiar with any of these online terms, then it is best that you have your site promoted by an online marketing professional.

Web sites are promoted off-line by conventional advertising methods: print ads, radio, television, brochures, word-of-mouth, etc. Once your company has created a web site, all printed materials, including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, etc. should have your URL (that’s your web address) printed on them.

In addition to your web site being easy to find, your contact information should be easy to find. Contact information should include an email address and a telephone number; people feel more comfortable if  there is a real person to whom they can call or email for additional help if:

• they need answers to questions which are not readily available on your web site;
• some element on your site is not working and end users need to be able to tell you about it, and
• directory editors need you to modify parts of your site to be sure that your site is placed in the most relevant category.

By giving all relevant contact information (physical address, telephone numbers, and email addresses), you are also creating a sense of security for your end users. They can contact you in the way that makes them feel the most comfortable.

Your web page layout and design should be consistent throughout the site

The same rules apply to formatting a document on a word processor or for that matter any brochure, newsletter, or newspaper formatted by a professional publisher, all graphic images and elements, typefaces, headings, and footers should remain consistent throughout your web site. Consistency and coherence in any document, whether it be a report or a set of web pages, project a professional image.

For example, a web site designer must be sensitive to the clients business image and the selection of background colors, headers and type faces and special effects, once selected, all should remain constant throughout the site.

Your web site should be quick to download

Studies have indicated that visitors will quickly lose interest in your web site if the majority of a page does not download within 15 seconds. (Artists' pages should have a warning at the top of their pages.) Even web sites that are marketed to high-end users need to consider download times. Sometimes, getting to web site such as Microsoft or Sun Microsystems is so difficult and time consuming that visitors will often try to access the sites during non-working hours from their homes. If your business does not have good brand name recognition, it is best to keep your download time as short as possible.

A good application of this rule is adding animation to your site. Sure, animation looks "cool" and does initially catch your eye, but animation graphics tend to be large files. Test the download time of your pages first. If the download time of your page is relatively short and the addition of animation does not unreasonably increase the download time of your page, then and ONLY then should animation be a consideration.

Finally, before you consider the personal preferences of your web page design, you should consider all of the above rules FIRST and adapt your personal preferences accordingly. Which is more important: creative expression/corporate image or running a successful business?

Thank goodness, good design and function are not mutually exclusive!