ProgoNET

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.

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.

First, people will notice your site's color scheme before they see anything else. When assembling your site, put some thought into your colors and how they'll be used to set your company's thematic presence; make sure they're consistently applied, and reflect on how the colors resonate with you emotionally. Choose colors that highlight your products, and don't overwhelm.

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.

Avoid using components that require the user to download plug-ins to view. You can probably expect someone to have a Flash, Shockwave or PDF plug in, and a Java Virtual Machine is all but standard these days but anything that requires a download and install is a barrier to entry. On a similar note, recall that usability is king on the web. Don't overuse special effects and images; waaay too many web sites out there look cluttered because they have a bajillion animated GIFs strewn about, on top of a flashy (and unreadable) color schemeusually with an annoying piece of music running on a constant loop in the background.

Choosing a good theme, colors and layout will compensate for avoiding some of the more fancy options. Keeping my page consistent with the use of common plug-in's and limited effects, is of great benefit with smart web marketing strategies and will be for you too if you implement it.

Because content is king, invest early on in tools that make updating and maintaining your content easy, whether it's as simple as a Wordpress blog, or a full on content management system like DruPaul. Use cascading style sheets (yes, they're a pain to set up), because they make changing the look of your site a lot easier down the road. Most of those sites that look like they date back to ancient medieval times do so because changing them is a hideous amount of work.

Focus on your content; it's why people are coming to your site. Focus on navigability; a good index and clearly stated intentions will do wonders for repeat visitors, and make it likelier that you'll get repeat visitors. When writing content, avoid jargon, and speak in nice, clear sentences. Sure, you can say that the CSS manifold space explificates the eigenstat of the user interface experience but if your eyes glazed over on that, imagine how a whole site of that would read.

Similarly, if you do have content that requires user interaction, please keep it in the bounds of a widely established plugin: Flash, Shockwave, PDF and Java are all acceptable. DIVX, Windows Media, Quicktime and whatever else out there may not be - it depends on what you can expect people who're hitting your site would have installed as a matter of course.