Almost anyone can make a web site look good, but not every designer can make a site that does the job you want and need it to do.

Are You The Only One Visiting Your Site?
The purpose of the site and target audience should be your first consideration. Do you want to inform, sell or entertain? Do you want to give information to potential new customers, allow current customers to keep up to date or place orders or both?

One big mistake is overlooking the fact YOU are not your target audience. While it is always nice if you love your site, it is far more important that the people you want to use your site, whether to get information or make a purchase, like your site and find it easy to use. Unless your target audience is very technical keep the text simple and easy to read and understand. Make navigation intuitive and all information no more than two clicks away - finding what they want should not be a treasure hunt for your visitors.

The home page (also known as "index" or "default" page) is usually the first thing people see upon entering your site. If it doesn't grab them - or contain certain information - many people won't venture past it... and might just leave your site altogether. Remember, "You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a Good Impression." This rings even more true when it comes to your website's home page. A badly designed web site is far worse than no web site at all!

I can't tell you the number of sites I've been to that don't tell me who they are and what they do. Remember the "Five W's" when writing about your company - Who, What, Where, Why and How. Tell me up front who you are and what you offer so I know if I'm in the right place or need to continue my search. A good rule of thumb when creating your site content is to look at your site from a surfer's point of view and answer this question: "What's in it for me?" Website visitors tend to be very directed. They land on your site after searching for something they need and don't care about anything else. If you want your visitors to stay, you need to tell them right away that they've come to the right place.

Intro Pages & Other Unidentifiable Moving Objects
Unless you are selling entertainment don't try and entertain your visitors. First, if you have a snazzy flash movie intro page, get rid of it. Unless you have a product or information that no one else has anywhere most people won't even click the little skip intro button - they will just leave and not come back.

Search engines will do the same thing. Search engines send out a program called a spider that does nothing be scan through web pages all day everyday. They scan your pages for words and links and use that to rank your page. When they hit an intro page with a movie there is no text and there are no links so they think their job is done and leave. They have no text or links from your site to add to the search engine data base so you don't get listed. Even if you go to the seach engine and submit your site chances are they send out their spider.

If you want to have a little movement on your pages do it with links or navigation that moves. If you must have a bit of flash make sure it does its thing then STOPS. Constant movement is distracting, especially when you are trying to read. If you are trying to give some one important information about your business and what you do or are trying to get them to make a purchase the last thing you want to do is distract them.

Why in The World Did They Pick THAT Color?
Most people over look the importance of color on a web site, whether it is the background color or text color.

For readability text should be black on a very, very pale background. The most professional combination that subconsciously creates trust is black arial font on a white backgound. Not everyone has a huge monitor or perfect vision. White or light colored text on black or dark backgrounds are hard on the eyes and hard to read. The same applies to the cute background graphic tiling all over the page. It doesn't look professional and if people have to strain their eyes to read your site chances are slim they will stay long, let alone buy from you.

Medium to dark blues are usually the best colors for a site design as they are easy on the eyes, look professional and inspire confidence but other deep, colors can work well too. Stay away from bright or in you face colors except for accent. They don't always look that good on a screen and again are hard on the eyes.

Notice I said color - black is not a color! There are a few very good sites on the web that use black well but there are many, many more that do not. If you have your heart set on a black web site be sure you find a good designer that has a track record in making awesome sites using black and that black pertains to your product or business.

How to Spot a Home Made Site or Inexpirienced Designer a Mile Away
For some reason unknown to me people with no or little experience in web design almost always make the same mistake that you can literally see a mile away - text that is THIS BIG and titles that are even bigger.

They also have too many links on the page (maximum should be 10 main navigation links, 7 is optimum) and a home page scrolls at least a couple miles down the screen. Less than 10% of those using the internet will scroll past the first screen of a site's front page. Clicking is an easier, more natural movement and most will click to move past the first page if it convinces them what they want is inside.