The first step to starting any Internet doing business is conducting keyword research to determine if there is any interest in your idea. Once you identify a need, its instant to ponder what your site should look like.



What Is The Goal?

In considering the look of your website , you first absolutely need to determine what elements are needed to promote your service or merchandise . There are endless books, forums and many people with adamant opinions on the subject. Some opine a site should be all about linking, while others opine creating a community through message boards is the key. A third set righteously point out a page should be slick or cool, while a fourth group will argue just the opposite. So, who is right and who is wrong? The answer isall of them.

When developing a page , the wants is actually very simple. Your page should be useful. Thats it, the big secret. The problem, of course, is useful means different things for different sites.

A site that provides a service to businesses, such as consulting, should focus on content and linking. A page that promotes something related to entertainment should have an element of cool and have communication boards to discuss rumors, etc. A page that sells products should focus on linking and loading quickly, i.e., a simple, clean develope . The point is that each page is unique and there is no universal answer. Whatever the particular instruction of your page , simply build sure it is useful to your users.

Site Examples

Lets use Google as our example. What does Google do? It gives users the ability to search and find relevant information. So, should the home page of Google look cool? Should it have a lot of content on how to conduct searches? Should it have forums to create a sense of community? No, the home page would be most useful if it simply let you search without bombarding you with a lot of clutter. Indeed, the Google home page is just that.

What about a product site? Lets utilize Nomad Journals http://www.nomadjournals.com - as our example. The page sells writing journals for outdoor activities such as hiking, travel, rock climbing, etc. The page is simple, clean and loads fairly quickly. Unlike Google, the site immediately needs to convey an outdoor impression to visitors. This is accomplished with three outdoor images, a graphic of a nomad and images of the journals. The writing is keyword dense, but compact and to the point. The page conveys the nature of the product and the vibe of the business.

On the other end of the spectrum, think about an entertainment site such as American Idol http://www.idolonfox.com. The site is slick, offers polls and has community message boards where fans can post messages about the competition. This is a very nice layout for this site, but would be horrible for Google or Nomad Journals.

Dont Rush

From the above examples, you might see that there is no universally correct design for a page . Before charging off to build a page , spend at few days considering what it should look like and WHY. Visit sites that you use frequently. Why do you keep going back? What annoys you about other sites? How do factors translate to your website ?

Once you have the answers, you will be on your way.