This subject could be the title of a book by itself. However I will try to be concise and to the point about what to do and what not to do. This article does not pretend to be a course in design either. However, I will mention some elements and principles of design you might want to consider for your website.There are two major components on every website. Graphic art and text. Both play an interesting role. Graphic art is the candy to the eye. Any person looking at your website is going to react in one way or another according to what he or she sees. A web page could be made entirely of graphics. You can have the text embedded to the graphics and the element will still be one hundred percent graphic.

So let’s make it clear, graphic elements are intended to cause a human emotion or reaction. A graphic element in a page can transmit an idea subliminally as well. You might be asking, who else is going to read my website if not another human?

There is another group of readers you want to consider also -I am not talking about the visually impaired who can not see and have to hear the computer reading the text of any particular web page-. I am talking about the search engines. In order to index and catalog your website, they have to read it also. This second group where Google, Yahoo and Bing belong, read your website in a totally different way. Yes, they are very important too.

So, for humans you have to have graphic elements in your web site, most people prefer to see graphics instead of just text. The search engines will read your text in order to classify you. If people happen to be looking for your service and you want them to find you out on the Internet jungle, more likely they will visit one of the 3 search engines mentioned previously. Do you see the dilemma? Most entrepreneurs don’t think about search engines right away. There is a belief among people that in order to show at the first page of the search engines either you have to pay Google or you have to be a big company. This is not necessarily true. Your website can do a lot to help itself in order to rank well on the search engines. I will describe several tips and tricks ahead on other articles that will help you to climb your way up in the search engines, and stay there.

So we have arrived to the point where the technology used to design your website has an impact on humans and search engines. There are so many different ways to create a website that it will be impossible for me to describe all of them here. I will concentrate on technologies that are are very popular.

A website with a lot of movement and impacting graphic design will probably be one made with Flash technology (Adobe). In my opinion it is very difficult to surpass a well designed Flash website when it comes to eye candy, they are the best. The downside is that they do not index well in Google. They are also expensive when you order them, and expensive to maintain.

You can have the typical HTML website, now with PHP, CSS and Javascript (Sun/Oracle) technology you can create some impressive graphic arrays and still be search engine friendly. There are literally hundreds of tools out there to create this type of websites. From Dreamweaver (Adobe) and Frontpage (Microsoft) that allow you to have a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment so you can preview your website, to a just simple text editor where the code can be written.

So my recommendation to you is, if you want to have an effective website without braking the bank, stay away from a full Flash website.

But I want pretty graphics! Yes, I know you want them, we all do. If the explanation I gave you has not convinced you yet it is not a good idea, then there is even another think to consider: I am sure at some point in time you will want to edit, add or delete graphics or text in your website. This is a point most entrepreneurs do not think about when ordering a website. The traditional way web designers make more money out of you is by charging you for changes. Yes I have heard so many horror stories about them. Small companies getting bills for $500 or more a month just for changes! I had a customer once telling me how he disliked to be trapped by his designer. They were charging him fee after fee. He was sold on the idea of paying a very small amount for his website to later realize he ended up paying thousands just because the changes he had to do every month. This practice happens regardless if your website is Flash or non-Flash.

Also, if for any reason your web designer moves somewhere else or you don’t like him anymore, If you have a Flash website, unless you have the source file for it, you will not be able to modify it at will. Another big disadvantage.

But here is the main reason. As technology and procedures to create websites evolve, the entrepreneurs and small business owners have another way to have more control of their websites: A back door. Yes, a back door to your website will allow you to create a new page, edit or delete content, add new graphics or pictures, etc. I am not talking about access to the files where you can see the code, probably you will not understand it anyway. I am talking to a back door that is technically another website to change the content of your website.

This solutions have been in place for big corporations. They have people contributing with content every day, they don’t have to worry about page design, the system does it for them. Well, now that solution called CMS (Content Management System) is available for small business too. I will talk more about them in other articles. For now just think how great it will be you had your own CMS website. They are designed with typical and common elements such as HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript. I personally try to use the less possible elements of Javascript because those elements don’t index well at the search engines either. And yes, with a CMS and traditional HTML websites, you can have Flash elements that will spice up your website.

Summarizing. You want to stay away from full Flash websites unless the designer is a well established company and your pockets are deep, remember the search engines will also read your website, so SEO (search engine optimization) is very important to consider. If you are able to use a computer, you want to have a CMS website with a back door for your to create, edit or delete content.

From bubble-gum popping tweens to silver-haired grannies, a huge majority of households in the United States own at least one computer with Internet access.The Internet has become an integral part of our daily lives - consumers use it for everything from looking up words on Merriam Webster, to checking email and stock quotes. Plugging in and logging on has become second nature.As a home business owner, perhaps you convinced yourself that you don’t need to have a web presence. Nothing could be further from the truth. So, if you are one of those folks who are still riding the fence, let me be perfectly clear:

If you aren’t utilizing the tools that the Internet can provide to your business, you are leaving money on the table. Can you really afford to do that?

I didn’t think so.

So, c’mon, Desperado - hop off that fence and get on the program. There’s plenty of good reasons why your business should be on the web - and every day you delay is costing you money.

You Simply Can’t Beat the Exposure
Whether you are selling products you make yourself, reselling other people’s products, or providing a service, you do not have to limit your sales to customers in your area and neighboring towns. With a website, you can start selling your products to customers from out of state or even in other countries. If you offer your writing and editing services, you can expand your client base and reach more customers with a website.

You’re Always Open for Business
Your home business website isn’t only good for posting photos or information about your products or services. It can also include information about you and your home business. A website can be a place where prospective customers can go to learn more about what you do. You can also post the latest news about your business, as well as new product or service offerings and even special offers.

Best of all, your website is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your website can be generating business for you even while you sleep. This is particularly true if you decide to create an online store and make your products available to online shoppers, no matter where they are located in the world.

Overhead Costs are Low
Advertising and marketing your products or services via traditional methods can be quite expensive. The costs of printing banners, paying for magazine ads, and putting up billboards can quickly rack up and drain your funds. On the other hand, you do not need to spend as much when you put your business online. You will only have pay for a domain name and a website hosting fee that rarely exceeds $75 a year, which is even less than what you have to pay for a month’s worth of running your ad in newspaper. Blogging platforms have made website design and maintenance much more manageable, with many service providers offering startup packages that are well within reach of startup business owners.

Fast & Efficient Communication with Customers
When customers have questions or want to place an order, all they have to do is fill out an online form or leave you a message on your website. You will not have to worry about missing out on customers when your phone line is tied up or you do not have people to entertain their queries. You can even create a Frequently Answered Questions page on your website where customers can go to if they have a question about your business.

Levels the Playing Field
Practically everything these days is on the Internet and there is a huge chance that your competitors will also have a website of their own. If you are not convinced by the other advantages of creating a website for your home business, this one should. Without a website, you will find yourself lagging way behind your competitors. If you want to achieve success in your home business, there is no better time than now to get online and get your home business noticed by more customers.

So you’ve just paid big bucks for your newly designed web site but don’t know if you received everything you paid for. What you assumed would be included may not be present. This could affect the long term performance of your site.Read through this 16 point checklist to evaluate your new or current design.

1. Design

Make sure it’s a professional looking design, that loads fast (displays in a few seconds on a cable connection) and is easily navigable. If it contains lots of videos and images the loading time will be slow.

2. Navigation

Web designers often use images and javascript for navigation. These don’t get indexed by the search engines. It’s better to have textual navigation. This can be created with CSS (cascading style sheets).

Make sure your home page links to all your internal pages and your internal pages link back to your home page. If you have pages that are several directories from the home page create a site map that contains descriptions and links to your whole site.

3. Place CSS and Javascript in an external file

If all the css and javascript code is included on the web page it will slow the loading time and limit search engines ability to quickly index the content. Create an external file for the CSS code and one for the javascript code.

4. Meta Tags

The title tag is the most important. Place your main keyword at the beginning. Keep your title no more than 6 to 10 words long. Your description meta tag should be no more than 200 characters long. Keep your keywords meta-tag length between 200 and 500 characters. Use different meta tags on every page of your site.

5. Header tags (H1, H2, H3)

These are used for headings and sub headings. The H1 heading tag should include your main keyword. It will help your site’s rankings.

6. Image tags

Name your image files based on what the image is. Include alt tags in the description of your images. Search engines can read text but not images.

7. HTML validation

HTML errors may prevent search engines from spidering your pages so they may not render well across all the major browsers.

8. Check cross browser compatibility

Check  if your web site displays correctly in all major browsers. Internet Explorer and Firefox are the main browsers however also check Chrome, Opera and Safari.

9. Check screen resolution

Most computers these days use a screen resolution of 1024×768 pixels or above. If the designer used percentages for creating tables your web site may stretch to accommodate a large screen and look distorted. Ask friends with different screen sizes to view your site.

10. Check broken links

Broken links don’t get indexed by the search engines and will turn off your visitors because they received the dreaded 404 error page which means “page not found”.

11. Redirect non-www web pages

If you can access your web site using domain dot com, and www. domain dot com, it means the search engines will see 3 different web sites. Google “301 redirect” to read how to redirect these different URLs to one URL.

12. Link popularity

The number and quality of links pointing to your site determines your rankings in the search engines. Use Yahoo Site Explorer to check how many links you have pointing to your site.

13. Site Map

A site map page displays the links of all of your pages making it easy for visitors to navigate your web site and search engines to index it. Also create a Google Site Map to help Google find your pages.

14. Web Copy

Weave your main keyword phrases into the content of your web pages. Search engines find your content based on the keywords you use.

15. RSS feed

People like to keep up to date with content from multiple web sites. Having an RSS feed on your site means visitors can easily keep track of new content plus your RSS file can be submitted to RSS directories thus bringing you more visitors.

16. Monitor your web statistics and rankings

Most web hosting services include web statistics with your account. This enables you to view the number of visitors, where they came from and what keywords they used to find your site.

If you don’t have access to web statistics create a Google Analytics account and insert the code on your web pages.

Check your rankings by visiting Alexa.  It will show your traffic statistics in relation to other web sites. If it’s a new site it probably won’t appear in the search engines yet.

By following this 16 point checklist you can evaluate whether your web site has all the correct components and will perform well for years to come.