While your project coordinator is not an expert web designer or a developer, his web design exposure and experience with other clients can be a very helpful tool during the designing of your web site. The project coordinator's goal is to follow your instructions accordingly but we highly recommend that you utilize any suggestions or ideas he may have to offer. There are a few simple guidelines that will give you a big head-start on increasing the effectiveness of your web site.

Qualities of a professional and successful web site.:

a) Clean Layout Design: A clean layout that uses a lot of white space enhances the visual appeal. It's best to keep the focus on your content. Keeping your page layout consistent and avoid making your pages too long will raise the professional level of your site.

b) Flash or Not? Unless it is a necessity, try avoiding a Flash intro. A flash intro is better suited for a personal profile, children's web site, or for web design companies. Flash intro is not recommended for a business or corporate web sites, especially for an Ecommerce or shopping cart web site. At first, Flash intro is initially very appealing however, if the purpose of the web site. is to secure business, a flash intro reduces the chance of successful purchases by 14% according to our own research. 25% of our existing clients who decided on a flash intro, initially, had later requested removal for this very reason. We recommend, instead, using quality and smart animation in your top bar.

Also, web sites completely designed in Flash are difficult to edit and update through the easy web design tool ( www.webdesign-editor.com ), plus, search engines can't read the text content in Flash which is a huge cause of poor search engine rankings.

c) Cross Browser Compatible: Although our quality testing officer will review your web site. to be browser compatible, be sure that you check your site for Internet Explorer 5+ and Netscape Navigator 4+ as they constitute 95% of all browsers.

d) Avoid Using Pop-Ups. Web sites with pop-ups do not rank high by top search engines. Also, if you decide to utilize a pop-up, be sure not to convey important customer information because 80% of Internet users now have pop-up blockers. Try not to scare your audience away by using amateurish features and annoying pop-ups.

e) Final Advice & Recap: Keep your site simple and clean and have a web site that loads quickly. Pop-ups are not recommended. Every page looks like it is part of the home page. Make sure that the background color is compatible with text.