According to Bruce Clay, "Strategic Web Site Development is the development of an integrated technical and marketing design that will allow the Web Site owner to realize their objectives for the site." Your site must be both visually appealing to visitors and contextually appealing to the search engines. In order to attain both of these goals, we recommend enlisting a graphic designer to design the look and feel of the site, and a content developer/ writer/ editor to create a clear message for your site. This will cause the search engines to rank your site higher and will increase your visibility for visitors. Creating a site that is easily navigable, visually appealing, and gives your visitors what they are looking for, will encourage visitors to stay longer and come back often.

If you're going to create a web site position that promotes your brand, choose a professional web site design firm to ensure the performance, look and feel both you and your perspective customers will enjoy. In addition, invest in a web site that will attract new users through an effective organic search strategy.

Statistics shows that over 80% of e-commerce transactions are initiated through search engines such as Yahoo, Google, Lycos, Excite, Ask and others. Whether you're site is targeted at online retail, business commerce or brochure ware, your placement in search engines is crucial to your websites success. If your site isn't registered with the appropriate engines, your company will not appear when perspective buyers look for the products or services you offer.

Some of the most important things for us to remember when we are doing keyword research are:

• Use a mixture of both broad and targeted words • Prepare a short list of words beforehand that your site is trying to promote and/ or words about your industry • Use the keywords properly • Write and design your site using the words your target audience types into search queries

Designing a search engine friendly web site is not difficult, but it is time consuming. As long as we are prepared to be methodical; do careful keyword research; create unique, interesting, well-written content; and work closely with all the members of our team, we will be rewarded with high engine rankings and recognition in our field of expertise.