The highly competitive world of online marketing and e-commerce in general requires a set of development skills that only experienced web page design professionals can provide. The site host who only has one approach to getting their product or service noticed will be left far behind in the dust, waiting in vain for those all-important searches to land on their pages. It is therefore critical to employ the services of an innovative and knowledgeable web design company that understands the workings of the electronic shopping matrix.

Getting the visitors to land on the desired pages is the first goal. Without the proper listings on the top search engines, any effort to attract attention will be futile. This can only be accomplished by search engine optimisation, which is a complex method of maximising keyword placement and click-through schemes that only the experienced professional can provide. The pay-per-click aspect of online marketing is a potential gold mine for the host, and can be realised by an effective web page design.

This involves not only the primary targets that the host wishes to attract attention to, but the other integral aspects of their product line or service programmes that can be listed separately to allow for multiple possibilities of mouse clicks during a random search. This can also be accomplished by associative hosting through other websites. The intelligent web page design company will be aware of all of the various ways to do this, including email marketing, banner advertising, and social networking.

The next step is to keep the attention of the visitor as long as possible by using a variety of methods and tools. The initial visit can be accomplished in many ways, but the assurance of an extended stay can only be realised by usable and readily available links on the home page, as well as an easily navigated site map. There are many ways to do this, depending on the products or services that the host wishes to highlight, but effective web page design will be able to present the key aspects on any page that receives the search links, including those pages that have been arrived at by click-through campaigns and keyword maximisation.

There are tricks to any trade, and web page design is no different. A page that is attractive visually due to the use of intuitive colour schemes and graphic layouts are important, but they are not the only ways to maintain the visitors attention. Smart banner usage, logical link placement, and call-to-action buttons that prompt the visitor to peruse online catalogues or register on email or newsletter lists are a very viable yet often unused aspect of web page design. It’s one thing to attract a visitor. It’s quite another thing to entertain and inform them once they land on the page.

Perhaps the most misunderstood part of web page design is statistical tracking. The importance of keeping tabs on how and when visitors land on a page cannot be emphasised enough, and is often lacking in web hosting methods. The best design company will offer tools that will allow the host to track visits in real time, tabulating not only who is visiting, but where they came from (i.e. search engine) and how many times the page is visited. This is truly the only diagnostic tool to fully exhibit the efficiency of a web page.