I named my web site design business American Web Page Design for two reasons.  In 1997, the Yellow Pages were still where people went to look something up, and my business name had to start with the letter "A" to be listed in the beginning.   Second, I used the word Page instead of Site.  A web site is made up of individual pages.  It is usually the pages that show up in the search results, not the web site "home" page.   So to me the Web Page Design name was a better fit for my way of thinking.  More on idividual web page design a little later.

If a business is not worried about placement in the search engines, meaning their potential customers already know what they want, (such as information about a particular PRS guitar from PRS Guitars here in Stevensville), then the layout/ design should have top priority, without regard for placement in the top 10.  A person looking for information on PRS Guitars will type in PRS or Paul Reed Smith guitars, if you get my point, and their site will be in the top ten, most likely number one. 

 However, if someone is considering buying a PRS Guitar, whether new or used, then a dealer or seller of PRS Guitars had better think long and hard about search engine friendly web site design.  Which I did.  I had a PRS guitar for sale, a CE 24 model in Scarlet Red.  I did a search on Google June 24, 2010 and a search for "red prs ce 24 " and "red prs ce-24" both  were #4 of more than 36,900 possible pages and "prs ce-24 red" #2 of 177,000  possible pages.  PRS Guitars were # 3 and #4.   I consider that an accomplishment.  (UPDATE: The guitar has been sold). There's much more on searches and results that can be found here.

Most businesses depend on new prospects/ customers from advertising.  That is of the utmost importance when designing a web presence for most types of businesses.  It MUST be search engine friendly.  And as far as web pages go, content is king.  Title and other meta tags, as well as actual placement of text in the content must be very carefully considered in the design. 

It is obvious to me that many companies try to do it themselves using  templates for their company web site.  Most templates look professional and very well done as far as layout and color scheme, but they lack the most important thing.  Content and it's placement.  It is my opinion that many sites may not place well with the top search engines for a company searching for their type of company, services or product.  I can help with that if you choose to use a template.

On the other hand, I have designed  web sites starting from from scratch that have placed  very well with search engines, especially Google.  Please click here for actual results.

I have helped many businesses get into the Top Ten on Google.  However, to avoid any conflict of interest, I usually deal with only one type of business per geographical area when I am contracted to do a web site and/ or get a business into  the Top Ten on Google. 

If you have a business and are not yet on the internet, you owe it to yourself and to your business to get in touch with me.  I can get you online quickly, and maybe even into the Top 10 for your type of business just like I did for Doug Jordan at Atlantic Shore Line. 

You may also want to contact me if you already have a web site and are not satisfied with it's search engine placement. 

Some other web site design considerations -  the layout, color scheme, navigation links, background, page size, outside links, graphics, scripting, etc. 

To scroll or not to scroll? Under most circumstances, I have found scrolling to view web sites is no big deal for most people surfing the net, and web pages are able to benefit from that fact. 

Want to do some of your own checking around for references?  I will be happy to supply names and contact information on request.  Send an email to me.  Or click to my Testimonials page and read what my clients have said about me and my work. 

Bottom line:  Through my many years of web site design experience I have found what works best is this: The old concept of  K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid).  It really does work when it comes to web site design and search engine placement.