It is just over twenty years since the first websites appeared and the difference in appearance is enormous as well as the complexity and speed of downloading.

Those early websites coupled with the processing speed of early personal computers meant the first page could take a couple of minutes to load and come to think about it, the first page was the only page.

There were no links to other pages and these early efforts were no more than a cross between a business card with contact details and a small brochure with the bear minimum of information about the company.

These days it is essential to have a highly professional looking and interactive website if you want any chance of attracting visitors and generating sales.

Early web pages were a bit like painting by numbers where anyone with half a brain could follow the instructions but the results were all the same. With faster processing more complicated programing can help produce some stunning web pages with plenty of graphics and fancy interactive attractions.

Oddly enough, some award winning websites today are massively expensive and are really nothing more than advertising gimmicks but these are usually prepared by blue chip companies launching a new product and not specifically presented to attract buyers.

There is a fine balance between an attractive site and a good functional one. The best website designing people know about things like white space and drawing the eye towards certain parts of the page thus encouraging the viewer to click to the next link.

Just as psychologists have been employed for decades by the big super market chains to understand the nature of shopping habits and how to encourage spending so to have web designers begun to understand how to draw people to where they want them to look.

If you are thinking of getting into Ecommerce with a new or better product then you will need an SEO company from the very beginning as the design of the website is part and parcel of collating and processing orders as well as facilitating efficient and secure payments.

Your website is the shop window onto the goodies you have in store and once the potential customer has entered your online shop you dont want to lose him or her. Keeping up their interest is just the beginning and making it easy to move around your site is utterly essential.

Shoppers in real stores just like they are in internet stores, have a very short interest span so without cluttering up the page there should at least be enough other stuff going on to at least keep the interest going.

Web designers should be experienced as well as creative and should be part of a team where SEO types can make the site climb up the ratings as fast as possible but always remember that no matter how up the ratings and no matter how smart looking the site, it will only succeed with outstanding efficiency in order processing.