A website must be enticing enough to appeal to the eyes of the customer. It works a lot like package design for physical products-the more attractive it is, the better. This is why businesses spend a relatively huge amount just for the website design, because a well-designed website can and will help you sell products. Designing a website can be a very complicated task for some, because it requires both technical as well as creative skills. Hiring a designer to do the work for you can save you lots of stress, but to make sure your site is truly well-designed you would have to have a hand in the designing somehow. Tell the designer what you want on your site, what you don't want, who your target customers are, etc. So it wouldn't hurt to have some knowledge of website design. You wouldn't want your site to become an eyesore, so be sure you know what to watch out for:

Slow load time - this can be caused by many factors, but one of the major reasons is there's just simply way too much going on in one page. Try to keep the files small and as few as possible.

Unpleasant color schemes - Some site owners actually think a red/green contrast for the entire site is good. It depends, but in most cases it isnt--try to use a color scheme that blends well with each other, and make sure it is appropriate for your site or product.

Poor spelling/Grammar - ALWAYS check your text for grammar and syntax integrity. You want to look professional. Professionals don't make (too many) spelling and grammar mistakes. If you look professional, people will trust you more.

Poorly designed navigation - You must also remember to make your website easy to use. Avoid convoluted menus and hard-to-click buttons.

Hard-to-read text - make sure hte font is large enough for easy reading but not too large. Arial 12-14 should be readable enough. As well, check the spacing--don't post walls of text without breaks or the reader will suffer eye strain.

Broken links - this is pretty self-explanatory, make sure all your links work before you launch your site. There's nothing more annoying than clicking a link to a part of the site that interests you only to get a 404.

Pop-up windows - This is a somewhat sensitive issue. Popups grab attention, but a lot of this attention is bad. Most people have been geared to think that popups = spam/ads, so use popups sparingly.

Advertising banners - in the same manner, do not place too many banners across a single page or your site will look like ad spam.

This is just a short, short list of many possible things that can ruin a visitor's surfing experience on your site. There are many others, so be sure you don't miss too many of them. If you think a particular aspect of the site might not look good, then it probably won't; do something about it right away.

S. Garcia, SEO Solutions