3. Unify your site. Use REPETITION. Keep same background color/image from page to page. Put your logo on each page in same place. Use same text color from page to page. If you have those billowing begonias on your index page, use a begonia flower for all your navigation buttons. Whatever you choose as navigation buttons, use same ones on each page. If you use a text graphic for navigation, repeat that from page to page. Whatever. Repetition is comfortable. It holds site together.

4. Of course, same thing all time could be boring to viewer. So you do need some VARIETY. Back to nursery business. Perhaps all bulbs pages would have a green background, while all herbs pages could have a blue background, and annuals a yellow background. But they might all have same basic layout otherwise. When you introduce variety into your design, make it logical. Have a reason for it. All of your navigation buttons could be flowers, different for each section. Balance out repetition and variety so that your site is unified, but interesting.

5. Be kind to your viewer. Restrain yourself from obnoxious animation. Use it sparingly and carefully, if at all. Keep music minima, if at all. Make font big enough to read easily. Contrast colors of font and of background so that text shows up clearly. If you use a splash page, tell viewer what to do to get into your site.

Good visual design keeps a viewer at your site. It inspires confidence in your product. Go to a search engine and bring up sites similar to yours and critique them. Get ideas. Then use them. Be a designer. Make your site a Presence on web.

And while you're surfing around net, check out my website at http://www.clovenstone.com, just for fun of it. Maybe it'll give you an idea.

This is not to suggest that everything looks exactly same. The identity is starting point, but annual report, Website and print ads are like different children of same family. Not exact knock-offs of original but similar enough show they are related.

The bottom line is that Website should look like it is a part of company or product it represents. Fonts, color, voice, and attitude should all be related across marketing board. Similarly, website should communicate in way a Website needs to communicate. It needs to feel like a Website, but it need to represent it's company's brand and image effectively. It must retain integrity of brand.