Have you ever been to a website that you just thought "Wow! Now THAT is cool!" Well, don't worry, this article isn't about how to make your website cool, because it doesn't have to be. This article is to help make your website stand out in a crowd of millions and billions of sites. Those cool 'all-animated' (flash) websites may look good, but as far as SEO goes, search engines won't be able to know what your site is about. The search engine will come across it, say 'ok, there is a big image or flash file here...' and that's all it will be able to discern. How high do you think you'll rank if search engines don't know what you're about?

Now sometimes its important to use flash, big images and video, but that would be after you have established a brand and people know who you are and what you do. For now its important to stand out for simplicity and clarity.

Conversely to the first "wow me" website scenario, have you ever seen a spam site? Yes you've heard of spam email, there's such a thing as spam sites. Well Google has, and its those big bright red headlines with 12 page long sales letters. Why do people do that? Because they make money. People make fun of infomercials on TV but I can assure you they wouldn't be on if they didn't make a lot of money.

Back to web design. The whole of Internet marketing can be condensed into 3 statements. Get Attention. Retain Attention. Direct Attention. That's it. No matter what you're doing online, whether its sales, information services, or just fun, those 3 statements sum it all up.

Get Attention. It's not as hard as you think. With pay per click, with social media sites, with a couple clicks, a video here, and article there, you can get your site marketed and people to your page. Getting their attention is your job. If they saw your video explaining how awesome and cheap your hammers are, they go to your site and see a store front for saws and all manner of tools, you did not fulfill the promise of seeing hammers if you clicked on the link. You have to deliver on promises made if you want to get attention.

Retain Attention. Depending on what you're doing or selling, you may not have to retain attention for very long. On the other hand, if you're selling a health product for example, you need to make sure you retain attention (educate about the product) for as long as the customer needs to feel comfortable with your product or service. For hammers, you might just need a buy button.

Direct Attention. This is all about what you want the final outcome to be from your visitors. Is it to get their email address? Do you want to make a sale? Do you want them to call a number? Whatever it is, if you already got the attention, and retained it, it won't be hard to direct it.

Throughout every phase of this 3 step cycle, you need to keep your design in mind. It needs to direct the eye to the appropriate place, it needs to present the least amount of friction possible, and most importantly, it needs to stay out of the way. Don't force your visitors to watch, look at, read, hear or do anything that would make them want to leave. In short stunning web design is web design that works. Keep it simple, don't over decorate, get attention, retain it and direct it. You won't regret it.