On the web presentation is critical, content is king, and placement in search rankings can hinge on the aggregated value of many tiny factors. Many of these items are ones you may not even realize are being observed by everyone from your everyday customer to the crawlers at Google.

Everyone wants to jump in with both feet and get their site up to snuff, but walk before you run, take it in phases - From design, and hosting, to marketing and beyond. Where do you start?

Start here, with the list below. Use these ideas as a catalyst for your first round of fixes, changes, and updates:

1. Ease of use / access to deliverable

a. Organized and Intuitive Navigation
b. Easy, comprehensive information access
c. Priority information within two-to-three clicks

2. Evoke unique and positive user experience

a. Unique & captivating style
b. A working, functional website - seems like an obvious starting point but often it’s missed…
c. Proper mark-up: HTML / CSS design and standards compliance
d. More universal: cross-browser / cross-OS consistency

3. Get Found - Marketing / Promotion

a. Search Engine Optimization - Organic? Pay-per-Click? Both?
b. Start with establishing some back links (a.k.a. one-way links) from topical / relevant 3rd party sites

4. High quality, Relevant, topic-specific content

a. Give people what they came looking for
b. Not too little, not too much information
c. Promote and even encourage contact with a company rep when relevant (e.g. on sales & service sites)
d. minimize contact when relevant (e.g. efficiency-driven sites, information output)

5. Actively differentiate your site from other similar sites (those are your competitors folks!) utilizing various aspects of items 1-4.