Yes, Google is still the top search engine you want to target with your businesses SEO.   Google has a hold over 50-60% of all internet searches.  Bing and Yahoo hold the remaining portion of web searches and utilize many similar strategies in ranking sites.

Getting your site to rank on the first page for the search keywords that you are targeting can all depends on the popularity of those keywords.  If your business, and other businesses in the same industry, mostly have websites that are merely informational and don’t rely heavily on generating business online then your site MIGHT easily be optimized for a fist page ranking.  If you are in an industry that survives solely on web search and online business then your keywords are probably very competitive and expensive.

There are many different factors that go into what makes a well designed website.  Often when web design is at its most successful succeeds the viewer will notice nothing but the content of the site.  Good design often fades into the background of the content and merely provides a container for the information.

COLOR THEORY

There is truth to color theory.  All good designers carefully consider what colors speak to the core of an organization.  There are many resources online to refer to in looking into what theories mean what and how you can find the colors to match your business or website.

IMAGE PLACEMENT

Image placement is key to creating good design “flow”  and balance to a website.  Notice the feeling of websites that are all text  – they often feels overbearing.  People like to see a balance of visual and textual information on a site.  It’s important to know that the average internet user only spends a matter of seconds to decide if a site is something they want to look further into.

ABOVE THE FOLD DESIGN

“Above the fold” design is a term used to refer to the top area of a site that can be viewed without scrolling.  It is reccommended to carefully place your most valuable information within this “above the fold” area of the site.