Okay. So, you're a mid-level marketing or IT manager that has just come out of a quarterly budget and planning meeting. You've been assigned the unenviable status of project manager for creating (or revising) a company website. Oh, and you've also been told that your annual job performance and bonus review will be based largely on the project's success, or lack thereof.

Suddenly it dawns on you...

Your biggest problem will be getting your company's decision makers to understand that websites designed to impress people don't usually impress the search engines.

Simply put, high ranking sites rarely, if ever, win Webby Awards (the so-called Oscars of web design). Nor do they generally wow the top brass who are all too often looking to be seduced by gee-whiz graphics and flashy special effects that search engines typically can't even index—let alone, rank well.

No matter how gifted you are, you know you can't fly and swim at the same time; there's a conflict in altitude that physics won't let you resolve. Likewise with webpage design. Pages that impress site visitors with design features are usually handicapped in terms of ranking well in the search engines. That's just the reality of it.

Now's the time to find out exactly what the brass at the top considers to be success! Exactly what are their expectations? Are they looking to...

• actually win a Webby Award for Flashiest Site on the Internet?
• or do they want to increase traffic flows that will convert to sales?

I hear you a...