Presentation is everything in the online world. You've on average a few seconds to convince, and the audience you're trying to persuade will likely have been through many different pages before lighting upon yours. Your page needs to be distinctive, it needs to be clear in its purpose, it needs to suit that purpose (insofar as a veterinary surgeon would need a rather different style to a children's entertainer) and it needs to be professional and engaging. There's a lot to do, and it's no surprise that some sites come to dominate the market as few conventional businesses ever have, while others sink without trace.

Gabi manages the website of a fictional growing, nationwide political party. Changing times and economic struggle have led to the traditionally dominant parties losing their grip on large swathes of the electorate, and two groups of voters - the well-educated young and the politicised pensioners - are appearing in polls as being particularly likely to look for a new direction. Alas, politics is a fickle business, and this opportunity for a new party to break through can't be expected to last for long; everything that can be done to make the party more attractive must be done, and done as quickly and as effectively as possible. For Gabi, this means revamping the website to make it as impressive and attractive as she can, whilst still being as easily accessible as possible.

Multimedia

Policies, clearly, are essential. The party have already put recent donations to use in commissioning an advertising agency to create election broadcasts for television and video hosting websites; Gabi needs to incorporate these in the party's own website, along with short videos of policy statements by the party's leaders, giving her every opportunity to get the message across in a fashion that's as attractive as it is easily accessible.

But it's not enough just to drop a video link into a page - she needs the video to be embedded, so that it will be available to stream as soon as the page loads, without putting any extra demands upon the user to wait for content to download. It's also important that she place and size the video just as she needs, as an integral part of the page. The video needs to be immediately visible on loading, but without disrupting the style and flow of the other content, as the video itself isn't everything: it's just one of a range of methods she wants to use to persuade floating voters.

The software she uses to design the site must allow her to place the most topical video close to the centre of the front page (shown in eye-monitoring studies to be the first place the average user looks), and also to keep the video at an unobtrusive size so as not to discourage those who have seen it before and don't wish to watch it again, nor to distract from the key slogans, nor interfere with navigation tools. Precision and flexibility are therefore essential - and, given the time constraints, they must come without too much complexity.

Interactive and dynamic content

However important and principled online content may be, nothing reduces the necessity of a strong visual appeal - quite simply, far fewer visitors will make the effort to look into the content if the page doesn't attract them. Gabi's site currently has links on the front page to further pages that introduce policies and principles - and this is, essentially, a good strategy, an 'inverted pyramid' style of website design that has the basics on the front page and more detail within. The problem lies with the plain links that she's used in the past.

She wants a short list of brief statements on the front page, which visitors can rollover to see some more detail and a relevant image, and from there click on for the full story about each. Having images or information available by rolling over an element of the page allows her to put more into the front page without it becoming cluttered, while also making it easier to grab visitors' attention with issues that are relevant to them.

Time is running short for Gabi, but there's another detail she can't overlook. With a bit of luck, the number of hits on her site will go up markedly, and her new dynamic and multimedia content will hopefully encourage them to stay and delve deeper into the party's principles. But then what? By inserting a form into many of the pages - or a link on every page to a form that'll open in a popup window - she can strike while the iron's hot, so to speak; she can invite visitors to submit their details to a mailing list, to sign up to a campaign, to make a donation, or indeed to formally join the party. By providing the form along with the information, she can get people involved while their interest is at its peak.

Expression Web can make it happen

Can Gabi manage to add all this to her site in a short space of time? Indeed she can, with Microsoft Expression Web. It's easy to position multimedia elements precisely on the page - as a GUI editor, content can simply be slotted into place without entering any code - and the software can also create the forms she needs automatically. And with Expression Web's scripting tools, it's also a straightforward process, even without technical expertise, to add in the dynamic rollovers.

What's more, Expression Web can also help Gabi to ensure that as many people as possible find their way to her site - the program comes with a range of simple Search Engine Optimisation tools to guarantee the most visible presence, to go with the site's new and much enhanced visual appeal.

And Expression Web can transform any website, for any purpose. Without any coding knowledge, you can add the most up-to-date dynamic, interactive, Flash and multimedia content to your organisation's online presence - or start your site from scratch, confident that it'll be as effective and appealing as possible. A short training course can help you to get to grips with all the tools that software offers - and in doing so, help you to take control of just how the world sees your company.