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Marketing strategists and Web site designers are incorporating greater interactivity and functionality into corporate Web sites with the goal of fostering public relations, marketing and e-commerce.

Web syndication using RSS feeds and informative blogs are being used to bring visitors and customers back to company Web sites again and again, building brand loyalty.

Site developers are taking advantage of the latest version of Flash and Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), now recognized by all browsers, to provide a rich user experience, said Corey Johnson, president of Creative Network Innovations (CNI), a Suntree-based web, on-line and data solutions company with clients including Sun Sports TV, Nickelodeon and DRS Optronics.

“ Web sites are becoming as responsive as PC applications (such as Microsoft Word). With Ajax you don’t have to wait for the whole page to reload as the host server is accessed. That’s creating true Web interactivity,” Johnson said.

National e-commerce sites like e-Bay, Amazon and Travelocity are forerunners in highly interactive sites based on improved Web technologies. And now even smaller players are joining the Web interactivity revolution.

“ It’s only going to get better and better for the user,” Johnson said.

But the best Web sites are based on more than just the latest and greatest technological bells and whistles, they are also strategically designed to communicate a company’s image and generate sales, said Mike McBride, creative director of McBride Woodbridge Marketing in Indialantic.

McBride’s company, owned and operated with partner Amelia Woodbridge, has won numerous awards for outstanding Web design and frequently employs CNI to help handle its most sophisticated Web development projects.

“ Today a Web site is one of your most important marketing tools, if not the most important,” McBride said.

McBride and Woodbridge believe that when Space Coast technology and manufacturing companies cater to Fortune 500 companies, it’s especially important to create and maintain the right image.

“ In general, you’re not going to be taken as seriously if you have an unpolished, out-of-date site with poor functionality,” Woodbridge said.

To build a cohesive Web site that properly expresses a company’s brand and is highly rated by search engines, it typically takes a marketing strategist, a content developer, a graphic designer and a programmer, McBride said.

“One web designer typically can’t do it all even if they claim to have that ability. It costs more to employ a team, but the quality of your Web site is an investment in your company’s credibility,” McBride said.

The first step is an evaluation of the company’s needs. Then comes planning of the Web site from aesthetics to functionality. Form and function should be completed integrated, Woodbridge and McBride agreed.

Most companies will want their sites highly rated by search engines. From the beginning of Web site development, search engine optimization should be taken into consideration, including proper use of metatags and site text. Words in the form of embedded graphics can’t be read by Web crawlers, so devices like text footers may be employed.

“ You can have a gorgeous logo with your company’s name but it won’t be seen by the crawlers,” Woodbridge said.

A simple administration system for updating content should be incorporated in the design of the site so that a company’s employees may easily add and change text and graphic elements. Changing, up-to-date content attracts both Web crawlers and visitors.

“ If you have to pay to have your Web designer update your page, you likely won’t update it as often,” McBride said.

Whether to incorporate exciting features like blogs and RSS feeds with the site depends on whether they will be useful in marketing and promoting the company.

Blogs can be used to give industry and product updates and/or answer customer and vendor questions. RSS feeds can be used to draw in Web site visitors seeking to read content headlined on a feed.

“The more often you can get a potential customer to visit your site, the better,” Woodbridge said.

When customers do visit, Ajax or Flash can be used to make registration and purchase order forms on the site more interactive. But when a site is interactive and customer data is required, the site must be designed to provide optimal security for user information, Johnson said.

“If you don’t protect your customer’s information and a hacker gets hold of it and misuses it, you can be liable,” he said.

And blogs that allow for public input must be designed so that inputs are “sanitized” so no malicious programs can be introduced to the site, Johnson warned

As the Web grows in sophistication, the do-it-yourself company Web site just isn’t going to be enough.

“Everyone has a brother-in-law or cousin who has designed a Web site before, but when your company’s image is depending upon it, it might be better to opt for a professional approach,” McBride said.