How do you now ensure the site will tower head and shoulders above the competition in that vast, complex marketplace known as cyberspace?

Here are three questions to ask about your Web site, the answers to which can dramatically help make it an even more effective marketing tool than it is right now.

Question #1: Does our site's home page somehow communicate to the viewer how our firm, and/or its services, are superior to our competitors'?

The run-of-the-mill home page on the so-so Web site is one that provides a smattering of links to additional information -- and nothing more. The savvy home page, however, also uses that valuable real estate to shape the viewers' perceptions of the business it represents.

Recently, the home page of Goodyear Tire Company's site used a graphic image of the globe, the tag line "Serving Tire Customers Worldwide" and a constantly changing 'Welcome' in several languages to emphasize to the visitors of its site that it is a global, not solely "American" company.

Elsewhere on the page, the copy, "No. 1 in racing -- more victories, more places, more often" helped draw into the site that segment of the market looking for performance tires. Meanwhile, a paragraph linking readers to a story about a new Goodyear tire that would not go flat for a hundred miles no matter how severely punctured helped position the company as innovative, not staid.

Compare that to the home page of the site for Michelin Tires, which provided a one-word link for each category of tires it manufactures -- and that's all.

What is your company's specialty? What does it do better than most of the other firms out there? What feature of your firm more than any other can you truly boast about? Will the customer get that message if he visits your Web site's home page, and no other?

Question #2: What obstacle to our business, or negative perception of our firm does our Web site's home page try to counteract?

For years, Apple's notebook-sized computers have borne the burden of being considered too heavy in weight and too lean in memory compared to their PC counterparts. So for weeks during that frenzied period when Apple's iMac desktop computers were all the rage, the company put on its home page a photo of one of its notebook computers, shown from its sleek side, accompanied by the text, "Less Weight, More Memory -- Apple notebooks." The goal -- to get computer users thinking about Apple as a notebook supplier so its soon-to-be-released iBook would be as big a hit as its desktop sibling.

Similarly, Nutrasweet has been battling Internet-spread gossip that its product causes all forms of cancer. Rather than deny that talk, Nutrasweet used its home page to confront the potential PR fiasco head-on. Using words and phrases like "The Legacy of Nutrasweet" and "Since 1965," the company used its Web site to weave an aura of longevity and safety designed to lessen the chance people would see its products as a killer.

More importantly, the home page carried a headline that read, "Correcting Internet Myths About Nutrasweet," that linked readers to a page that provided the URLs of other Web sites that were spreading the vicious rumors about the product and Nutrasweet's more positive findings.

What factor more than any other prevents prospective customers from turning to your firm for assistance? Is there a negative perception, or misperception, out there in the minds of key prospects about your firm, its competitive stance or its services? Is the home page of your Web site somehow working to dispel those misperceptions or barriers to success?

Question #3: Does our Web site have personality? Is it a stimulating place to visit or is it about as sexy as a shareholders' meeting?

People use computers because they have to, not because they are innately exciting places to spend time. So, the more we use our Web sites to enliven our visitors' lives and make their interaction with our site a more human one, the more likely they will return.

A pair of Realtors in Cincinnati -- two women who use the slogan "Two Heads are Better Than One," as a competitive tool -- reinforced that message on their Web site with a page devoted to "Great Duos from History." Their premise: Great accomplishments often occur only because a Lewis had a Clark to work alongside him or a Tracy had a Hepburn to react to.

The Dallas, Texas law firm Munsch, Hardt, Kopf, Harr PC pokes fun at itself and its profession by carrying a page of (tasteful) lawyer jokes on its Web site; the Godiva Web site has carried ongoing installments of a romantic soap opera on its Web site; the Ragu spaghetti sauce site relies on an animated Italian mama as its guide and entertains visitors with a "How to Speak Italian" feature. Even a quick 10-question trivia quiz, about issues central to your business and your clients' lives, can turn a moribund sight into one that people remember.

Color, sound, and animation all make a Web site a communication tool superior to print media. But no matter how many techno-tricks your Web guru pulls out of his hat, be sure your Web site excels in the one category Web users are saying matters most of all -- interesting and informative content.