A common mistake is to assume that your Web site should be like an online brochure. There are fundamental errors in this line of reasoning that will come back to haunt the novice web designer.
First, a brochure is printed material that is meant to last for years. A Web site is meant to be updated regularly (weekly, if not daily, if you wish to achieve strong rankings with the search engines).
Second, a brochure is a piece of graphic art which occupies a given, static set of dimensions (i.e., 5 inches by 9 inches). No such given dimensions exist on a Web site; your Web pages will display differently depending on the browser and screen resolutions selected by the individual user.
Finally, each page of a brochure represents a completed graphic design within the given dimensions, giving relatively equal weight to the images at the top of the page and the bottom of the page; Web sites give high priority to the material at the top of the screen and far less importance the the material below.
A Web design is actually a FRAMEWORK through which users can NAVIGATE between pages of different lengths. No such FRAMEWORK or NAVIGATION structure exists in a brochure.
A Web site design is essentially ONE design which is echoed throughout the site; a brochure contains separate, completely designed individual pages, that stand alone as the reader turns from page to page.
If you are still certain that you would like your Web site to resemble an online brochure, consider converting your printed brochure into a pdf and the posting the brochure itself to your server.
Remember, PRINT is not the same thing as WEB DESIGN!
