You've probably seen it on sites like Google. They do something to tweak their site for Christmas and other holidays. The big question is, when is that type of thing appropriate for business sites, and to what extent?

For business to business sites, changing some element of the site itself is not generally appropriate. However, you might post a picture on the front page of an employee handing out gifts, or maybe the winner of the office costume contest, depending on the holiday.

When a site sells direct to a consumer, some additional dressing up of the site is appropriate. However, there are still guidelines for what you should and shouldn't do.

You shouldn't:

• Do anything that interferes with the user browsing your site
• Make changes so large that your site does not look familiar to those who have visited it before
• Add any animation that detracts from the content (very minor animation is okay, but no snowflakes falling over the whole site)
• Use cheesy clip-art

• Modify your banner at the top of the site to add a Christmas tree, Santa hat, Jack-o-Lantern, etc.
• Change your color scheme to holiday appropriate colors (green and red, orange and black), while everything else remains the same.
• Add a holiday graphic to the bottom of a side menu.
• Simply put a holiday-related picture that also relates to your business on the front page.

Tim Priebe

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners.