The simple and memorable strategy is to use your domain name to describe what you do. Once prospects have found your site through a search engine, typing in domain name will reinforce ways you can help them. For example www.marketingforsuccess.com or www.printondemand.com.

Keywords That Work While they are many ways to improve your use of keywords on your web pages, you can boost your ranking in search engines simply by using your keywords in your page title tag, your metatags and 4 to 6 times in text on your page. Make sure to use them in normal, well-written sentences.

Flash and Splash When you submit your site to search engines, they are looking for text. Pages full of pictures or with just your company logo (splash pages) or mini-movies (flash animations) may look pretty but they won't help search engines judge what your site is about. In addition, research shows that 90% of visitors find these entrance Flash and Splash pages annoying. Rather than move further into your site, most visitors will leave. Avoid home pages full of pictures, movies or with minimal text. They may look nice, but they won't help people find you.

Build Links One of best ways to boost your site's rankings and thus get more visitors is to get other sites to add links from their site to yours. An extremely effective way to do this is to write articles and distribute them to sites visited by your target market. Most site managers and 'webmasters' are hungry for relevant content. Provide these sites content they want and they'll be happy to use it and link back to your site.

Stay in Touch Offer an incentive to get site visitors to give you their contact information, and join your e-mail list. You can also follow up with a call or a mailing. Once a prospect has been to your web site, you want to regularly remind them of problems you solve and services you provide. Don't let your prospects forget you when they are ready to make a purchase.

Avoid playing hide and seek with your target market. Help more people find you and you'll grow your business. Tune up your web marketing strategy and your web site and you'll have more site visitors, more prospects and more business. -

The site submission information I might prepare for a fictional Miami florist would look something like this:

www.funkyflorists.com (fictional URL for demonstration purposes only) www.funkyflorists.com/page1.htm, www.funkyflorists.com/page2.htm etc Funky Florists of Miami Florists in Miami, Florida creating wedding bouquets, floral arrangements, tributes and displays for gifts and special occasions. Online ordering available. Funky Florists Miami create beautiful wedding bouquets, floral arrangements, tributes and displays for all occasions, including weddings, Valentines Day, parties and corporate events. We arrange florist deliveries throughout Miami and right across Florida. We are one of very few florists in Florida to offer a personal floral service, delivered anywhere, anytime. Florists Miami, florists Florida, wedding bouquets, wedding flowers, wedding roses, Valentine’s Day roses, sympathy gifts, Mother’s Day gifts, funeral wreaths, flower deliveries, floral arrangements, birthday gifts, wedding decorations. Kalena Jordan webmaster@funkyflorists.com 12 Street Name Town, Miami FL USA Phone: (00) 555 55555 You should also create a spreadsheet or Word doc listing all search engines you plan to submit your site to, their URLs, a comments field (for chosen categories etc) and a date column. Then as you submit to each site, you can check it off on your list, writing down date submitted.

You could even create another date column for when your site appears in search engine so you can gauge how long submission took to become active. It’s important that you keep track of this information so that you don’t accidentally resubmit to a search engine or directory that you’ve already covered. If you are submitting to a search engine using a paid submission option, always make note of your receipt number in case you need to follow it up.

Happy submitting!

Part Two – How to Submit Your Site to Directories

Copyright © 2005 by Kalena Jordan. All rights reserved under U.S. and international law.

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business, Web Rank, Kalena manages Search Engine College, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.