Why design forwards? Because search engines judge and rank your site on basis of keywords and keyword phrases. Choose right keywords and use them right, and you will get high search engine listings and high visitor traffic. Without high visitor traffic your web site is bound to fail.

> Choosing 'right' keywords

What are 'right' keywords? Obviously they are specific to each site and each page. To be able to select right keywords for your web design you need to get yourself deep into brains of typical members of your target market. What words or phrases would Mr, Mrs, or Ms Searcher use in trying to find a web site offering your products, services, information or ideas? > Anny's Hideaway

Imagine you own a guest house called Anny's Hideaway. Would your would-be guests be searching for Anny? If they were, they probably would not be looking for what you have to offer! Would they be searching for Anny's Hideaway? Not unless they had heard of your establishment and had remembered how to spell your name! Words and phrases like guest house, accommodation, bed and breakfast, country lodge, and words that describe your location, or what you have to offer (fishing, tennis, bowls, yachting, gourmet meals, great wines, fireside chats?) are more likely to connect you to your target market.

Even when you have selected your list of keywords your work is not done. You still need to check your choices. Is there a high demand for your selected keywords (frequently searched for)? And what about supply (how many pages do search engines have to satisfy demand)?

The best keywords and phrases are those with high demand and low supply. They can be found for any site. But it takes time, effort and skill. And it cannot be done last – after design is complete and text written. By then it is too late!

A product that gathers links and puts them directly into HTML format is:

QueryN MetaSearch v2.1 http://www.freeflowsoftware.com/freeflowsoftware/Products.htm http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,000UBZ,.html

You have your web page with of links, now you need to submit it to search engines. Of course, best way of doing this is to go to each search engine site and submit to them individually. If you need to save time, these submission tools work great:

Submitta Standard 1.1 http://www.submitta.co.uk/download/

CybeRat v1.4 http://www.cyberat.com/promotion/download.htm

PageCrafters Submission Services http://pagecrafters.net/url.htm

Here is a good tool for gathering new reciprocal links. Be sure to add those new links to your database.

Link Crafter v1.020 http://linkcrafter.bannermation.com/fc/LinkCrafter

For me, this is 'piece de la resistance' (what ever that means). It will copy any URL from any clipboard application till you tell it to stop. Put this piece of software in copy mode and copy links till cows come home.

URL Manager 2000 http://www.dlcwest.com/~sorev/downloads.htm

It's all about making work easier, more productive. Now you can have more time for relaxing, or maybe for more work. Sheesh!