4. Spider limitations. The device that gathers data from your site for search engine inclusion is called a “Robot” or “’bot” for short. The process of gathering data is called “crawling” or “spidering” as ‘bot will follow all links on your pages to explore whole site and include all its data for assessment. If your webmaster favored you with a Flash menu system, then – to spider - your site is one page long. Robots do not spider links locked-up in Flash. If java was your medium of choice, or you use java scripts extensively, then consider this. More weight is placed on data at top of page than at bottom. In a java-based or java-rich site header (top end) of your page will look something like this: -

-html- -head- -link rel='stylesheet' href='include/styles.css' rel='nofollow' type='text/css'- -script language="JavaScript1.2"- //Highlight image script- By Dynamic Drive //For full source code and more DHTML scripts, visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com //This credit MUST stay intact for use function makevisible(cur,which){ strength=(which==0)? 1 : 0.2 if (cur.style.MozOpacity) cur.style.MozOpacity=strength else if (cur.filters) cur.filters.alpha.opacity=strength*100 ........

Excuse abbreviating of this horror story - but you see what I mean. In this site I was called to review - 3,034 characters of pure gobbledygook before you even find page title (removed here by me.). Meta-tags are not to be found. Spider wise, this page is virtually invisible, Sure enough you can find this page by “direct hit”, that is by its name (URL), or by other sites that refer to it, but searching for site itself returns nothing.

5. Publishing. You should publish your site to all free search engines you can, usually in area of some hundreds of engines. This will take from a few weeks to months to yield any significant results and there is no way to speed this up without paying. If you chose to look at paid submissions then paid submissions appear within days – but when you stop paying yearly fees they disappear just as quickly. If you are published regularly to free engines then sooner or later you will probably find your way into paid engines by “back door”. The “back door” relies on fact that search engines interrelate and some of these relationships are known.

6. Push and Pull. To supplement your on-line publicity (“pushing” people to your website) consider “pulling” them by other means as well. All of your company paperwork should have your website and e-mail clearly marked on them. In fact every scrap of paper should be similarly equipped, plus coffee mugs, t-shirts and anything else available to you.

7. The Truth behind Myth. From moment you become visible on-line, people will offer to “boost your placings” and bills for this will rage from modest to thousands. Here is ultimate secret of search engine optimization…..it’s a secret! No one really knows systems used by engines except those who designed them - and anyone who says otherwise is misleading you. There are no guarantees whatsoever because at same time as Richard Olmshaw’s webmaster is trying to make him number one; everyone else’s webmaster is trying to do same thing at same time – often with same tools. It’s going to be a close run race by any standards. 8. In Conclusion Prepare site, publicize, and then wait. Consider promoting site by non-internet techniques – mouse mats, t-shirts etc. Paid inclusion programs if required. Watch your statistics Talk to your webmaster. Respect their abilities – but at end of day remember who is paying piper and therefore calling tune. If your chosen “web professional” will not listen to you, or cannot explain why he cannot or should not realize your ideas – consider changing webmasters.

5. Join a link co-op. Co-ops such as one found at http://www.digitalpoint.com/ are an amazing source of valuable back links and free advertisement. What is a co op network? A Co op network is a network of site owners/webmasters that offer ad space to network. In return, ads they define are displayed across entire network. The best part of ad networks such as one found at digital point, is, they are free. Having your site in a co-op can literally mean thousands of back links for your site.

6. Buying ezine ads is a paid method of advertising, but it works, because it is most targeted of these approaches. Write a concise ad for your business, and link to either a lead-capture page or directly to your autoresponder. Then, begin contacting ezines to place your ad. (Do a search for “ezine directories,” and you will find enough lists to keep you busy.) When you contact an ezine, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. The advantage to a solo ad is that your ad goes out by itself in a separate email, but they can be more expensive. Because these ads are targeted (you should NOT advertise in an unrelated ezine), you will definitely see traffic, but you will need to track your results to see which ezines bring you most and best traffic.

7. Ad Swaps can be an exellent source of advertising. Start by writing some killer copy (to coin a phrase...there are many free articles and ebooks writen on subject). Simply use your favorite search engine and type in...how to write ad copy. I googled this as I am wriying this and it showed 12,400,000 results. WOW! Once you have your ad written, search out Ezines that are in same catagory as your business or service. Again use your favorite web search. Build yourself a list of ezines and then email them asking if they except ad swaps. Include your ad in your corrospondance with ezines so they can see what you are offering. Another place to check for ezines is to type in Ezine directories in your seach engine. Look up ezines in your catagory of business or service. Most listings will tell you if they except ad swaps and peramiters of ad such as how many lines and how many characters per line. Don't forget to ad your website url in your ad.

If you want to have a successful site, whether-it-be a hobby or for business, you have to understand how search engines work. Part of that understanding, is knowing about link development. Maybe in early 90’s idea of “if you build it they will come” might have been true. But in year 2005 internet is a far more competitive and complex place. To be successful today, you have to work at it. Without a quality source of back links search engines will all but ignore your site.