Search engines have great importance to online business. When people look for something on net they usually use search engines to type in keywords, and a search engine returns a list of matches to request from its database. If your web page is listed within first 30 matches (perhaps up to first 100 matches) you will get traffic. But if it’s ranking lower than that your chances to receive visitors are slim. Thus, it’s a matter of great import to optimize your page so to be listed near top position.

Needless to say you have to submit your page to major search engines to be included into their database. Only after that people will be able to find your site through search engines. It’s first and very simple step you have to do.

More difficult is to gain some knowledge about meta tags. While human eyes see and enjoy pictures and text of your page, a search engine examines HTML – code language used to build web pages. You may see what a search engines sees if you click in your browser View then Source. The meta tags should go inside header tags (between and ). If your page doesn’t have correct meta tags search engines will give it low ranking.

Most important meta tags are keyword meta tag and description meta tag. Here are some tips to write them correctly.

Fulfillment includes taking order, packing, shipping and processing financial transaction. It could also include customer service, technical support, inventory management, and processing refunds, returns and warranty claims.

Fulfillment is a vital but costly aspect of operating a business. Your situation determines which approach works best for you.

1. Drop Shipping Drop shipping is an arrangement in which a wholesaler or manufacturer agrees to fulfil orders from items in their warehouse. You make sale, conduct financial transaction, and send relevant data to company to process. Since company ships merchandise, you do not have to arrange warehousing or inventory management.

Many businesses will not agree to drop shipping, as they find it more profitable to process large orders instead of individual orders. However, there are exceptions. Find a company that produces merchandise that you would like to sell then contact them and see if they will negotiate.

Alternatively, look for a company that promotes drop shipping. Run a Net search or a Yahoo search for "drop shipping." Before signing a drop shipping agreement, ask for references from satisfied merchants.

2. Set Up Your Own Mail Room Micro businesses might set up a "mailroom" in basement. It's cost effective, but labor intensive.

You will need a means of processing payment (i.e. credit card capabilities) and a means of keeping track of inventory, orders, refunds, etc. Yahoo's Small Business category lists numerous companies selling software for small business management.

Larger small businesses might opt to set up a mailroom in workplace and assign employees to handle order fulfillment. This allows most control over fulfillment as everything is done on site. You can ensure that knowledgeable people handle customer service, that packaging is appropriate, and that refunds, warranties and are processed in a timely manner.

3. Integrated Fulfillment for Web

Businesses that are adding online sales to their regular operations require software that integrates with existing system, manages inventory, facilitates customer service and generally handles all aspects of fulfillment.