Your identity. What separates you from everyone else.

I would be willing to bet that you spent a good deal of time coming up with perfect name for your company. Am I right?

Something catchy, easy to remember, and unique. How am I doing so far?

What if I were to tell you that your company name is possibly single biggest hindrance to your business's success online.

Unfortunately, for most companies it is.

Choosing a name for your business online is much different than choosing a name for a brick and mortar business.

You see, in real world, a business with a catchy, easy to remember name will get traffic simply from people driving by on street or walking by in a shopping center even if they have never heard of you before.

Unfortunately, this is not how things work online. Online, there is no drive-by traffic, no people walking in to your business because they were next door shopping.

Online, you must be found among a pool of tens of thousands of other businesses.

Online, people don't casually browse with friends to pass time.

Online, people search... and unless your name is Microsoft, Wal-Mart, or another extremely well known and well branded name, people are not going to search for your company name.

Studies show that approximately 80% of internet users find what they are looking for by way of search engines (i.e., Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, etc.), and I guarantee you, they are not going to be searching for your wonderful catchy name, they will be searching for topic they want.

Let me give you an example. Let's say you own a gourmet coffee business called "The Brewmaster" that you decide to take online. Of course you love your name and create your online identity around your offline name. You reserve domain name "www.brewmaster.com", keep your company name, and title your site "The Brewmaster".

You've submitted your site to Yahoo as well as all other directories and search engines. Ahhh....life is good. Orders should start rolling in any minute now......

Guess what? Unless you have a HUGE marketing budget for banner ads, etc., you've just doomed your business.

Let's look at why.

First, let's look at the..

*Site Title*

Whether your dealing with a directory or a search engine, site title is single most important aspect of your listing. For search engines, text found within title tags of page is given more weight than any other single factor on that page (i.e., keyword density, keyword frequency, heading tags, etc.). In a directory, your entire listing is comprised of two things, your title, and your description.

In both cases, if keywords related to your business are not found in your title, your chances of coming up for a search are virtually non-existent. If your site is about "gourmet coffee" then those words or at very least, "coffee", should be somewhere within your title.

My question is about getting a website listed on major search engines.

For past several months I have been submitting my website to several of major search engines. But, I don't think I am listed by any of them. At least I can find my site when I do a search for my keywords.

Can you take a look at my site and tell me if there is something wrong with my site that is preventing me from getting listed? This is really frustrating.

Signed,

Frustrated

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Dear Frustrated,

Getting listed on any of major search engines can be a trying adverture. But, so much of Web traffic comes from these engines, it is worth effort.