You type in magic words, whatever they are, and watch as a list of websites flows down page. You click on first one, and it's an instant assault on your eyeballs. Ten glaring banners, flashing like Vegas at midnight. One of those annoying hover ads that follows you as you scroll and won't let you read anything until you click corner. Some sparkly things "snowing" down page. Frantic messages screaming things like BUY NOW! LAST CHANCE! INSTANT SUCCESS CAN BE YOURS. A picture of a grinning guy who reminds you of your creepy Uncle Lester.

You click away. Not today, not any day. You don't care what that guy is selling or even if he's giving something away, because his presentation is god-awful. Just when you thought you'd escaped mayhem, a sneaky little window pops up: "WHY DID YOU LEAVE THIS SITE? Please fill out this quick survey!" Are they kidding? You consider typing something offensive in "Leave Your Comment" box, but figure it will only encourage someone to spam you with unwanted offers.

We're all familiar with this web-surfing experience. It's downright unpleasant. What's your opinion of someone who pitches their company in such a loud and desperate manner? Do you believe all of their pie-in-the-sky promises? Do they strike you as company run by people who are intelligent, honest and reliable? Are you going to whip out your credit card because they tell you to?

Of course you're not. Being loudest, brightest, busiest and boldest may attract attention, but it does not bring sales. That's something to remember when you're creating your own company website. What DOES attract and keep new customers coming back? A simple, tasteful web design. An easily navigable site. Copy that's crisp, clean, and interesting.

Here are 7 reasons to tone down your advertising:

1. Flash is just too flashy. A flash presentation can be creative and unique, but is it really needed for what you offer? Will that kooky winking clown-head in corner really make sale for you? Even if you find a really excellent designer who can put together an incredible high-tech Flash feature, consider harried web surfer. She's been clicking all day; do you really think she has patience to stand for one more mini-movie?

One of biggest problems faced by website owners today is promoting their sites. More and more people can build them (and build them well) but most people (web designers included) get stumped when it comes to promoting.

What should you do? What shouldn't you do?

I am always trying to put promotion into simplest terms possible and I think this 3-step program is about as simple as it gets:

1. Choose to target keyphrases that aren't overly competitive
2. Modify your web page content for these terms
3. Seek (buy) external, one-way, inbound hyperlinks to your website with your keyphrases as link text

(At end of each step you will notice a "Resources" section. These resources will help you accomplish each task and are given a rating out of 10 based on our knowledge and experience.)

Step 1: Targeting Keyphrases

In order to start and run a successful website promotion campaign, you need to have objectives. Figuring out which keyphrases you'd like to rank well for is first step. Ideally you want terms that are closely related to your business (obviously), searched for frequently, and don't have a lot of competition.

The ratio of how popular a term is to its competition is referred to as KEI: Keyword Efficiency Index. Try to maximize this ratio when selecting your terms.

If you have a web design business, pursuing a term like "web design" is just not realistic. Sure, there are a ton of searches for it every day but competition is very steep. The likelihood that you will ever break top ten is extremely unlikely. A term like "calgary web design shop", however, may still be fairly popular but it will have far less competition. It will also be much more targeted to your specific business so it should result in a higher conversion rate of browsers to customers.

Resources:

• WordTracker (paid service) - 10/10
• Overture Keyword Selector Tool (free) - 8/10
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool (free) - 6/10

Step 2: Modifying your Web Pages

Now that you have identified terms you want to pursue you'll need to modify your web pages to ensure that these terms are targeted. This is referred to as web page optimization. Don't be intimidated, though. A decent piece of software and a basic knowledge of HTML can get you through this task.

This step is done so that when search engines arrive, they gobble up your web pages and index them favourably for keyphrases that you identified in Step 1.

For every internet marketer out there, there is a different opinion on what is important and what isn't when optimizing pages. I recommend that if you're not using one of recommended pieces of software that you leave this step up to a professional - it can take practice, experience, creativity and finesse to master this skill.

Resources:

• WebPosition Gold - 9/10
• IBP - 8/10
• WebCEO - 8/10

Step 3: Inbound Links