What You Should Be Doing While Your Web Site is Being Created

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

You just decided to own a web site. You have been hounded by people for months – maybe years – to get on the informational highway, and now you have. A web site is an investment and you may be asking yourself, “Is there anything I should be doing to help this project along?” That answer is YES. There are several items that you, as an owner, can do to make your web site a success.

The mystery of the web is that there are so many other sites vying for people’s attention. You have to allow your site to be seen by Google, MSN, and Yahoo. This process is called, indexing, and it gets your web site noticed. The short version of getting your site indexed on the major search engines is to get links pointing to you from other web sites that are already indexed. Honestly, this takes time and effort, and you won’t see the results right away. However, there are a few things that you can do to help this process along.

Home Page. When you purchase your domain name, make sure that your web designer puts up a home page for you. Even if the home page contains just your logo and contact information (with email) you have a spot for the search engines to find you. I would suggest putting up a few simple extras:

• Your logo and contact information about your business.


• A short paragraph about you or your business to let the reader know what you do.


• A form for people to receive email updates about your business.


• A link to your blog. If you don’t have a blog, start one. This is a way for you to communicate with your customers. I go into more detail about this in my article, Why Don’t You Have A Blog?

These are simple upgrades to do while you are waiting for your web site to be finished and people won’t be annoyed with an “Under Construction”. On the internet, people want to find out some information. If you give them a small bit of info about your business and offer to help them with more information, they will be pleased and come back to your site. If they walk away feeling cheated that you have an error sign where your site should be, then they may never come back.

Write and Submit Articles. I cannot stress this enough. This is just as important as writing your blog because it accomplishes so much for your business in one simple step. It doesn’t matter if your business is a hair salon or a computer software development firm. Writing articles and submitting them to directories such as www.isnare.com and www.ezinearticles.com is like playing a game of chess with the search engines. You are setting yourself up for success by writing them in the following ways:

• By writing an article, you are establishing yourself as an expert in your field.


• You create information for people to come to your web site. (You will put your articles on your web site, won’t you?)


• When you submit an article to a directory you receive one of those links I mentioned earlier coming into your web site which helps you get indexed.


• People with newsletters and their own blogs have access to your article and will put it on their web sites bringing even more links to you.

You get a good feeling, too, when you start to realize your article is all over the internet. I wrote my first article called 5 Tips For Starting Runners about a year ago and when I look onto Google today, it is still mentioned on 17 different web sites. Other than writing it and sending it to a directory, I did nothing to promote it.

Gather Links from Indexed Sites. If you write in a blog or submit some articles, you will find that this is already done for you. However, do not stop there. You will find there are many professional directories out there that will willingly link your web site address back to you. All they usually ask is for a link back in return. Some do not. The essential thing to remember here is these directories are in the same category as your web site. It will not help you as well if you submit to a general directory if you can find something related to your field. If you purchase manufactured items, see if you can link to the manufacturer’s page. Trade links with business associates and friends that own their own web sites. The more incoming links you have, the better off you will be.

These are just some primary samples of what you can do to get that head start on your web site. There are many tricks to getting your web site indexed and placed higher on the search engines. This takes due time and diligence from either you or your SEO marketer. In the long run, you can have a very successful online presence but you need to lay the groundwork before you even launch your web site.