"Presence is more than just being there." Malcolm S. Forbes

Every small business needs to have a website in order to be competitive in the 21st century. However, simply having a website isn't enough. You also have to take steps so that your customers, existing and new, can find it.

• New traffic through search engine listings - 80% of web surfers discover the new sites that they visit through search engines (Forrester Research).
• Solutions and vendors found through search engines - 85% of web users use search engines to find solutions and vendors (iProspect).

Getting listed on a search engine

Search engines and directories are special sites that try to catalog or index all the pages and sites on the web. Search engines help visitors find the information and websites they seek by producing "search results" in response to visitors entering a few key words about the topic they're searching for. It is important to have your site listed on the most popular search engines (including Google, Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, and Altavista), because 85% of web users use search engines to find solutions and vendors.

Getting listed on a search engine (a key part of search engine marketing, or SEM) does not instantly happen when your site is launched. There are three ways your site can get listed on search engines and directories:

1. Search engine submission - You can submit your site to each individual search engine or directory. The directions for doing this are available at each individual search engine or directory, and each of them will have a different process and different requirements for high listings. You can find this information on each search engine or directory's site.
2. "Spiders" and "bots" - Your website can be randomly found by a search engine or directory's "spider" or "bot." Search engines regularly send out spiders and/or bots to search the web for sites to index that are not yet in their listing. However, there is no guarantee that they will find your site.
3. Hire a specialist - You can hire a company who will submit your site to search engines or directories for you. Often companies that provide this service have methods which will move your site up in the listings. This is important as consumers generally will not look beyond the first few pages of search results when they use a search engine or directory to find something.

Another benefit to hiring a company is that they will know the optimal frequency that your website should be submitted to each search engine and directory. (You have to keep submitting your site on a regular basis to maintain your position in the rankings.) Undersubmitting can lose you visitors, but oversubmitting can get you barred from the site and removed from the search engine rankings entirely.

Improving your ranking

There are many ways you can improve the ranking of your website on the search engines. Check with the individual search engines to which you submit your site to see what they specifically look for in a website, but the following general strategies should help.

• Keywords - use important keywords (the words you think your customers will be searching for) in the titles of your pages and in the body text near the top of the page.
• Repeat keywords often in your writing. Do not type the same word three times in a row (you are writing for your visitors as well as for the search engines), but try to use the same keywords as much as possible, not synonyms. The more often a search engine finds the keyword on your page, the higher your ranking. Search engines do not rank different words of similar meaning the same.
• Link exchange - try to get other sites to link to you. If you can find websites for similar but not competing products or information, contact them and ask to swap links. The more sites linked to you, the higher your ranking in the search engine results. Linking your site to many others increases their ranking, not yours. You have to convince them to link back.
• Meta tags - meta keyword tags and meta description tags do not appear on the web page itself. Instead they are inserted in the heading section of your HTML code. Some search engines use these tags to help decide how to rank your site. You can learn more about meta tags from a web designer, a search engine marketing firm, or in the support documents provided with your online website building tool.

Integrate your website with traditional marketing materials

Your website should be printed on all of your business stationery, and any promotional materials you produce including:

• Business cards
• Letterhead
• Email signatures
• Brochures
• Newsletters - online and paper
• Media releases
• Catalogs
• Annual reports
• Postcards
• Yellow page listings
• Print advertising
• Free giveaways like T-shirts or coffee mugs bearing your logo.

The more often your existing customers see your web address, the more likely they are to visit it. As you become more familiar with the tools available on your website, the more you can integrate it into your overall marketing strategy for your company. You have learned that a website is a necessity for any small business today, but if you design it to complement your other marketing strategies, you will be thinking a step beyond your competition.

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