More than 85 percent of all Internet users rely on search engines or directories to locate Web sites, so most Webmasters are desperate to have their sites listed. But a listing is only the first step in Web site promotion. Next, you have to work to increase your site's ranking on the search engine results page. If your site isn't listed on the top three pages of search results, then 97 percent of Web searchers will never find you.

An effective online Web site promotional strategy is a three-step process. First, you must design your pages with promotion in mind. Next, decide what submission and placement strategies to use. Finally, constantly monitor your site's performance.

Step one: Successful promotion

An effective promotional strategy begins during the Web design phase and continues throughout the life of your site. Design and promotion should be linked more tightly than a DNA strand. If you design with promotion in mind, it’s easy to identify design issues that could cause you problems with search engines.

Poor page design is one of the top contributors to search engine problems. Search engine spiders can't index your page if they can't read it. Yet many Web designers use techniques that confuse the spiders or block them out entirely. Examples include the following:

• Frames: The top-level frameset contains the information a browser needs to display the Web pages inside the frame. A search engine spider needs more information to index the site completely. Always place links to your other pages inside a NOFRAMES tag and include it in your top-level frameset HTML code. That gives the spider the road map it needs to travel through the rest of your site.
• Flash: Used judiciously, Flash is a great tool, but it does have downsides, such as increased download time. It also requires special software to view it, and spiders can't index the content.
• Splash pages: Like Flash, splash pages often contain lots of images, but little or no actual content. The graphics increase page download time, so you may turn away human visitors as well as search engine spiders.

• TITLE: The TITLE tag should summarize your site in a few words and contain as many keywords as possible. Since the title is listed as part of the search engine results, make it compelling enough to tempt searchers to visit your site.
• META: Use META tags to give the spider a description of your site's content and to define your keywords (terms you expect visitors to use to find your site in a search engine).

• Paid submission: This is used by Yahoo, LookSmart, and NBCi. They promise to give you a quick answer (often within two to five business days) about whether your site has been accepted into the directory. You are not guaranteed a listing -- only a quick answer. However, Yahoo reports that most paid submission sites do get included because Webmasters who pay generally make sure they're submitting a high-quality site.
• Paid inclusion: This policy is used by LookSmart, Inktomi, and AskJeeves. You get a guaranteed listing (but not a guaranteed ranking) in exchange for payment. Sites get listed quickly. As an added benefit, the search engine companies promise to add multiple pages from your site to their indexes. Every additional page listing increases the chance that visitors will find your site.
• Paying for placement: GoTo is the major player here. Web sites bid for site rank under a particular keyword or list of keywords. They pay GoTo each time a visitor clicks on their link. This system guarantees a top listing, but can get expensive. The cost per click is based on the popularity of the keywords you chose. For example, the number one spot for "lemonade" or "organic beans" costs a penny per click, while a top spot at "second mortgages" fetches more than US$2.00 per click.