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We often get the general question of how to market a website. It sometimes comes in form "How do I register my website with Yahoo?" It's sometimes, "What about those meta things?"

What you really care is "how do people know about me?"

SEO

These and many other questions are in a broad category of expertise called Search Engine Optimization. There are companies specialized in that and offer expensive services to market your website. Google "search engine optimization" and you see the breadth of what's out there. As in all things web, you must be careful about what you accept as truth. There is an incredible amount of folklore out there about how Google or Yahoo does things. I'm probably guilty of propagating some of this myself.

The good news is that with our CMS/on-line editor, you have full control of the meta information and can try a few of these and experiment. Be sure to give them a month or so before changing.

You need to keep in mind one thing as you proceed. Search Engines find you through links. As amazing as it sounds, these huge programs keep track of who is connected to whom. With that in mind, you will want to have people link to you. If your business buys from a supplier with a website, they might be willing to link to you. You might want to join an association with a website with links to members. Stay aware of possibilities because they vary with each industry.

If someone guarantees placement on a search engine, be careful of the narrow search trick. If your search terms are specific enough, almost anything be on the first page. If the search terms aren't those probably used by seekers, it's a waste of time.

One more thing on SEO. The search engines regularly change their analysis so something you do that is very effective might suddenly be ineffective.

Other ways

Awareness:

You can and should use traditional marketing methods to make people aware of your website. That gets them there once. Yellow pages can list your website. Newspaper ads, direct mail and billboards work too. The idea is to use conventional marketing to generate interest and the website to provide detail. Some people sell items on E-Bay at very low price and point to the website for additional information.

Return visits:

Once they visit, you want to provide a reason to return and to tell others. Posting articles with helpful ideas is one way to gain popularity if you're an expert on something. Period coupons for discounts will get some people to return. Whatever you do, change the website regularly. Both humans and search engines figure out very quickly if you never change things. You website becomes boring to both.

Copy:

I mean ideas, not content. Look at other websites to get ideas on what catches attention and what draws people for a return visit. Look both in your industry and outside. Looking inside keeps you competitive. Looking outside will get fresh ideas.

Registering

You don't need to pay anyone to register a website.

The better search engines will find you anyway.

If you don't want to wait, you can go to the search engine website and register yourself.

You don't want to spend much time or money getting to all the smaller search engines because the top 3 (Google, Yahoo, MSN) cover the vast majority of on-line search.