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In this article we will focus on marketing your website on the internet through search engines and directories.

Marketing a successful business or information site needs a targeted strategy. Many people are under the misconception that if they build a website they will immediately gain customers for their existing business. Building an online presence should be used as part of an overall marketing plan in conjunction with other means of advertising.

In large, the internet is used for 2 purposes, Information and sales. If an individual comes to your site for information they are researching, or to purchase a product you are selling, they expect to find it quickly and easily. This means, you as a designer or site owner must have a clear and concise navigation system. The navigation must be positioned in a familiar place on the page and not hidden so the visitor has to hunt for it. The information must also be relevant to the key words the visitor has typed into the search engine. This is where seo or search engine optimization comes in. In order for the search engine to index your site correctly you must have a relivant title, a key word meta tag in the head of the html document, and the proper density of key words within the body copy of your page that flows naturally.

Getting your site indexed can be a timely process. In the beginning it may take up to 8 weeks for a search engine to initially crawl your site. Submission to the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and directories such as dmoz, an open directory, should take place only after you have properly optimized your site. Because this initial crawl can take a long period of time, you want the information contained in the page to be relevant and listed correctly the first time. Directories such as dmoz are not crawled. They are actually looked at and read through by human beings that determine if the information contained in the pages is relevant.

Adding information to your site on a regular basis is also critical to your visitors and the search engines. Fresh reliable information will keep visitors and search engine crawlers (also called robots) coming back. The lager the amount of relevant information contained in the pages, the more likely it will be your site moves up in the search engine listings.