A very quick guide to Site Ownership, Traffic Generation and Search Engine Optimisation for a business deciding to publish webpages for the first time

This article presupposes that you can create pages and upload them via FTP. If you can't do this already then several good books exist for explaining many very accessible WYSIWYG layout packages. FTP clients are relatively simple to install and use - no book required! Alternatively, many good courses can be found in most countries, or on the internet, to teach the basics of web design and publishing.

How do you choose a good domain name? Begin by asking yourself the questions below

• Does it relate to an existing business that you wish to promote or to a new venture?
• Does it need to describe the company / brand name or the services it offers?
  
• Have you checked that you are avoiding conflict with existing trademarks.
  
• Will it be easy for people to remember?
  
• Will extra domain names link up in a meaningful fashion?

How do you move from domain name and holding page to generating fresh traffic quickly and creating a site whilst keeping the budget tight?

• Introduce concept pages and initially, perhaps, an Adwords campaign centred around the general ideas of the business sector and added value aspects using a broad selection of keywords.
  
• Have your opening page up to date and add content continuously whilst you are paying for, or generating fresh, incoming traffic. Content is King. You need people to come back, and they need something to read. The needs of the business are best known to its owner so it follows that this would be the best person to set it up properly. Simple tools are all that are needed to enable someone to upload either basic or edited information.
  
• Create other campaigns and rotate Adwords campaigns and Advert text over a number of months to develop various comparative factors and consolidate into a single base account with approx 50 refined high value keywords / keyphrases aimed at Position 3.5-2.0 and 1-2% clickthru rate at $.30 or less plus 50 wider combination and less frequently inputted keyphrases at $.10 or less aiming at position 2.0-1.0 and 3-7% clickthru rate. This is obviously a variable figure depending on your sector but is designed to give you the idea of an effective ratio.
  
• Place wider network links in, and provide network exit points on, the site in question.
  
• Consider reputable traffic supplying banner placements and other advertising schemes. Often based on an affiliate basis they will involve one off payments per visitor, trade or ongoing payments for initial lead delivery. The disadvantage is that this can mean payments sometimes swallow a large percentage of your net profit on a long term basis.
  
• Develop the site, create content and give users a reason for coming back, frequently!
  
• Promote the site using your existing 'shopfronts' on business vehicles, correspondence, traditional media advertising, staff uniform, explanatory leaflets in the public areas of your premises and free calendars etc., etc., etc!

How do you gain higher search engine results?

• Content is King, remember. It should be rich, relevant and plentiful. The search engine doesn't stop to guage literary talent, however, so even if it reads like rubbish, or is full of meaningless (but keyword rich) drivel, it won't count against you. Large numbers of dubious tricks exist to exploit this situation. It's just selling yourself short, though, to engage in producing text just for the sake of it. The use of randomized keyword text, or near replication, and its widespread abuse will be penalised by all large and reputable search engines.
  
• A well structured site. For site navigation how does each page link to the others within your site? This affects how they are weighted against each other (internal links into and out of pages). Google Pagerank is the method of assigning a value to the various pages of a site and is determined by the way they reference each other and the way in which they are referenced by other sites. Note the difference between toolbar PR (0-10) and 'real' PR of a page from, say, 1 to the total number of results it returns for your search string (between 1 and X million / billion!). Your search string complexity and specifics will dictate the actual number of results an engine is able to offer from its most recent gatherings. It's not much use to have 8 of the front 10 links for a string that is very rarely submitted instead of just 4th place for a string that is frequently inputted.
  
• Descriptive page titles and relevant Meta description and keywords. The greater the subtle variations to indicate why each page is unique, the better
  
• Back links. A link to your site, from another, is effectively a vote in its favour. They are extremely important as the number and quality of external links to a website ('back links') will have an amplifying effect not just on the page(s) to which they link but also throughout the site. In a well structured site you should be able to create a 'feedback' effect throughout the site for the PR increase that an external back link will produce. Ask friends and colleagues with websites to place a link to your site and add it to the relevant sections of major directories and place it on the 'links' pages of related sites. Ask for clients and suppliers to demonstrate their trading position with you with a link, if it can be accomodated within their standard layout. Many websites have partners, affilates, providers and the likes listed. Contact the webmasters of similar sites to see if they would like to exchange links. Personalise such requests to demonstrate that you have thought about the reasons for requesting a link from the site in question. Some will be ignored, some will be politely declined but some will be agreed. Honour your side of the bargain and make sure that their link will be easily accessible within your own site.

How do you administer the site and / or the server effectively?

• Balance present and predicted data consumption against the cost of serving pages, executing or supplying code etc.
  
• Balance security issues and support implications of various user accounts and levels of access. Remote services are often a good option for servers that you want to lock down for security reasons or from which you want to remove the headaches of updating and patching.
  
• Develop internal search and reference when necessary and feasible. For smaller sites various options are open to you in the form of self hosted, or remotely hosted, search engines and storage. Even the most basic 'freebies' will be effective in archiving a single domain, but not a network, in a meaningful fashion. A great new method for searching a large site is to purchase and implement the Google search appliance. Its permeation into the wider environment should be seen over 2005. It implements Google technology in a single rack unit to crawl and reference at single server or farm level.

Bad form and highly likely to get you in trouble!

• Plagiarising or stealing images, code or similar elements
  
• E-mail spamming to advertise a site.
  
• 'Spamming' message boards, guestbooks, shoutboxes or any other freely accessible areas with a link when you, or your website, have no link with the community or individual area.
  
• Using link farms of dissimilar links or traffic 'plague' software. If it's sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
  
• Use of too many gatweay pages using essentially the same info to the same core site. Do you really reckon you can beat Google's tens of thousands of servers?
  
• Bandwidth theft - calling pictures from other domains to appear in your pages, unless of course it is your space or the calls are sanctioned.
  
• Using competitors' names or brands in domain names, titles, meta description or keywords unless it is sanctioned.

General things to avoid

• Being out of date - key areas not updated for ages.
  
• Lack of accountability. Have at least one link to a project, company, partnership or individual, listed on each page who takes responsibility for it. It doesn't need to be as formal as the academic style, name, department, address, telephone or email etc, and a link to contact details or a site's frontpage should suffice. You should also consider privacy policy, disclaimer, terms and legal requirments for commercial sites. Code basic info into the meta tags if you wish.
  
• Having unrealistic linking or advertising policies or holding someone else's search engine results to ransom whilst being paid to do it. Hosting sites in wholly unrelated domains for no sound reason.
  
• Excessive Picture loading time when files are too big. Visitors don't hang around to wait. Don't expect everyone who wants to view your homepage to have the latest shockwave, flash or other plugin in order to gain access unless you have a good reason.
  
• Use of problem frames eg: when it may cause each page to open in a new browser window as a visitor navigates a site. Frames can be fine when implemented properly although you should always be careful to avoid cutting search engines off from your information.
  
• Too many whistles, bells and pops on pages for no real reason. Relatively simple ones with lots of content or a useful application, service or product are the key.
  
• Use of advertising schemes that employ pop-ups, pop-unders or any other irritating and CPU hogging distractions.

Creating and maintaining sites involves many hours of work and a continuous financial commitment. More than anything, though, DO be creative, look at problems from unexplored angles and do a bit of homework if in doubt. Develop a site and traffic synchronously within the available budget. Have you a unique angle? Why should people spend a lot of time on your site, use its services or buy its products? Well placed advertising on external networks, sponsorship, use of external services, media advertising and listing together with traditional methods of disseminating information and the raising of brand awareness will still be requirements for many years to come. So yes, radio, tv, newspapers, magazines, periodicals, business cards, brochures, promotional gifts etc., do still have their merits for a while longer. But get out there and do it now because, if you don't, someone else sure as hell will. And remember, when you click a hyperlink, that's a global journey accomplished in a millisecond, through the hardware. The web is a three dimensional, four dimensional environment that offers possibilities of communication, undreamt of before ubiquitous access for everybody became a viable vision. Get with it, get on with it and have FUN!