In recent years search engines have garnered the majority of press involving the success of individual web sites. The conventional wisdom dictates that if you have a good placement on a major search engine you will be successful. This is, in fact, not the case. Search engines and directories (Yahoo) are becoming less effective daily. The Internet is growing exponentially and the search engines just can’t keep up. In reality most search engines aren’t even trying to keep up with the growth of the Internet.

The major players, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Infoseek etc. have become "portals". These portals want to be the first place you visit when you go online. Now that they have made a name for themselves they would like to control exactly where you go after you enter their site. They exist not to take you to the place you wish to go, but to expose you to the advertising and content of their new corporate owners. Good placement on these "portals" is nearly impossible.

Some of these portals offer "premium" placement if you pay a fee. Yahoo, for example, offers three-day placement if you pay a fee of $200. Registration is still free if "you are willing to wait". Well, what they don’t tell you is that you can wait until hell freezes over and you will not be placed unless you pay the fee. Yahoo is still the most popular search engine but in my opinion it is only a matter of time before this trend is reversed. These sites will soon become known to the general public as being less than effective.

In a recent survey by the Los Angeles Times the most effective search engine (Northern Light) indexed only 16% of the available pages on the Internet! In order for your site to be successful you need to increase the odds of your site being found. As your web master I will submit your site to all major search engines, directories and link lists. 

Fortunately, the time proven means of becoming known to the public still apply. Advertise! Thanks to the Internet the means available to us to advertise are opened up a bit. The old rules still apply. Your domain name should be on everything you print. Business cards, brochures, letterhead, all business correspondence, with no exceptions. Those are the old way and they still work. Newly available by way of the Internet are "links". You should make the effort to find every possible site on the Internet that could be interesting to anyone who you might like to find your site. Many of those sites will have a links page that your site should be on which your site can be listed. Usually all it takes is the agreement to list their site on your "links page". This is an extremely useful and usually free way to find visitors. Another way to advertise your site is through banner ads.

You’ve seen them, those somewhat obtrusive banners that occupy the prominent spaces on web sites. The way it works is this: you pay directly to have your banner displayed on a site or you pay "per hit" on your banner. Great concept, poor follow through. Less than one percent of viewers will ever click on your banner. One possible exception is having a banner on a site that appeals to focused groups. If you manufacture boats and there is a successful site catering to the boating public a banner on a site such as that can work well. While banners usually cost something, links to your site are generally free.

If, for example, your company manufactures buggy whips you should be listed on every web site that offers services to horse owners, feed stores, racetrack owners, etc. I’ve seen site hits jump to the top of the scale just by being listed on the links page of popular web sites. This is your responsibility. No one knows your industry as well as you do. You must make the effort to find what sites are well known to your potential users. 

Another way of getting your site viewed is through press releases. Every publication is hungry for input from legitimate users. Trade publications in particular and consumer publications to a lesser extent will publish what you send them if it is of use to their readers. The industry you are in probably has a "pulp" publication. They will welcome your press release. The more "deluxe" publications may request you place an advertisement. Those publications probably have a classified section where it is quite economical to advertise. Why buy a big ad to present pictures and text describing your buggy whips when you can present your domain name in a classified ad and then have the viewers see your fully detailed brochure on-line?

In my experience really interested parties peruse every detail of pertinent publications. A big back cover advertisement may be a waste of money if you utilize other resources effectively.

Your web site will be an effective vehicle for promoting your product or company if you put forth the effort to make it so. It isn’t necessarily easy but it doesn’t need to be expensive. The major advantage of owning your own domain is to give you the flexibility to keep your information up-to-date without having major printing costs along with the costs of delivering this information to interested persons. Brochures and other means of advertising are expensive to produce, print and deliver. Your web site can negate most of those costs.