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intro: welcome So you've built a webpage and now you want the world to know about it. The suggestions on these pages should give you an idea of how you can promote your website on the Internet and bring more visitors to your corner of the web. Almost all of the ideas listed here can be done by yourself for free. one: build a good website Don't even think about promoting your website until you feel it is ready. Try to make your opening page simple and fast loading. Don't you just hate those websites where the opening page scrolls on and on? Avoid having tons of banners and logos on your pages. Avoid those annoying autoplay music files. If it says "under construction" anywhere on your site, it isn't ready. Build the best site you can. Be informative. Learn the basics of HTML -- even if you are already using a webpage building program. If you don't have graphic design skill, then learn about good page layout techniques. Or collaborate with a graphics oriented person. Use your imagination. Be creative. Put your external links on a separate links page (see step three). Make it so people want to stay on your site, and come back, and tell others. And maybe even link to your site. two: get your title tag and meta tags in order Your title tag and meta tags can be important in getting properly listed in some search engines. Read the Zen Meta Tag Guide for details. three: get other sites to link to yours Some search engines, including Google, use link popularity when they rank their search results. And having many quality links to your site will bring visitors. Go surf around and find other sites like yours, and ask them to link to you or trade links with them. For some tips on how to do this see the Zen Links Guide. four: get listed at the major search engines You can find out how to submit your website to the major search engines at the Zen Guide to Search Engines. five: get listed at search engines & directories specific to your site's topic Go to Yahoo! and find web directories related to the topic of your website. Example: Let's say your site is about art or you are a visual artist. Go to Yahoo, type "art directories" (without the quotation marks) into the search box. Visit some of the sites that come up on Yahoo's list, and then submit your own site to them. Many of them will ask you to link back to them. But you already have a links page for that, right? (See step four.) You might also want to try the other major search engines for other directories related to your topic. Visit the Zen Links Guide for more details and an example. six: more ideas If you can afford it, get your own domain name. It's easier to tell someone that your website is at: www.germanroots.com than it is to tell them it is at http://home.att.net/~wee-monster (both of those URLs will take you to the same place -- one of my own websites). It's easier to remember too. Try Network Solutions If your website is hosted at AT&T's Worldnet service (like this one), you can find more ideas to promote it here. seven: be patient If you build a website, they won't come, but if you carefully follow the instructions on these pages, people will come to your site. Eventually. It can take up to two months to get properly listed at some of the search engines. It can take months for your site to get "discovered" by people looking for sites like yours. If your site is good enough, people will start linking to it without you even asking them to (see step one). Check up on your listings at the search engines and directories you have submitted to. Get as many quality links as you can find. Every one of them counts. eight: enjoy your web popularity If your website starts bringing in some good traffic you might want to try and make some money from online advertising. One way is to join Google's Adsense program... Want to learn more about search engines and marketing? Try...
Also Recommended: Search Engine Optimization for Dummies by Peter Kent
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