Search engine optimization, advertising 101: your business's visibility at the major search engines, whether in search results or in ads, can have a marked effect on your sales.(Business Center)

YOU CAN'T SIMPLY open a new Web site, sit back, and expect a horde of visitors to show up at your virtual storefront. You must promote your site. Search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising on search engines, if done right, can strengthen your online business and your bottom line.

Maximizing Search Position

SEO is the practice of modifying Web pages to enhance their visibility in search engine results. If your business sells, say, left-handed widgets, your goal is to be listed near the top of the results if someone performs a search using the keywords "left-handed widgets." If your site isn't within the top 30 search results, research shows, very few visitors will click through to it.

To reach a high rank in a search engine, you must learn to think like the robots (also called spiders and crawlers) that search engines such as Google use to find and catalog Web pages. First, learn to describe your products and services at your Web site using words that your prospective customers will likely use in a search (most search engines understand words, not images).

Search-engine robots give certain aspects of a Web page, such as its title and its major headings, special emphasis. So don't squander the potential benefit by using a nondescript title like "Home Page of Rick's Online Store" (search bots won't even notice that). Instead, devise a detailed title that reinforces the primary anticipated search term for the page, such as "Left-Handed Widget Superstore, San Francisco, CA."

Links to your site from other, well regarded sites can boost your search-result rankings, too. I recommend contacting the Webmasters of related (but not competing) sites for link opportunities. Contact them personally, not via an annoying automated link spammer (which most recipients will ignore).

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