If you’ve recently said “Dang, I thought people would flock to my new website, but they’re not!” then this article is for you. So is there something wrong with your website or your expectation?

Well, putting it in the simplest terms, it’s like you built a beautiful, new, highly technical, secure, and fully functional mail box in the middle of a national wilderness area and now you’re just sitting back waiting for your mail to come in.

You know how absurd it is to think any mail will appear in your new box if you have not published the new address. Of course, it’s possible a stray hiker might come across your new mailbox and admire how beautiful it is, but they certainly won’t be carrying any mail for you.

Building and publishing a new website is only half of the battle. The real work is done in marketing your new site so it will be found by your target audience and it’s not as easy as getting a change of address postcard from the post office.

It takes time, persistence and patience to build traffic and to elevate your site in search engine results. There’s no legitimate way to rapidly move your site to the top of the page in search results, unless your website is about the most obscure subject on the planet and someone happens to be searching by those same obscure key word. For example, if you have a website about common fungal infections of slugs and someone happens to be searching for what’s wrong with my slug, you might hit the top of the charts right away, but for the rest of us, who live and work in the real world, it’s just not that simple.

What not to do....
There are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies all over the internet promising to get your site to the #1 position in a Google search. Many are "Black Hat" operatives (many from out of the country), and they have a long list of prohibited or questionable techniques they use to "temporarily" move a site up to the top of the page during organic searches by key words. A classic example of one of their techniques is to put a long list of key words, some not even relevant to your site subject in the background and out of site. It’s called Key Word Stuffing and if and when the search engines detect a site with Key Word Stuffing they have the option to flag and block that site. Another technique they use is creating inbound links from websites that are nothing more than long lists of links. But the search engines algorithms are smarter than that and it will only be a matter of time before this or some other black hat stunt will result in your site being blocked. I warn you, (no I beg you) not to get sucked into these scams. The techniques they use are carefully designed to temporarily circumvent the filters and controls of search engine algorithms. These services are expensive, temporary and dangerous and using “Black Hat” techniques could result in irreparable damage to your internet presence. You will pay the price for using nefarious tactics, not the company you hired. They’ll leave you with a site that has been blocked by the search engines, while they’re off pedaling the same bogus service to someone else. Remember, if it’s too good to be true, it’s not true.

So what can you do....
All the current SEO best practices say that you need to put your best foot forward on your "Home Page" because it gets the highest status in the indexing process. Also, you need relevant keywords in your headings, and use key words in your content but only in the natural flow of the text. Label all the pictures used in your site. The current best practices "white hat techniques" say to design and write your website for your customers, not for the search engines. Think about the information your customers are looking for, what are their problems, what are their questions, and how can you and your website provide the most current and accurate answers to these questions.

Also, getting good search engine results takes time, 3 months, 6 months even a year and during that time you’ll need to do everything you can to make you and your site an authority in your particular field. It's more than adding a couple of press releases, or updating your site with new photos. It's about solving problems for your customers.

If you think about the way you (and everyone else) uses the internet, then the current search engine indexing algorithms make perfect sense. When you do a search on the internet you want the most relevant, targeted, authentic, reliable, accurate, and timely information to rise to the top of the search results page.

But since the decision about what is relevant and timely has to be made by a computer that is searching through billions of bits of information they need to have really powerful algorithms to quickly sort through the data. Just think about the billions upon billions of words on the internet. All that information needs to be scanned, organized, stacked, and presented to you in a nanosecond after you hit the enter key. It’s a daunting task that gets larger every day, so learn to work with the search engines not against them.

So here is a short list of criteria that impact search engines results.
• The length of time the site has been on the internet
• The frequency and scope of the updates on the site
• The amount of traffic going to the site
• The number of inbound links
• The relevance of the site content (this is where key words come into play)

Certainly, this is an over simplification because the SEO algorithms have over 100 criteria built into the analysis which includes things like, an upper and lower limit for certain criteria, assigning different values to information on the home page and headers, the ranking of the site from which inbound links originate. The algorithms evaluate key words and either add or subtract value based on additional criteria. For example, too many key words in any block of text is devalued even if every one of the key words is pertinent to the content. After all, everyone knows, including search engines designers, that a good sentence has numerous connecting words to make it read correctly, so they evaluate and compare the "density" of key words to the volume of text. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Don’t just passively wait to be found…
The VERY BEST thing you can do to get to the top of an internet search and stay there, is to be an authority in your field. Make the commitment to write a blog about what's going on in your corner of the world and link that blog to your site. The posts don't have to be long, but each one should help someone solve a problem or reveal an answer to a question. If you have a website that sells knitting supplies then don’t tell someone how to change the oil in their car. Your content, answers, and solutions need to relate to your site. If you want to be at the top of internet search results then make a commitment to be an authority in your field and demonstrate that by solving your customer’s problems. Be available to answer questions publically on, your blog, or via social media, all of which should be linked to your website.

Certainly, it may attract future clients, but that should not be your primary purpose in writing blog posts. Think about adding value to the world, and making that value available to anyone with an interest, curiosity, or need to know. Be a thought leader and let your website be the conduit through which the world can connect to your expertise.

Inbound links are important so spend some time building relationships. Ask related, tangential, or complimentary businesses to add a link on their resources page to your site and you can add a link to their site on yours. Many links from high quality sites will help elevate your site in search results so it’s worth spending some time in this process.

Profiles and Social sites are an excellent way to improve search results…
Google gives preferences to sites that are connected to Facebook, Google+, and for sites that have a completed Google profile. It would also be well worth your time to set up Google, Bing, and Yahoo profiles and to open a Twitter account so when you add anything to your blog you can also send out a tweet and post on your Facebook page, that new information is available on your site with a link to your site.

Internet Directories
In addition, populating internet directories is also useful. Register with as many relevant directories, as possible. Yelp, Merchant Circle, LinkedIn, YP (yellow pages), Angies List, etc. are all good ways to get better search engine results. The directories, by nature of what they are, show up high in search results as do eBay and Amazon, so be sure to piggy back these results by adding your company profile to as many directories, as seems appropriate for your business.

A Side Note about Amazon
Also, if you can sell your products through Amazon or eBay you should consider that option. Yes, you have to pay fees to these organizations for every item sold but their search engine results are always near the top, so having your products listed with them will make your products much more accesible to a wider market. If you sell knitting supplies and you list them with Amazon (your website might be buried on page 84 in the search results) but your new titanium knitting needles can be in the top spot via Amazon. So you can sell the knitting needles through Amazon for a little less margin or not sell them at all because your site cannot be found. Also, once you’ve sold a product through Amazon, you now have a new customer with whom you can follow up and build a long term relationship and the value of the future direct sales to this customer may make the initial fees paid to Amazon of little significance.

Have you ever noticed that you can place one order with Amazon for a book, a case of canned organic pumpkin puree, a new toner cartridge and a pair of slippers, all at the same time and get all these products delivered with no freight charges? There are very good reason practically every major supplier makes their products available through Amazon. It’s simple. Selling through Amazon increases sales, and provides suppliers with direct access to new customers.

Certainly, some products and services can’t be sold through Amazon but if any of your products can be sold through this pervasive internet retailer, then don’t try to go it alone; you’ll just be sacrificing increased sales and new customers.

Summary
• Be a thought leader in your field and publish helpful, short, relevant blog posts at least once a week.
• Connect Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. to your website.
• Use these free social tools to spread the word about every new blog post.
• Make short technical videos to demonstrate solutions to problems and publish videos to YouTube then add them to your website.
• Populate web directories and fill out search engine profiles.
• Give and ask for quality links to related businesses.
• Review the content on your home page to make sure it tells your story.
• Review every headline in your site to see if you can add one or two key words.
• Sell your products through Amazon and ebay if appropriate.
• Be patient.