My nephew can build me a web site can’t he?

Yes, I won’t deny it your nephew or distant relative can likely create a "functional" web site but let me ask you, will it be positioned for success? Will it be bloated with useless markup or worse yet lack the essentials for organic search results? I don’t know about you but having a web site should be considered with marketing in mind before you just say, "…heck with it let’s just throw something online and see what happens". I can almost hear the crickets chirping from lack of activity and visibility online.

What you see is what you get!

Are you looking for your next web site builder tool to do-it-yourself a real all-in-one service that will meet and exceed your every need? Sadly to say most web site builders out there leave little to be desired in the way of features, flexibility let alone search engine readiness. Most tools like that of WYSIWYG editors are quite similar as you will be able to add content but have little control of the overall display or general structure which can be challenging for global changes.

All we need is some relevance and a little patience.

So you want to embark on a new web site venture and want to know which avenues are the best online to sell your product or service yet in the most cost effective manner? Let me indulge you a bit on a few things that will save you a lot of money and hassle trying to get free organic rankings on Google and other top tier engines.

1. Know your competition - Research your target market, analyze your competition and see what they are doing for search engine rankings.
2. Refine the focus - Define avenues to reach your customers through marketing and demographics but also see what it is they are searching for online to find you. Consider all the variations and misspellings or keyword combinations that will help make your web site more relevant.
3. Deploy the terms - Now it’s time to deploy these new keyword sets and phrases throughout the web site from our findings and research. Be sure to keep in mind the top ranking terms as you will want to spread them throughout your Meta tags, headlines, anchors and more.
4. Patience is a virtue - I never said this was going to be instantaneous did I? Ok this is the hardest fact to swallow but when all this effort is said and done and the web site is launched in all it’s search engine optimized glory now begins the submission process! Submissions can take weeks to show up depending on the engine or directory you are submitting to, it is common to see web sites being indexed on Google within 4-6 weeks but can be longer.

Now it’s time to Pull some Rank!

One thing you must do continually is put yourself out there just like in the business realm how important networking is to thriving startups is how important continual online marketing is to a successful dot com based business. A few was to achieve higher rankings and link back to your site would be to trade links with other sites or list your site for free on a high ranking directories. You will see how amazing traffic will continue to flow through these outlets and how a few hours a week can really help maximize these efforts into profitable results.

Monitor and Adjust

The key thing to knowing what your customers want is to constantly ask them and monitor their activities online. One sure way to do this is using Google Analytics and by signing up with a Google Account you can be on your way to getting the code snippet you will need to inject to your web site ( preferably before the </body> tag). Now you can begin to track your visitors behaviors online and which pages they are entering and leaving from and how long they are staying on your web site. There is a TON more of valuable data you will gain from this and the best way to filter it all is to set recurring reports to be emailed directly to you based on the data you are looking to review. PDF reports are a fantastic way to review quickly the data and see how the web site is progressing.

Helpful Links:

• Axandra
• Overture- Keyword Selector Tool
• Meta Tag Analyzer
• ODP - Open Directory Project

Let’s just start out by saying a phrase I heard a while back, "Everything Google touches turns to gold". I find myself using Google services quite frequently and figured what a good blog post to describe all the great tools I have found and use. This is by no means a complete list but rather the ones that stood out to me and could help you become more popular, well I can’t promise that.

Analytics

Google Analytics has been re-designed to help you learn even more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site.

Docs

Create and share your work online

• Create, edit and upload quickly
• Access and edit from anywhere
• Share changes in real time

Gmail

Gmail is a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful.

Base

Simply describe your items on Base to make them as easy as possible for people to find when they search. You don’t even need a website to put your stuff online.

Adwords

Google’s advertising platform offering both cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing for advertisements served on Google.com and partner sites. Something I found recently was Audio Ads which seems like a great way to get radio exposure.

Orkut

Social networking and discussion site operated by Google.

Adsense

Google AdSense matches ads to your site’s content, and you earn money whenever your visitors click on them.

Calendar

Shared calendars, quickly add events and see your friends’ and family’s schedules right next to your own.

Video Upload Program

This new upcoming service seems intriguing, "Your work deserves to be seen. You’ve made a great video. Now who will watch it?". Just make sure you own the rights to it and pending their approval you could have your video on Google. If you are a big shot producer with 1,000 + hours of vide you can sign up for their "Premium Program".

OpenSocial

"OpenSocial defines a common API for social applications across multiple websites. Built from standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps with OpenSocial that access a social network’s friends and update feeds. By using a common API, developers can extend the reach of their applications more quickly, yielding more functionality for users."

Relating News :: OpenSocial Foundation launches with Google, Yahoo, MySpace

"According to Google’s statistics, OpenSocial applications are already used by over 200 million users across participating social networks like Engage.com, Friendster, LinkedIn, Six Apart, and more. Next Tuesday, hi5 will be joining the fold, and the OpenSocial Foundation itself should be up and running within the next 90 days."