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Promoting Your Web Site:
Some Very Easy Things You Can Do To Improve Your Exposure On the Internet
by Stephen Windhaus
I am not a Web master. I didn't study to become a software developer or an IT professional. I am a small business planning consultant. But, like so many of you, I went out and bought my own Web page software. Through so much trial and error I learned to master a lot of what the program has to offer. I then began to work many weeks to tweak the content, layout and design of my site. I got closer to achieving satisfaction and confidence the Web page would accurately convey the nature and driving force of my business.
Then I went out on the Internet to the more popular search engines and began to see where my Web site would come up in the order of listings for my queries. I would query 'Windhaus', 'Windhaus Associates', 'Stephen Windhaus', 'business planning', and more. I was so frustrated. I wasn't getting any 'hits' for my site. What the heck was going on? I worked so hard to get this Web site up. I lost many hours of sleep putting my interactive 'business card' on the Internet. What was it with all these search engines that claimed to be the best at finding whatever I queried? Darn, they couldn't even find my beautiful site.
I slammed the software box down on the desk and went back to those same search engines and emailed customer service to have them explain why, if they were so good, my Web page wouldn't come up in their item listings.
That's when I learned about meta-tags. I won't bother you with the HTML technicalities of that. But suffice it to say that when implementing my idiot-friendly Web page software I'm actually using a program that converts word processor and image applications on the front end while it is being converted to the HTML language in the background for transmittal onto the Internet.
The search engine techies told me I need to use words in the meta-tag files that relate to the nature of my business and are commonly used by people when searching the Internet for my type of service. So I got out the user's manual (never an easy book to read, much less understand) and finally learned how to insert meta-tag words that would be found by the search engine when responding to a query. Most search engines will search those meta-tags before scanning the content of your Web page. So give that some thought when designing your own site.
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