Step 6: Promote It ... Tell the World
 

Erect a site, and your hard work may just be beginning: You can't build it and assume potential customers will automatically come. You must promote your site the way you promote your address and phone number. Otherwise, only accidental tourists' will find you.

The first step to drawing visitors is to visit the major search engines    --   InfoSeek (www.infoseek.com), Excite (www.excite.com), AltaVista (www.altavista.digital.com),  Yahoo (www.yahoo.com),  HotBot (www.hotbot.com) and Lycos (www.lycos.com). All feature simple procedures for adding a URL, the "universal resource locator" that is, your site's address.

 
What about the estimated 300-plus other search engines on the Web? Many Webmasters skip them; others pay a service to do these submissions for them. Owls Eye Productions (www.owlsnest.com) handles this time-consuming chore for around $85; other companies do likewise. Shop around for the deal that best suits your needs.

Just adding a URL to the search engines is still no guarantee of visitors. Get more exposure for your site by enrolling in free link exchange programs that will display your banner on other sites if you make space for third-party banners on yours. Generally, every two "hits" on your site result in one view of your banner on another. Just as with search engines, there are many link exchange programs, but the two biggest and most reliable are bCentral (www.bcentral.com)   and Smart Clicks (www.smartclicks.com) Enrollment is a matter of filling out a simple form and pasting hypertext code--supplied by the link exchange--into pages at your site.

The last step, neglected by a shocking number of businesses, is to put your site's address on your letterhead, business cards, fax cover sheets and all other printed material your business gives out. It's a low-cost way to build awareness of your site.

Go To Step (7): Follow-up and Review
Go To Step (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)   (Web Development Page)