Now that you’ve got your brand new website, how do people find you? Search engines.

To properly and reliably get your site listed, I’ve compiled the following list of tips to get you started:

1. Stay away from the tricks
   A lot of web design firms will promise grand things and instant results.  The problem?  They usually use some sneaky tricks to get you ranked higher.  And the problem with these tricks?  Search engines eventually catch on, and could even punish your site for using the tricks.  Keep it clean, and follow the clear-cut rules for optimization.
2. Keep your content fresh
   Search engines tend to favor new content.  For this reason, I have a blog on this site.  For the most part, the information I have here doesn’t change.  I may add additional services here and there, but it rarely changes.  The easy way to keep things fresh is with a blog.  Post articles related to your industry.  You get two benefits: Search engines will begin to rank you higher, and your customers will have more reasons to check your site more often.
3. Relevant linking
   Most search engines calculate part of your website’s rank on the number of incoming and outgoing links.  For example, if a highly ranked website, such as CNN.com, linked to an article on your website, your site gains not only instant traffic increases, but a better search ranking.  The same goes for the opposite direction.  Try your best to link to relevant and highly ranked websites from your own site.
4. Optimize your URLs
   Take a sample of five websites.  Half will probably half URLs in an optimized form, while the other half will not.  An optimized URL is one that tells a search engine what to expect at that address.  For example, http://www.example.com/?page=29 doesn’t really say much about what will be on “page 29.”  On the other hand, http://www.example.com/graphic-design-samples tells quite a bit about what’s on the page.  If you don’t maintain your own site, ask your web developer if your URLs are search engine optimized.