How to Choose the Right Providers
Find the Best Developer and Search Engine Provider for your Business

I have encountered many businesses in trouble by not knowing the Internet market. "How much should I be paying for a website? And how do I find a qualified designer? How often should I change my website? How do I choose the best hosting company? Why is my web site not showing up in the search engines? What should I expect from my designer / search engine submission provider?"

It is impreative you understand what you need and what is being offered. Don't buy blindly.

I get upset when I hear people getting burned by web developers or search engines submission providers. Web developers are charging huge amounts of money for extremely simplistic sites with little or no follow-up or maintenance. In my opinion, these "developers" are no more than con men with a twist. They may indeed provide a service - but it is so poor, that your money is wasted. Their claims are outlandish and they prey upon the innocent.

Let's first look at the web development. What should a professional Internet Web Site Developer provide?

Your web designer should provide or suggest:

• Suggest the best domain name for your business and why
  
• Offer a yearly maintenance contract
  
• Suggest or provide the appropriate hosting for your site
  
• Design a pleasing, easy to navigate, professional design that reflects your business.
  
• Provide Keyword rich content, Meta Tags, Meta Description
  
• Find link popularity avenues to boost your rankings
  
• Work with or provide Search Engine Submission services
  
• Monitor and adjust pages to attain the highest rankings in search engines and directories
  
• Provide the benefits of PPC programs and offer to maintain them
  
• Provide Internet and Offline marketing strategies to increase your business exposure.

While many "designers" do not provide all these service internally, they should have a list of professional, qualified vendors they utilize so they can service your business properly.

There is more to a web site than design. The developer must understand how to "prepare" your site for submission. It needs to be designed and developed properly. You may have heard of terms such as Meta Tags, Content, and Link Popularity. All these are important for ranking and each must be included in a professional design. After all, what good is a site if no one can find it?

Second - search engine submission providers. Anyone can submit your site. And I mean ANYONE! There are programs that can do it automatically. There are also "free" submission sites.

However, many of the most popular search engines, such as Yahoo, require a paid submission. Also, you must be aware of the criteria that each search engine requires - and this changes constantly! Unless you have the time to check each search engine and directory and hand submit your site with the correct criteria - your best bet is to hire a professional service to do the work for you.

What you want in a search engine provider is that they will optimize your site "page by page" - adjusting each page for appropriate search engine criteria. They should also provide hand submissions. They must understand the importance of Link Popularity and should check your tags and content for appropriate length and targeting - PLUS give "free of charge" suggestions to improve your ranking. And lastly, they should monitor your site and make the appropriate adjustments to get your site ranked as high as possible - after all, that's what you pay them for.

In short, the Web Developer / Search Engine Submission provider should be "working for you" - not for your money. They should care about ALL of your business and know the best way to market you for success - both on and OFF the Internet.

About The Author
Suzanne Fyhrie owns and operates OneWay Advertising and Design. She specializes in marketing and graphic design.

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