Once you understand what Search Engine Optimization is, and why it's important for your business, lots of folks can get overwhelmed with the seemingly daunting task of getting started.
So, let's break it down into some easy steps that you can do in a half hour or less, to get your site optimized.
Step 1: Submit your site to the major search engines:
Start with Google by going here:
www.google.com/addurl
On this page you'll find an easy place to submit your website and a line for comments or keywords. Just type in a general description of your website and maybe add a few keywords for good measure. Don't go crazy here, there are lots of other ways to get your keywords noticed. Google is rather picky about keyword stuffing, so I wouldn't put a bunch of excess information in here. Just keep it short and simple.
Take note of information on the follow-up page after you submit your site. There are a bunch of great webmaster tools for you to explore another time, and if you sell products on-line you'll want to dive into Google Product Search.
If you have any interest in pay-per click marketing and it seems like a good strategy for you, you can investigate Google Adwords also. Don't go too far down this rabbit hole right now though; just finish your site submissions and you can add these other tasks to your long-term to-do list.
Next, submit your site to Yahoo here:
www.search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Again, once you are on this page, you'll see a lot of other tools you'll want to take note of. Freebies include Mobile site submission and Media Content submission.
Submission of your mobile site is for Yahoo!Search for mobile phones. This submission services only includes xHMTL, WML or cHTML sites. Check with your webmaster (or me) if you are not sure what kind of site you have.
Media content submission can include audio, image and video content. If appropriate for your business or art, please consider making a video or having one made as a marketing tool; then uploading it to YouTube or Vimeo and submitting it here. This kind of media content is a great way to improve your search rankings.
The rest of Yahoo!'s tools are good to research and understand for the long-term, but all are paid services they offer.
Finally, submit to Bing:
www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx
They are pretty straightforward, with no excess pre or post information.
So, for now, you are done! You have successfully completed your first step to optimizing your website, hopefully in less than a half hour's time! Congratulations, you are on the way to being found!
