Having a web site on the internet doesn't mean anyone will find it. There are billions of web pages and yours has to some how get found by a person you don't know searching for what it is you have. How?

Web Hosting

Once you have your web site designed, you need to get it "hosted" which means finding a service, of which there are many, that will put all the data of your website on their servers so that people have access to your site 24/7.

It's kind of like in your own business: the longer your opening hours are, the more possibility that customers will come. In your bricks-and-mortar business, that might be 10 hours a day because you don't expect anyone to come looking for a bouquet of flowers at 3 in the morning.

On the internet, however, someone might be doing exactly that because they forgot a birthday or anniversary and they are trying to find a place to go first thing in the morning to get their butt out of the fire.

There are many good hosting services and you should ask your webmaster to find a reliable one, meaning one that has 98%+ up time.

Keywords

You also have to go through the process of making sure that your web site has the words and phrases in the content that make it easy for the search engines to know what it is that you do. If you are a florist, then you have to have lots of words about flowers: types of flowers, wedding bouquets, anniversary arrangements, centerpieces for events and functions, or tips to make cut flowers last.

Those words or phrases are called keywords or keyword phrases and need to be used throughout the web site "copy" as it is called. These words or phrases also need to be in places like the site URL, in the page names and page descriptions.

Most importantly, they need to reflect how your potential customer thinks, not how you think. This is very hard for many web owners and many internet marketers to grasp. If you don't speak the searchers "language', they won't find you. It's that simple. They don't find you, they don't come to the store, but your competitor sells them 100 bucks worth of roses.

Create Credibility and Trustworthiness

Once someone finds your website, the statistics show that you have about 30 seconds to capture the attention of the visitor or they'll leave and you'll never have the chance to "speak" with them.

That means you have to present an image that is immediately appealing, you have to provide an answer to their search inquiry (what they typed into Google, Yahoo or Bing, for example) and create trust and credibility. All within 30 seconds!

One way is to have the visitor land on a page in your website that is directly related to what they are searching for. You want them to see right away that you can help them. Then, you want to present yourself to them visually. The best way today is with video; the next best way is with really good pictures of you, your staff and your premises or your fleet.

And a clincher can be having testimonials from satisfied customers so they feel that they are in good hands.

In another article, I'll continue some of the basics you need to be thinking about in order to make your website a valuable asset to your business and how to get found on the internet.