So, you've bought your domain, got some hosting. Now what? You need to make sure that your web site is as friendly as possible to the search engines so that they send you some traffic. This process is called "search engine optimization" or SEO for short. It is probably the most important - and most neglected - part of web site development.

Here are some tips to help your SEO web site development.

1. Don't use frames

Frames may help you to control the layout of your site but they are a nightmare as far as the search engine robots are concerned and will make it difficult for your site to be crawled by the search engine spiders.

2. Make sure there's text on your pages

This even goes for the page featuring that expensive Flash movie that you're currently forcing visitors to your site to watch (or more likely press the "skip intro" link). Search engines don't know what's written on images or animations. They can only read text (the images search is their best guess based on the text on the page and the video search is based on the description of the video). So make sure they have text to read!

3. Separate style and content

This means using CSS as much as possible to control the layout of your pages. That way the spider can read more of your content if all the "this is how it should look" stuff is self contained in its own CSS file. The biggest snag with this is that CSS needs to be really well written if it is to look nice at different screen sizes, on different browsers and with varying amount of text on the page. Test at least in Internet Explorer and Firefox and play around with the width of the browser to see how well or badly your site copes.

4. Use a title tag

HTML design programs are good at putting in really generic titles such as "Page 1" or "Home Page" but they're almost certainly not what you want the search engines to think your site is about. Change the title to something meaningful. If possible make your title catchy and make sure it's short enough to be completely displayed when the search engine results are shown. This is basic SEO but you'd be amazed how many people don't do it.

5. Put in a meta description tag

Despite what you may read, the description tag is useful. It isn't often taken into account when Google or whoever decide which results to show, which is why some people say it isn't important. But it's normally used as the extract that's shown below the blue clickable link to your site. So if it says "XYZ home page constructed with Dreamweaver" instead of something interesting, that's what will likely show up below your title. And if it's blank, you're giving the search engines free reign to put whatever they want there.

6. Keep it simple

Spiders like simple. Despite all the advances in the internet, they're fairly dumb and the easier you make it for them to understand what your site is about, the more they will reward you.

Web design for a competitive business isn't easy, especially when you add e-commerce (the buzzword for buying and selling online) to the mix. Thankfully, many service providers have basic web hosting templates available to their customers at little to no cost depending on your package. More complex templates can be quite expensive. Companies that provide hosting with templates make setting up and maintaining an e-commerce website possible for people without the expertise to do it themselves and without the money to hire a professional to design their site from the ground up.

When purchased separately from your web hosting package, a template can run anywhere from $20 for a basic, simple web template and well into the hundreds of dollars for a more complex, custom design. For the majority of small business owners, basic templates designed for businesses are usually a safe bet.

An e-commerce template may include basic pages, search and navigation tools such as a virtual shopping cart, but it will be up to you to find your own online payment processing - most often through a third party provider such as PayPal. A web search for "online payment processing" will provide you with several options.

As an alternative, you might want to consider a turnkey solution such as eBay Stores or Yahoo! The designs of sites like these make e-commerce solutions for small business accessible to everyone. Be sure to read the find print about transaction fees and other costs before you decide.

Questions to Ask about Functionality

1. Does the shopping cart accept debit cards and online checks?
2. Is there a limit to the number of products, services or categories you can set up?
3. Does the site offer automatic notification of orders and transactions?

Questions to Ask about Cost

1. What are the basic monthly fees?
2. Are fees charged on a per transaction basis?
3. Is there a setup fee? If so, what is it?
4. How are taxes handled?

Talk to other business owners about their choices and do your homework. The right solution is out there for you, you just have to be willing to do what it takes to find it!

The very fact that you are reading this article indicates that you have something in mind that you wish to achieve. Your goal more than likely right now is to connect the dots. When it comes to inventing anything it begins with an idea and then you seek out ways to make it happen.

I do not know exactly what your ideas are but whatever they are you need to put them on paper. This will help you to stay focused. So for example let's say you love dogs. So you have decided you want to build a site all about dogs however right now you do not know how to go about it.

The first place I recommend you start is with article directories. Punch in the keyword dogs and see what people are writing about. Then pick an article and see how many page views it gets.

Then look for articles in this category that get the most page views. This will tell you that a lot of people are reading about these topics and as a result are seeking information which is what the internet is all about.

Once you find a topic that you like that generates a lot of page views then head over to google and type in the keyword associated with this content and along with the keyword type forum. On the forums look for relative topics that receive a lot of page views and see what people are looking for.

Then take the keywords and go to wordtracker and use their free trial. What you are looking for are keywords that have a high KEI that is at least above ten. Once you find the right combination you now have the foundation upon which to build your site.

Next up get a domain and you can if you want include the keyword in it but you do not have to. Then get a hosting company that is reputable that provides good customer support.

Finally you need a html editor so that you can structure the pages properly so that the search engines can understand the content. Once all this is in place you will now be ready to build your site. You will also have lots of information to help you write articles and get traffic to your site immediately.

To learn how to build a site that works select any of the following links.