Lawchek® February Bulletin - Starting a Business Online

Driving Traffic to your Web Page
| Printed Media | Search Engines | Professional Listings |

After you have a web page created and online, the next step is to make it “seen” in cyberspace. Here are some suggestions for a start.

Printed Media

Once your business is online, there is no reason to ditch the paper trail. Instead, advertising your web site in printed media will allow potential clients the doorway to review more details about your business. If you advertise with phone books, business cards, brochures, etc., simply add your www to the bottom. Instead of only seeing a short advertisement, a potential client may use your web address to find out more about your services and credentials online. If anything, this will allow you to shorten tedious brochures and yellow page ads to the initial facts, saving time and money.

Also, if your business publishes a newsletter, publish it online as well! This will give users more information at your site. Also, you can have them sign up for a mailing list where you can send the newsletter out to them, keeping contact and providing up to date information.

Search Engines

Before a web site is submitted to search engines, an extra key is to place a Meta Tag on the page. A Meta Tag is a bit of coding that is placed in the Header section of HTML code (the top section is noted by a <HEAD> at the beginning of the code and </HEAD> at the end). The site title, keywords and description can be placed here for search engines. It should be noted not to over use the code. Placing 50,000 keywords or repeating keywords will most likely get you kicked off the search engine. This abuse is the reason some search engines do not use Meta Tags to place sites. However, since many still do use this code, it is wise to have it on your web page ahead of time.

An example of a Meta Tag would be:

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Lawchek® Legal Resource</TITLE>
<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”law, lawyers, federal codes, state codes, consultants, private investigators, court reporters, process servers, paralegals, etc. etc. you get the picture”>
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”A legal resource for all areas of law including cases, codes, and directory listings.”>
</HEAD>

Note: The “title” is the name you will be listed as. The “description” portion is how the search engines will describe you when they list you on their site. Also, using the same “keywords” on the actual web page itself may help some search engines.

Then it is off to the search engines. There are many sites that offer submission to a number of search engines for free (www.submitplus.com, www.submitexpress.com, www.addme.com, you get the picture…all variations of a theme J). When using free submit sites, note which searches they submit to. If more than one submits to the same search engine, you may be knocked off for abuse. If you see repeated searches, check for an option of not submitting to those searches. However, if the site is automatic, you may not have that choice. In this case, list the ones you haven’t been submitted to and see if it is worth your while to submit your site manually.

Another option is to pay for a submit service which will guarantee submitting your site to x number of search engines (many free submit services will submit your site to more searches for a fee). Review the searches you are paying to be submitted to. Some services offer higher numbers by submitting to searches in foreign countries. If you are not doing business in German, there is no reason to pay to be listed Germany!

Some search engines, such as AOL, require for a business to manually list on their site. In this instance you must find the category that your best fits your business and submit it from that page for review.

Finally, other searches such as MSN and Yahoo! charge a fee for commercial listings. Check over all policies of that fee: cost per URL, how long the listing lasts, and if it includes listings on other search engines as well (most do).

All search engines usually limit how often you submit your site. Submitting every day will only get your site kicked off. Most seem to suggest that you resubmit every 3 weeks. However, searches that are manual (AOL) generally do not require any resubmissions. Paid searches (MSN & Yahoo) will only require resubmission after time expires on the paid service.

Professional Listings

Most professions have many types of professional listing services. This may be a site dedicated to the professional field as a resource or a specific organization with members and affiliates.

Professional Resource Sites

Professional resource sites usually offer anyone in that profession a method to conduct research online and in many cases, directory listings of professionals in the same or related fields. Listing on these sites may be free or paid.

Before deciding to list on a site, review it to see if it fits your needs. Is the audience the general public, students, peers, other professionals or all the above? Does it offer research tools you can use? What are the means, terms and conditions to be listed on the site? Do you feel the site has a professional representation to your tastes? Overall, set a criterion for reviewing a site before you use their services. Also, by all means, list on more than one! It is better to find a number of sites that appeal to you than listing on only one and hoping every professional in your field will use the same resource – this never happens in any profession, many use more than one professional site. As in all advertising, the more a business is listed, the more it is noticed.

Another bit to note is that some professional sites will create a web page for your listing. This is a great resource if you do not have a web page but would like to place more information online. Once you have it created, link to it from other listings as well.

Professional Organizations

Most professionals belong to various organizations. Many professional organizations are online. If you find that an organization you belong to is online, check to see if they list members. A simple e-mail request may get your listed name hyperlinked directly to your web page!

Professional Community

Finally, link to others in your professional community. Professionals make partnerships all the time. If another professional who you have worked with has a web page, ask to exchange links! Place a link on your site to them and they can return the favor in kind. For example, an attorney who only handles Patent Law may link to a peer who handles Criminal Law or an attorney may link to a private investigator they use and vise versa.

Another version of this may be to join a web ring – a group of like subject web sites that are linked via a banner ad. Different web rings may be found at: Yahoo! WebRing

Thank you for reviewing the LAWCHEK® Bulletin.
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