US Edition 1 Make sure your site can be seen and read by the search engines (tools such as http://www.seo-browser.com are useful for this)
2 Add Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics) and Register for Google Webmaster Central (http://www.google.com/webmasters)
3 Use analytics to look at how people find your website – particularly search terms they use and whether they convert to customers
4 Consider how your customers describe your products and services (Useful tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)
5 Have one page on your site for each distinct kind of search phrase you want to target
6 Write text in your customers' language – use the words they search for
7 The URL, page title and page heading are very important to search engines. Make sure these contain your keywords in natural ways
8 Be interesting and real, and bring your offline USPs into your website in the form of great content (e.g. unique data, competitions)
9 You need links from other sites to rank well – for SMEs in particular, network with relevant people online.
10 Do some research online – there are great resources to teach you more. We write at www.seomoz.org/blog and also at www.distilled.co.uk/blog
Will Critchlow, director, Distilled.co.uk its free and paid-for webpages.
"You lose a lot of control over your branding and the search engine optimisation that you can do," he said. "I would always recommend that business websites use their own name rather than dot-someone else's name."
Mr Critchlow said that the availability of good analytical software had leveled the playing field for smaller firms keen to see how customers were responding to their online efforts.
"If you set them up properly you can get raw data on the number of page views and unique readers but you can also get information on where they came from and what they do when they get to your site. In particular you can see whether the actions you want people to take are being carried out," he said.
Useful websites:
Weblinks (as well as links at bottom):