Okay - first things first. You have just got your brand spanking new website designed and it is all up and running with fandangling bells and whistles attached. You are happy with the overall design and now all you want is for people to find you on the Search Engines. Sounds easy enough doesn't it - you just type in a term that you think people will probably use to find your site - and hey presto my site should appear!. Easy enough, go to Google, type in widgets and wait for  a nanosecond for a zillion different results to appear on your webpage. Hmmm., okay now where to find my site?. Nope not on page 1, nope not page 2....hmmm this is annoying. I can't find my site anywhere. Why has my designer not made me automatically appear on the first page of Google? I paid him to build me a website, you demand!

Well that is the problem. Unless you specifically ask for an Optimised website before your designer starts doing his magical stuff, you are very much likely not to get a website that will instantly appear in the Search Engines, and if it does it probably wont appear for the search terms that you want. For £250 you are highly unlikely to get a full website design PLUS SEO thrown in on top. You would need to pay a whole lot more than that in reality. So what do you do?....Well I'm afraid this is where you need an SEO expert (Search Engine Optimisation in industry spiel) and this could cost serious dollar$ Search Engine Optimisation can run into the thousands for some companies and businesses, but it doesn't always have to.

There are, believe it or not, lots of things that one can do themselves to help promote their website without even having to employ any of these SEO experts for the time being. Of course, for proper bigwig SEO you will eventually need to hire a professional but this article is written just to explain that there are a few things that even a mere novice can do themselves first. So here are a few DIY measures that anybody can do regardless of their shape, size or colour, and which I would always advise any of my web clients to do.

• Sign up for a Google Account (https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F&hl=en) and implement a Google Site Map for your site. Easy enough and something you yourself can do without the need of entering any code whatsoever.
• Research keywords and phrases for your specific website niche - by looking at Competitors sites source codes, using Word Tracker - free version, and by manually inputting search terms into Google and noting the number of results that are fired back at you. The higher the results the less likely you will be able to optimise your brand spanking new site for that particular word as there are so many older sites already competing for that word)
• Join DMOZ's ODP (Open Directory Project) by submitting your site for inclusion in its Directory. Go to: http://www.dmoz.org/ for more information. 
• Join as many Directories as you can - good places to start are Starting Point Directory, Yahoo! Directory and Yell.com. Also take a look here for a list of others you can try.
• Get as many back links as possible from other websites which have synergy with the content offered on your site. For example it wouldn't be a good idea to have a link to a nuts and bolt website if your website is all about making cakes. It is important that you research your link partners carefully and choose wisely.
• CONTENT IS KING - is probably a term you have heard often enough, and when it comes to search engines nothing else could be more true. Your websites content is INTEGRAL to the success of your site in the Search Engines. That is why it is always important to keep your site updated with fresh new content on a regular basis. But how do i do that, if i havent got a Content Management System?, you ask. Simple - go to www.blogger.com and open up a Google Blog Account. You may need to ask your designer once you have done this to create a link to your blog and then you are ready to go. Tell the world everything you need to tell them and then some. Get blogging and keep your site fresh with daily content. Don't forget to include as many links back to your site in your blog.