Before you hire a web designer to create your website or start making your own website, and even before you register a name for your website, here are a few important things to consider. If you want your future website to rank high in the search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN you should read on.

Why Having A Website Is Just The First Step
While having a website today is as important today as being in the phone book and advertising in the local newspaper used to be, you need to understand that every website without visitors is useless. Generating traffic and consistently appearing in the top ranks of the search engines for your targeted keywords is crucial if you want your website to be successful.

This means, in addition to getting a website with a pleasing design and your desired content you need to make sure that your web designer knows how to optimize your website so Search Engines will potentially list it at the first positions for your targeted search terms. Ask them to show you past projects of high ranking websites, or you will probably end up with a nice looking website which is exclusively visited by you and your friends and family!

In order to rank high in the search results of Google, Yahoo and MSN a website needs a to be optimized 'on-site' and 'off-site'.

On-Site Search Engine Optimization
On-site search engine optimization needs to be done while your website is being created. This means, you have to decide about the 'keywords' you are targeting (e.g. when you are a dog walker in San Diego County, California, you would want your website to show up on the first page of the search results every time somebody searches on Google for 'dog walker San Marcos' or 'dog walking Vista, CA'), and your web designer has to optimize the 'invisible elements' and the content of your website for these search terms. This is very important to potentially rank high in the search engines, but unfortunately not very many web designers are experts in search engine optimization. If you can find a web designer whose own website is already on the Google or Yahoo front page you can be certain that they know about Search Engine Optimization. If they are not - don't expect to get much traffic to your website.

Off-Site Search Engine Optimization
If your website is optimized 'on-site' chances are good that it will be positioned high in the search engines with consistent and strategical 'off-site' optimization. This means, you or somebody you pay to do it, needs to steadily 'promote' your website online by building 'backlinks' from other websites to your site. The more backlinks from high ranking websites your own site will have, the higher it will rank in the search engines. Off-site search engine optimization can be done without any costs for advertising, but it is very time consuming and needs to be done on a consistent basis, so you need to set up a strategic plan to follow, either yourself or by outsourcing it. Instead of off-site website optimization you can also just pay 'per click' to Google, Yahoo or MSN advertising programs and your website will instantly show up on the first page of the search results if you pay for it. Depending from your business, the price you have to pay when somebody clicks on the link to your site varies, starting from $.01 all the way up to $15 and more for very competitive fields. A click for 'health insurance quote' e.g. costs an advertising company about $8.00. If that person clicking on your link leaves your website without action you just lost eight dollars.

Unfortunately not many web designers are familiar with off-site search engine optimization. They don't know how to effectively build backlinks to your website, or how paid website advertising is done most effectively and how to reach high conversion rates.

How To Optimize Your Website
Hopefully by now you have a better understanding what it takes to rank high in the search engines - actually, we dare to say that you now know even more than 90% of all persons already having a website and more than 60% of all web designers. Search Engine Optimization is a complicated mystery in many website owners minds, but if it's done correctly and continuously, it is a sure-fire way of getting positioned within the first search results - and you can imagine what this will do to your business!

So please keep the importance of 'on-site' and 'off-site' website optimization in mind when you start your new website!

The two have been doing a dance for roughly a year and a half, and just when it seemed like Yahoo was ready to get further into bed with Google, this deal finally gets sealed. Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft will pay Yahoo 88% of the revenue generated on Yahoo's sites, but they will not pay Yahoo any upfront money which is good for Microsoft as it attempts to close the gap on search market behemoth Google. Combining the two would give Microsoft's new Bing search engine roughly 30% of the search market which is a little over three times what it currently generates.

While it is too early to predict Bing's true competitive staying power, early opinions seem to suggest that it is a significant upgrade over MSN search and offers unique options to searchers looking for additional information when they conduct a search online.

For the search engine optimization (SEO) world, not a whole lot has changed (yet) because Microsoft's new search engine functions and operates somewhat similarly to that of Google. Link building, quality content, tagging, and user generated content (opinions, feedback, audio, videos, ratings, etc.) appear to carry a lot of weight just as they do with Google. That's not to suggest that Bing is trying to be a better Google, but with greater than 60% market share, would that be such a terrible strategy for Microsoft?

So what does this mean for your business? Well, it is another opportunity to attract new eyeballs especially if this deal creates momentum for the partnership while closing the gap on Google. It also means Google will likely take rapid action to counter this move which means searchers should benefit all the way around through more free content. Hopefully, for paid search advertisers, it provides respite from the dreaded "Google Slap" along with legitimate competition to decrease search marketing expenses. This could also provide an opportunity for organic SEO practitioners to carve out a niche by targeting Microsoft's new search engine as opposed to trying to reverse engineer Google's algorithm in an attempt to improve rankings. That said, the tenets of successful search optimization should remain your focus as a business owner and search engine marketer.

In the meantime, keep on keeping on just as you have but keep your eyes peeled just in case Microsoft finally "sneaks" up on Google (giggle).