You can promote your website on your stationary, paint it on your car, put it in your yellowpages ad or slip it into your media advertising (radio, tv, print). However even if you do this you're really only targeting two groups - your local market or your existing market (and clients). That's great if that is your market but if you want a market located elsewehere, (or international), then submitting your website into a search engine is the best way to go. Once upon a time this service was free and easy, now it costs and has become a science unto itself!

So what's the best solution for you? Happily that's not too difficult a question to answer now as it mostly depends on your market and budget.

If promoting to a local market (i.e. your own town, city, county etc) then a local search engine is the answer. This could be the local directory or business portal that is promoted in the local media or via the local business groups such as www.dubbo.com.au where your website can be submitted for as little as $165.

If your market is national then using the country's most utilised search engine is the best option. In Australia nearly 80% of all web searches, (AC Neilsen NetRatings June 2002), use the search engine at the top of www.ninemsn.com.au as this is the default web page for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Microsoft power their search engine with the LookSmart service, (www.looklistings.com.au), and for $440 a year your website can also be listed into Yahoo! Australia & NZ, OzEmail, OptusNet & Go Eureka.

Google (www.google.com) is the most utilised search engine on the web. This easy to use and simple interfaced website, is cost effective and works. Basically you create an Adwords account, setup keywords and a 'campaign' which then rotate your link with others. The only cost is if someone clicks to your website, and at a minimum charge of $0.05 you can specify a daily limit (so it doesn't rack up a huge bill). Google uses a system whereby the highest bidder has their link displayed above other similar links however you can view statistics to find out how popular or expensive keywords are. Google then bills your account at the end of the month.

Irrespective of the above, the key to searchibility is keywords, applicable metadata and a good website design. In addition, a web address that describes your business, with keywords in the web page header and associated text throughout the content will eventually 'trawl' your website into the search engines. However, unlike the above services where a paid submission is nearly instantaneous, this 'free' service can take many months if accepted at all.