When your website is finished and live on the Internet, final checks should be made to ensure it is ready for your business and the search engines. It will take some time for a brand new website to rank well on the search engines but abiding to the steps below is likely to cut down this time.

1. Don’t rush it. Websites should grow naturally and search engines like to see this. If you buy web traffic and go from 1 to 100,000 visitors a day then they will know something isn’t right and this will more than likely knock your ranking down rather than up. It can take a long time to recover from this so it is best to build your traffic gradually and grow your site.

2. Use Blogs and News pages. This is good for the short term as well as the long term. Having a blog means your site is kept fresh and current and the search engines will see your website as an “Active” website rather than a “Static” website. It is a good idea to post new articles every 2-3 weeks to improve your search engine ranking.

1. Plan and organise your website from the beginning. Know your target audience and target your website to them. Taylor your text ad pages to your websites purpose and, if you know what pages are going on to your website, organise them appropriately. This will make the overall development process much quicker.

2. Organise and categories file types. You should plan the file types you are going to be using on your website so you can categories them into folders on the server. Image folders should be categorised for the pages they are used on i.e Food, Drink, Fruit etc.

3. Name your pages and graphics according to their purpose. Not only will this make your website more Search Engine Friendly, but it will also help you find them later on. Associated images should be given similar names and be grouped in folders. For example, images of fruit could be grouped in a folder called “Fruit” and images within that folder could be called: fruit_orange, fruit_apple etc.

4. Keep a clean and clear design. Use 2-3 colours throughout your website. These should be the same colours used in your logo and company branding. Not only will this make your website look consistent but it will also keep the website looking clean. Having a clean and clear website will keep your users focused and make them feel comfortable in visiting your site and using your services.