Top of the heap: search engine optimization draws more customers to your Website.

If your approach to your Website is "Build it and they will come," you're setting yourself up for a big disappointment in the results department. Even the spiffiest Website is of little use as a business tool if it fails to attract the target audience you're looking for. It's a little like hiding the Mona Lisa in a basement vault.

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According to Jonathan B. Smith, president and chief optimizer--yes, that title is correct--at Peak Placement LLC in Birmingham, too many business owners continue to operate under the mythical notion that once they build a Website, their job is done and they don't need to set aside any additional money for Internet marketing. He urges businesses to revise the standard hypothesis from "If you build it, they will come" to "If you build it, they can come." The verb change is critical because it implies that another step is needed--search engine optimization, a service provided by companies like Peak Placement and hence Smith's unusual job title.

Search engine optimization simply means selecting the precise key words and phrases that will draw your Website to the top of the list when potential customers are searching the Internet for products and services.

The concept isn't new. Companies that choose names preceded by the initials AAA, AAAA or even AAAAA have been doing it for years to get themselves at the top of their categories in the Yellow Pages. Search engine optimization operates on a similar principle, but the process is far more sophisticated and the results more rewarding.

An estimated 85 percent of Web users use search engines, such as Yahoo, Google and Netscape, to find what they're looking for online. Registering your site with a search engine, however, is only part of the process--and it doesn't come with any ironclad guarantees. Research reveals that only the top 30 search results will ever generate any significant traffic or "click-throughs" to your site. In fact, if your site is not in the top 10 placements, you're missing 70 percent of potential customers who want to find your site.

RELATED ARTICLE: Internet search engines

Internet search engines are potentially the best and most cost-effective means of advertising your products or services. An estimated 325 million Internet searches are done each day. The trick is to direct a small percentage of these searches to your site--a process called "optimization." As a business owner, you pay only for results that actually produce the desired outcome: a "click through," meaning someone visiting your site.

Studies show that "optimization" costs less than direct mail, renting broadcast e-mail lists, banner ads, print ads. booths at trade shows, etc. A few thousand dollars can cover the cost of an entire site getting optimized for and positioned in the top 10 search engines--Microsoft Network. Yahoo, Google, AOL, Lycos, Netscape, Excite, CNET, CNN and Alta Vista--which are responsible for more than 80 percent of today's Web traffic.