Before you think about submitting your site to a search engine, you need to be prepared. Don�t think that because you have your domain name registered and a �under construction� page up that you are ready. Don�t even think about submitting your site to a single search engine until you are ready to receive guests or visitors. The worst thing in the world (I think so anyway) � is to follow a link to a website and only find a �under construction� message or a front page with lots of links with �coming soon� as a reward for my click. Why did I come to your site? I want to either find out something interesting, look at something, download something or buy something � not to be told to come back later when you are ready � to tell the truth, I don�t think I would bother coming back. Even when you tell me to come back because I�ll remember and think �been there before, it was a waste of time, full of coming soon stuff�. If you have a blog � don�t leave the messages saying �Just testing� or �congratulations and welcome to your new blog�. Don�t even think about writing �Welcome to my blog, over the next coming few days I will be�� Just remember, the internet has no concept of time, but humans do. If I come to your site and find a �Welcome to my blog�� post with lots of promises, but you don�t deliver, why should I trust you with my time? My money? My business? The truth of the matter is, I won�t. I�m not going to go through a whole list of things that tend to put visitors off staying on a site � but here are a few of them: Broken links (always check your links before you upload to a site) Awful color schemes (Yellow and Red? � Try pastel colors) Tiny fonts � I like to be able to read without pushing my nose to the monitor. Difficult navigation � I want consistency and clearly labelled links That should give you a bit to think about...
