It is more important than ever for small businesses to have a Web site, but building a site is only half the battle. You must also attract customers.

Making sure your site has a good page ranking with Web search engines is one way to draw customers. You want your site to appear in the first few results when potential customers do Web searches related to your business.

Search engine optimization is the process of getting a good page rank. Search sites don't disclose their algorithms, but certain techniques have proved effective.

CHOOSING KEYWORDS

The first step is to pick out keywords, the search terms customers will use to find you. Yahoo's Keyword Selector Tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion) will help.

It is difficult to rank highly with really popular keywords because too many people use them. Optimize pages for several less popular terms. Choose narrow search terms instead of broad ones.

Unless you have a strong brand, don't use your company name as a keyword. People search by product type, not by name.

USING KEYWORDS

Use keywords in the page's text, but don't overdo it. Use the keywords in the page's metatags and in headings.

Avoid software that writes pages for you. Search sites may detect pages written by software and penalize them.

And don't try to trick the search sites by hiding text. At one time, sites packed keywords into blocks of text that were the same color as the background. But search sites are wise to that. Try it, and you'll likely be penalized.

You can test your keywords with pay-per-click advertising. Bid on keywords through a service like Google's AdWords. You can also put the ads on your site.

BUILDING LINKS

In-bound links to your site also improve your rank. Encourage other reputable sites to link to yours. You may also want to start blogging about your industry.

Avoid link farms, Web pages that do nothing more than link to other sites. Search engines are on to them, and you may be penalized for using one.

OUTSOURCING SEO

You should monitor your SEO campaign, but be patient; it can take a few months to see results. You'll need to tweak pages as time passes because search sites change their algorithms. Also, other pages could gain higher rankings, pushing yours down.

To speed things along, submit your site to the search engines. Submitting repeatedly is considered spamming, so be judicious. Submit your site at the following links:

Google: www.google.com/addurl/?continue(EQUALS)/addurl.

Yahoo: www.submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request (registration required).

MSN: www.beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx.

If your efforts are unsuccessful, consider outsourcing your SEO campaign. Research companies carefully, and avoid those that promise you a top spot. Their practices may be unethical and their results short-lived.

Kim Komando's e-mail is gnstech@gns.gannett.com.