I recently came across an article that gave some specific proven advice about launching a new web site. The steps explained were simple and straightforward. I don't remember where I saw the article, but I did make a copy and thought I would summarize it here for you.
The title of the article was: "Launching your Web Site the SEO Way" and it was authored by Paul Fleming.
First of all, you web site needs to be SEO friendly - no flash, no frames, judicious use of images and graphics.
One of the most important things you can do for a new site is to begin building the incoming links to your site from outside, trusted sources. This process takes time and will be something you need to pay attention to always.
Try to get links from sites with a page rank above 3. Here is a directory that offers good links, both paid and free. It's a good place to start.
Other candidates are Wikipedia (Page Rank of 9), Yahoo! (Page Rank of 10), Superpages.com (Page Rank of 8) and Dmoz.org (Page Rank of 9). It may take some time (especially with DMOZ), but a link from any of these sites would be wonderful.
Do some press releases that are optimized for your best keywords. Some press release sites charge a small fee (like $20) to send out a release, but it could be well worth the money for the exposure you get. Here is short list of some of the better press release sites:
www.prwebdirect.com
www.prleap.com
www.i-newswire.com
www.webwire.com
www.pressbox.co.uk
www.24-7pressrelease.com
www.clickpress.com
www.przoom.com
www.pr.com
www.marketwire.com
You can also buy text links, do link exchanges with relevant niche sites, and write keyword optimized articles with your name and web site listed in a "resource box" at the end of the article. Some of the better sites that accept articles of this type are listed below:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.goarticles.com
www.isnare.com
www.submityourarticle.com
www.articlecity.com
www.exchangenet.com
www.article-directory.com
www.freezinesite.com
www.about.com
Isnare.com also does article distribution to other venues if your article qualifies.
Another method of getting links to your web site is to post relevant content and opinions on niche forums with your site link in your signature. This method is time consuming but there are advantages to doing it and there are services that you could out-source this task to for a small fee.
Ditto for posting relevant comments on niche blogs. You should check both the forums and blogs that you post at to make sure of their linking policies. Be careful not to be "spammy" in the comments you make.
Another great resource worth mentioning is the "express inclusion" service at EntireWeb. Many of the top meta search engines pull results from EntireWeb. Their network has over 100 million searches a month!
Fleming's final suggestion was to submit a sitemap to Google.
Google offers an xml generated sitemap tool for the web owner. It let's GoogleBot (their engine spider/crawler) know when your content is updated and new pages added.
You can find out about this service by going here: Google Sitemap Service
It is not at all difficult to create a sitemap.
One final suggestion that Fleming doesn't mention in his article would be to find and visit site announcement services and submit your web site for their distribution list. There are a growing number of such services online. Simply go to your favorite search engine and type in their search box something like "announce my site." You will be shown lots of alternatives.
That's it for now. I hope you will be pro-active in announcing your web site launch. If you don't take the initiative, chances are good that very few visitors will ever find your web site.
Good luck!
