There are two basic ways you can improve your placement or “page ranking” on search engines such as Google. First, you can “optimize” the information about your business before you submit it to be listed on the search engine. Second, you can buy advertising space at the search engine's main site.

Google is not the only search engine that sells advertising space. Yahoo! has several advertising programs, including Sponsored Search, which can list your business in the search results of five major search engines:

• Altavista

• CNN.com

• InfoSpace

• MSN

• Yahoo!

Optimizing Your Information

You should optimize your Web site's information before you submit it to a search engine for listing. However, you can make improvements to a site that is already registered, and let the spiders pick up the changes during some of their regular crawls.

Your Web page's title is your site's most important contact point with search engines. A short, specific title such as “Vintage Postcards — Buy, Sell, Trade” will have a much better chance of being found and seen by Web searchers than “Hello! Welcome to my Web site! Let me introduce you to the fascinating hobby of collecting vintage postcards!” Title lengths no longer than five to ten words are usually recommended.

Your site's main page, also known as an index page, should have “keywords” on it, as well. Keywords are terms that Web users might employ while doing an online search, such as “how to collect old postcards.” Put yourself in their situation. If you were curious about how to become a screenwriter, for example, you might go to Google's search window and enter “how to become a screenwriter.” Search engines often display links only to pages that have the same keywords as your query. So, you might not get links to sites that don't have “how to become a screenwriter” somewhere on their index pages. Similarly, Web sites that rely mostly on pictures do not score well with search engines, which require text. Even if your index page is little more than a title and an eye-catching picture, be sure to put some descriptive text with important keywords and key phrases somewhere on the page.

If you have difficulty coming up with the right keywords and key phrases to put on your Web site, consider hiring a keyword consultant. That's right — more proof that you can find almost anything you need or want via the Internet. If you don't have trouble coming up with keywords and key phrases and think you should be the consultant, you can launch that business online or quickly find companies willing to offer you franchise opportunities and digital storefronts for a few hundred dollars a year.

Good Google, Bad Google

When you buy basic advertising space on Google, you aren't buying a guaranteed appearance in the search results. You are buying advertising space in the AdWords display area next to search results. You may not need a consultant to help you create an AdWords posting. Google has established a basic format with limited line lengths for each AdWords text advertisement and related limitations for image-based ads. On the other hand, if you have little patience for restrictions, you may need assistance.

Some of the style and grammar restrictions in Google's Text Ad Editorial Guidelines include:

• No exclamation marks in ad titles.

• Ad text may contain no more than one exclamation mark.

• No excessive capitalization, such as “FREE REPORT.”

• No gimmicky repetition, such as “HOT, HOT, HOT.”

• Proper grammar must be used (no “then” for “than,” for example).

• Ad titles must be twenty-five characters or less, and the two lines of description and URL line are limited to thirty-five characters each.

• No deceptive keywords or text. They must relate to your site and your products or services.

Google also monitors and restricts the content of AdWords advertisements. Its guidelines specify that:

• Ads must not violate Google's content policy. (The policy can be accessed from a link in the Editorial Guidelines.)

• Double-serving is generally not permitted. To “double-serve” is to try to have more than one AdWords account promoting the same business or keywords.

• Trademarks must be used correctly. (The trademarks policy can be accessed from a link in the Editorial Guidelines.)

• Claims of being “better” than competitors must be proven with a supporting display on the landing page of your Web site.

• Claims that your business is “the best,” “the lowest-priced” or “#1” in a category such as service must have verification from a third party on your Web site's landing page.

Google has several other restrictions associated with text advertisements, including a ban on pop-ups when someone jumps to your Web site from your ad on Google or leaves your site.

The Image Ad Editorial Guidelines, meanwhile, generally follow the same guidelines for text that is displayed in an image. Some other requirements include:

• Graphics images must be properly sized for the type of ad that is being created.

• Images must be clear and recognizable.

• Images must be family-safe and must not violate Google's Terms and Conditions, which can be reviewed from a link in the Image Ad Editorial Guidelines.

• Unconventional layouts, such as upside-down pictures, cannot be used.

• Images displayed must relate to your products, services, or Web site.

• Ads may not imply an affiliation with Google.

If these restrictions and limitations leave you stymied or unsure, you can consider hiring a content specialist who has created AdWords advertisements for other businesses. Be sure to get references and check them out, along with a few ads that the specialist has produced. Google also will design an AdWorks for you through its “Jumpstart” program, for $399. Google personnel will collect information from you, review your Web site, and then create an Adwords ad. If you approve it, it will be posted.

An online business with a small budget may not be ready to pay consultants and sites for advertising. For a while at least, you may be limited to do-it-yourself choices such as link exchanges, listings in free directories, and optimizing your Web pages for the search engines. Try a few targeted e-mail messages, but be careful of the anti-spam laws. Likewise, you may be able to find cheap advertising space in a few online newsletters devoted to your area of business.

There is one other free method of advertising, and it works somewhat like a cold virus: viral marketing.