I like the word “wow” and I guess I am showing my age when I think of what WOW means and that is something really, really good. For the younger generation you probably have another definition but regardless WOW is a positive word.

I get a number of questions about how to gain more visibility and how to use the search engines, social networking sites and Ebay (that’s right Ebay) to improve their ranking and gain more buyers. This week’s column will hopefully provide you answers to your questions and help improve your visibility and ranking on the Internet.

Search Engines: It should be the goal of any business or website owner to get their site found on the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing & YouTube (by the way YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world!_ While you can go to each of the big three and request that your site be listed, it is not the first step you must take because if your site is NOT search engine ready, the majors will not accept your site. To get your site ready, take the following actions: (1) Write and post great content and (2) Insert the best keywords and keyword phrases that describe your product/service in your Title, Description and Keyword tags (commonly called META tags). As an example, you can look at any site and “click” on the VIEW tab at the top of your browser screen and then select SOURCE (check my site at www.sysconn.com). After you have your site properly prepared, go to each major search engine and “hand register” your site. There are a lot of factors that Google, Yahoo and Bing consider in ranking your site, but registering regularly (every week) or until you see your site being ranked (hopefully first page) will help. Once you see your site ranked, continue to keep your content fresh and your ranking position will continue to improve. Remember “content” is king.

Social Networking Sites: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube (the latter is great for all businesses and especially real estate companies). These sites are important to adding more visibility to your main website. Join and contribute to one of the groups that is similar to your type of business. I have yet to find a category on the social networking sites that do not have members. You can go to and of the social networking sites and type in the category you are looking for and you will see businesses or organizations that have posted to these sites. Some of created a professional looking site and it is not hard to make your site look attractive. As I have mentioned before, create a video and post it on your website as well as the social networking sites. Viewers like to see your product or service and learn how it can help them.

Blogs: If you don’t have a blog do it NOW. I personally use the Goggle-owned blog site which is free to use and can be obtained at www.blogger.com. We also post a blog on all of our company websites weekly. If you can write and type, you can do a blog. It is time consuming but the results can really improve the traffic to your main website. The blog must provide useful information but also a “call to action” tab that directs the visitor to your main web site. If you want to see how we or our clients' use it, go to www.moving-to-savannah.com. On this site, they are employing a written call-to-action option plus a toll-free call feature.

Google loves blogs because it is fresh content and will reward you by moving your site higher in their rankings. How often do you have to post a new article? Once a week is acceptable but if you can write more, do so. By the way, you can get ideas and free articles from one of the most popular Ezine articles sites on the web by going to www.ezinearticles.com.

Ebay: I know you are thinking “Has Chuck gone senile?” No and for those who use Ebay know that you can find anything and I mean anything on Ebay. For some of you, this is a “no-brainer” because you probably have the right product that fits nicely into an Ebay category but “think-outside-the-box”. If you are in the service business, you still can offer a product such as an Ebook. If you are writing blogs, it is very simple to organize them, index and offer your expertise for a small price. It is not the revenue you are after but really two things: (1) an email address for your OPT-IN email list and (2) another link to your main website. The more back-links you have the more popular you appear to the major search engines. As a result, the number of links impact on your page ranking. For the cost of placing an Ebay listing and the opportunity to gain more clients is really worth the effort. try it!

As you can read there are a lot of ways to add credibility and visibility to you website and increasing the opportunities to gain more visitors to your site and hopefully with positive results. Thinking outside-the-box works for me and will also for you. Try it and WOW the results!