Do this as soon as possible. If you are an international company, ensure that you are registered as .com and .co.uk. The registration fee is £20 per name with www.domainnames.co.uk and www.freeparking.co.uk, to name but two. This will last two years, when it can be renewed.
Get your site onto the search engines
There are a number of key search engines that act like phone directories for the web. You need to register with the main ones such as Yahoo, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, Google, Excite, Lycos, and MSN to get maximum coverage. This is free, but takes between four and eight weeks to process.
Don't overdo the design
Don't go for gimmicky Flash animation and lots of colour unless you are targeting the youth market. Avoid large amounts of text, as reading from a screen is tiring; use pictures to break the information into manageable chunks.
Don't pay more than you need to
A 10-15 page professional design with Flash animation will set you back £3000-5000 and take about two weeks to complete. A basic design will cost £500-1000.
Keep count of your hits
To find out how many hits you get, register for a search engine management tool. It costs £50 a month from www.demon.co.uk or www.netcel.co.uk. Of course, the best way to boost your hits is to keep updating your content.
Postscript
Information supplied by Melissa McHardy, communications manager, and John Kerbey, senior web designer, at Oscar Faber
