Last fall, I spoke at the Northeast Kitchen Design Expo on behalf of Kitchen & Bath Design News. As I was wrapping up my surely spellbinding presentation, a woman in the audience asked me for the three most important ways to update her Web site.

My mind reeled. I thought about the many different things I needed to list, and wrestled with the question of how I could possible list just three! In desperation, I asked if I could list four. She kindly granted my request…and then I think I listed several more than four.

At the top of my list was not underestimating the power and importance of search engines.

Is your Web site optimized for search engines? If it is, it will bring in new clients and reduce the number of tire-kickers in your showroom.

Search engines have changed a lot over the years, due to the way the Internet has taken shape with technological advances. That said, Web pages built eight years ago (if they’ve been updated) will typically get a higher ranking by search engines than pages of your Web site that use flash technology. (You’ll recognize flash when you get to a page that “shakes, rattles & rolls!”). This should get you off the hook when it comes to doing expensive flash on your site.

Optimize Your Site

If you’ve gone to all the time, trouble and expense of putting together a Web site, it’s critical to make sure it’s found and seen by potential clients.

Below are steps you can implement to optimize your site to attract the most traffic from search engines.

Regularly update your Web site. I can’t stress enough the importance of this – not only in the sense that your company will be seen as credible and up-to-date, but that, in the realm of search engines, this will help keep your site high in search engine rankings. This greatly adds to your site being found on the first page of listings, rather than, say, on Industry Barometers.

Updating can be accomplished by simply getting in the habit. You hire a new employee, you add her to the Web site. You or a staff member wins a design award, make sure it’s added to the site.

At the very, very least, put a note in your tickler file to peruse your site quarterly and make sure there is no outdated information.

Grow your site. The more pages in your Web site – in other words, the larger it is – the more likely it will be found by search engines. The big mistake a lot of kitchen and bath dealers make is that they think they have to revamp their entire site all at once. Normally, the only times you really need to entirely revamp your site is if you have let it go way too long, or you’ve redone your logo or the branding of your business.