Profits from your online shop depend on the amount of traffic you generate for your website. Traffic is defined as the number of people visiting your site. Search engines are the primary source of generating traffic. Along with an array of advertising avenues, search engines often offer a variety of services, tools, and labs, which entrepreneurs can use to promote their online businesses. Use Search Engines for Free Advertising Use search engines to show up in your potential customers' searches of the web. The first thing you need to do is to optimize your website so that you are able to show up in the first few pages because the potential customer rarely reads beyond these.

You need to develop a list of effective keywords and use them in your website, especially in the beginning of your web page. Search engines find the first block of text on your web page and use this text to describe your site on search result pages. It is advisable that you restrict the first paragraph on your website to 300 words, of which 8 percent must be keywords. Obtain Instant Updates and Indexing Services Many search engines have spiders that constantly index web pages. Optimize your website to let the spiders crawl into your web pages.

To ensure that your website is constantly crawled across submit it to as many search engines as possible. After you submit your site, the search engine creates and stores an XML file that allows instant updates and indexing whenever your site's content changes. This service acts like a data cable connecting your computer to the search engine, enabling automatic updates on your website.

Generate Revenue through Third Party Ads Many search engines allow you to place third-party ads on your website and earn revenues from them. The search engines match the ads to your site by finding similarities in the keywords of each ad. Your earnings depend on how much the advertisers are paying for the keywords and how many people click those ads on your site. You can earn anywhere between $0.

03 and $15.00 per click and as much as several hundred dollars a day if you have a well-optimized site that draws lots of targeted traffic. You can also set a filter to avoid these ads appearing on your site if you find them affecting your traffic and sales negatively.

Place Your Ads on Other Websites For extra publicity you can place your ads on other websites. Search engines use the keywords of your ads to place them on sites that have content relevant to yours, thus ensuring traffic. The best thing about these ads is that you are completely aware of how much they will cost you.

You decide how much you want to pay for specific keywords. Each time your ad is clicked, you pay that amount to the search engine. These ads are generally found on the right side of the page next to the organic search results, as ads on other sites, and alongside your email messages. Search Engines In Conclusion Search engines are the best option to promote and generate revenues for your online business. They are an integral part of the web and a business unto themselves.

David Gass is President of Business Credit Services, Inc. His company publishes afree weekly e-newsletter on Small Business Consulting at their web site http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com