I recently helped my mom to launch a website (www.mom2me.com) to publish some of her recipes and it was probably the best wake up call I have had this year. It dawned on me that I actually do not know nearly as much as I thought I did. In fact it was evident that some things are best left to the experts.

However, what I did do was keep a record of what went wrong and believe me when I say it was quite a record!

Herewith then, a couple of things that you might want to remember or pay attention to, should you ever launch a new site. Some of these items may seem trivial, but I think this should be a basic check list for all new sites.

All of the items below turned out very important in creating a site that is Search Engine friendly and will hopefully get you good placement!

1. Define the purpose of your web site. It could be something as simple as "I want to sell my 5 products through my web site" or "I want to create a site where my organization members can get a schedule of events and view our employee handbook through a password protected area." You can and will most likely refine your definition as you go but make sure you have some clear direction. This was exactly what happened with Mom2me.com!

2. Define your keywords. This is probably the most important aspect of starting any site and you should really spent some time on this. I made use of two great sites to help this. Have a look at OneLook Reverse Dictionary and Wordtracker!

3. The new sites