I am always looking for ways to make my web sites work better. That means the sites should work well, be search engine friendly, help customers get what they came for, and make money. I am preparing to do a major overhaul of IdeaLady.com, but in the meantime, I have been making some “tweaks” to make the site better. Here are a few things you can do that don’t take a lot of time, but can make a big difference in your results.

Build credibility. Are you a member of professional associations? Display the membership graphics on your site. Do you belong to the Better Business Bureau? Is your site secure? Is it family- friendly? Give customers a sense of security that they will be safe dealing with your site.

Get rid of dead links. Links that no longer work frustrate your visitors and hurt your standing with the search engines. You can check for broken links using the the free or paid version of Web CEO: http://www.IdeaLady.com/article/web

Be a real person. One of my favorite cartoons shows two dogs at a computer. One says to the other, “On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.” Consider adding a picture of yourself, your staff, your office, etc. to show customers that you are for real and you have a real business.

Add a viral marketing element. I hate the negative sound of “viral” marketing, but I love the results. Viral marketing means making something available that people want to get and share. Take a look at my resource page at http://www.IdeaLady.com/article/resources. One of the goodies I offer is a calendar and planner. I get emails every day thanking me for this and telling me how much people like it, so I know that not only are hundreds of people downloading it every month, they are using it, too.

Start using AdSense. Pasting a few lines of code into your web pages can bring you a continuing stream of passive income through Google AdSense. Learn more about getting started with Adsense and how to increase your profits at http://www.IdeaLady.com/article/google-adsense When I started with AdSense, I was hoping to cover my hosting expenses, but it has been much better than that. AdSense has added thousands to my bottom line with very little effort.

Look for simple things you can do that will make your site better and more profitable. These ideas will get you started.

When I want to know more about a professional or business, I do an internet search. Far too often, I find that they have no internet presence at all. No web site, nothing about the business, its owners or employees, its location or hours, the products and services it provides or anything else. If I can not find you in Google, you do not exist.

You may think that most of your customers do not use the internet, but think again. My mother would not be considered an “early adopter” of technology, but the first place she looks for information is online. If Mom is online, so are your customers—and you need to be there, too.

Start by having a web site. It does not have to be large, flashy or expensive. Many hosting companies, such as http://www.MyFavoriteWebHost.com/, offer template-driven sites for less than ten dollars a month. You simply choose the design you like, enter some text and click. Voila! You have a web site.

In addition to the home page, you might include an About Us page with information about the company and principals, a Contact page, and perhaps pages with descriptions of some of your products and services. You can always make changes and additions later, but get a basic site up now.

Once your site is published, help the search engines find it by getting links from other sites. To learn how, see http://IdeaLady.com/article/get_links

Even worse than turning up nothing is doing a search and finding negative things about you or your company, or something embarrassing you put online, perhaps years ago. Many teenagers are chagrined to realize that their MySpace profiles and blog posts will be discovered by colleges and prospective employers when their applications are evaluated.

Once something is on the internet, it may be there forever. However, if there is something negative or embarrassing in your online past, you can take steps to minimize it. Start by deleting it, if possible. If you don’t own the site where the offending information is posted, ask the site owner to remove it. Keep in mind that a deleted page may still exist in online archives, but it is much less likely to turn up in a search.

Push the old, negative page down in the search results by adding lots of new items for the search engines to find. Post articles to online article directories such as EzineArticles.com, add more pages to your web site, offer your content to other sites in your field, submit posts and comments to blogs, add your profile to sites such as Amazon.com, and look for other opportunities to put new information online that will bury the old.

Search for your name and your company name from time to time to learn what appears in search results. Google will send you an email when they find a reference to you online when you sign up for Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/alerts

Take control of your online presence to put your best face in front of the world.

As the Idea Lady, Cathy Stucker helps entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous. Get free marketing tips at http://www.IdeaLady.com/

Update: Squidoo has been absorbed into Hubpages.

Squidoo.com is a new Web site that is made by users. It gives you the opportunity to share your passions, show off your expertise and even make a little cash. 

Squidoo.com is a new Web site that is made by users. It gives you the opportunity to share your passions, show off your expertise and even make a little cash. (Squidoo allows you to earn revenue through affiliate programs with Amazon.com and many other online merchants.) It is fun roaming around the site and seeing the pages others have put up, and making your own pages (they call them “lenses”) is easy.

I set up several lenses, but the most complete is my lens on mystery shopping: http://www.squidoo.com/mysteryshopping/ In a very short time, it made it to the top 100 lenses.