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In these tough times, the traffic and sales generated from your business's Web site can make the difference between a healthy profit and a mass of red in the company accounts.

Unfortunately, if you've just created a Web site, you've left your run a little late. Web sites take time to index, and to start appearing for searches in the major search engines. A Web site which went live a year ago for example, should now start appearing in the search engine results' pages.

Here's a little tip which has worked wonders for my marketing clients, resulting in getting their new sites indexed in double-quick time: use Squidoo. Currently Squidoo has a PageRank of 7, so a link from Squidoo to your site ensures that your site is spidered.

The brainchild of consummate marketer Seth Godin, Squidoo is free advertising for your business. Google likes Squidoo, and you'll see Squidoo lenses ranking well for some highly popular and desirable keywords.

Squidoo lenses do well on Google, so a collection of lenses can drag your new Web site into the Google index if the site is new, and can bring you traffic if your site's established.

Most businesses are still clueless about Squidoo, so you should be able to build a presence there easily.

Here's how to market with Squidoo:

1. Create a lens for your company

You can create a Squidoo lens for anything at all. (A page on Squidoo is called a "lens".) Start by creating a lens about your company, and link it to your site, of course.

Build the lens over time. A tiny lens that you create and forget will get you no results. Make your lens useful, and your lens will get traffic, and so will your Web site.

The term "lens" is a clue which tells you that each lens you create must be sharply focused - focus your company lens on what your company does for your customers, from the customers' point of view. Provide information, rather than trying to sell on your lenses.

Create a white paper or report, and offer it on your lens for free, in return for visitors' email addresses giving you permission to stay in touch with them.

Tip: do a search for your competitors on Squidoo. You may be surprised that some already have Squidoo lenses. If not, congratulate yourself on your own prescience, and build your lenses.

2. Create a lens for each product

A single lens is just a page, so create a lens for each product you sell, or service you provide. Again, ensure that these lenses are informational, rather than simple advertising. Your goal is to capture your audience, and send them to your site, where you can do all the selling you want to do.

Post audio files and videos to your lenses: make each lens as interactive, and information-rich as possible.

3. Staff spotlight - have each member of staff create their own lens

Encourage your staff to create lenses too. The more lenses aimed at your site, the more traffic you will generate for the site.

Staff could create lenses in their own area of interest, linking back to your site. Lenses are meant to be fun, so give staff their head: let them be creative.