This is a very general white paper for anyone who has not gone through the production of a website. It would be simple if you could break these down to three simple steps. Unfortunately their concepts need to be approached simultaneously and woven together as one unit. Working backwards, decide how the site will benefit your business. Promoting the site through search engines and online auctions or contests.
Search engines have trouble indexing information or content that is in a database or frame set.
So this is a topic that has to be looked at thoroughly. Just because you build it, they will not necessarily come. You need to note these questions and discuss them with your Site Designer. Very often you will hire a person who does both quite well. But they are two distinct jobs.