ocation, location, location. That golden rule of real estate also applies to the Web.

Nettie Duyanovich, owner of Best Buy Pool Supply, says her site’s increased success also might come from an improved placement on search engines.

Whereas Best Buy Pool Supply (www.bestbuypoolsupply.com) used to be hard to find on the Web, it’s now one of the first ones that appears on search tools such as Overture, Looksmart and Direct Hit.

Terry Edwards, president of 1 Above Ground Pools.com (www.1abovegroundpools.com), has relied upon his Web placement to turn the business into one of the most prominent aboveground-pool retailers on the Internet. “It all comes down to knowing how to build your site,” he says. “We don’t have to do anything to draw people to our site when we’re one of the first to pop up.”

That’s an important advantage to have because the Web world is becoming a lot more crowded with pool products. There were only a few dozen such Internet retailers in 1997; now there are more than 500 with the words “aboveground pool” or “swimming pool” in their addresses, according to Namedroppers.com.

Juan Martinez, designer of Fremontpool.com, remembers trying to select a domain name for his first Web site, Poolspanet.com, several years ago. “There were hundreds of available names back then,” he says. “Now they’re all gone. Hard to believe.”

While the economy may not be a major hindrance to the industry’s Web retailers, such rapid growth in the market may be, according to John Silvas, president of PCPools.com (www.pcpools.com). “There seem to be lots of tiny ones out there now,” Silvas says. “But who knows how long they are going to be around?”