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Creating_Your_First_Web_Site_Part_2
| Creating Your First Web Site, Part 2
Creating Your First Web Site, Part 2 By Lisa Maliga © 2005
In Part 1 you learned some tips about the basics of starting
your site and finding a home for it, now comes the time to
properly name it and get it optimized for the search engines so
that your home on the web is easy to locate.
Domain Name This is one of the least expensive things about
getting online as many hosting companies charge nothing or only
a few dollars. But it’s also one of the most important, as yours
has to be descriptive and as memorable as possible. For a family
web site, simply using your last name or a combination of first
and last name is fine. Domain names can also include numbers.
The minimum amount of time you can purchase a domain is for one
year. But for an eCommerce site [meaning a site where you intend
to sell products or services], an appropriate name is essential.
http://www.namecheap.com only charges $8.88 per year.
Keywords = Power What will help drive people to your site faster
than a cable connection? Keywords! These words and phrases
indicate what your site is about and contain more authority than
a novice can imagine. Proper keywords will feature terms and
words used in the text on your home page. Each subsequent page
you create will also have its own set of keywords. If you are
selling products or services online, Wordtracker.com is a
fee-based service that enables you to look up the latest
information on what people are searching for online.
Overture.com has a fine feature where it will show you just how
popular the keywords that you’ve chosen really are. This is
updated on a monthly basis, but you can also find the week’s
most popular keywords.
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
What is your site all about? What words best describe your site,
your products/services, your hobbies, etc.? What words would a
person use to find your web site? For example, if you are
building a web site to show people in the Los Angeles area the
fact that you have used cars for sale, the term “preowned car”
was searched 2628 times, followed by “certified preowned car”
209 times. “Used car” brings up more than 1 million searches,
with “buy used car” at more than 534,000 searches in the
previous month. Other terms that show up are: “used car for
sale,” “used car prices,” “used car financing,” “cheap used
car,” “Los Angeles used car,” “used car online” and “sell used
car.” On a highly ranked site these terms will be used along
with others containing variations of used car and other terms
related to a used car such as a dealership, blue book,
classifieds, dealership, etc. Again, thinking like a potential
customer or viewer is the key to keywords.
Meta Tags Description When you accurately describe what is on
each of your web pages, this will help anyone who discovers it
in a search engine. You are doing your customer a big favor and
they will thank you for it by visiting your site. For that used
car site, here is what you might add for the home page: “Low
cost pre-owned vehicles that hold their value. Located Los
Angeles, California.” This comes to only 12 words, or 82
characters including spaces. Some search engines accept up to
250 characters, others will allow far less. Keeping it within
100 characters or about 15-20 words is recommended.
Web Page Titles Titles aren’t just for books, movies and
royalty. When designing your web site you’ll be able to name
each page so that online visitors will locate your home page or
other pages you’ve created. What you call your web site is as
important as what you name your company. Be as descriptive as
possible. You probably want your stamp collection web site to
have the term “stamp collecting” or “stamp collection” in the
title. Perhaps you have a page that has advice for stamp
collectors, so you might want to label it “Stamp Collecting
Advice” or “Postage Stamp Collecting.”
The lack of understanding page titles has shown up on my
journeys online. I’ve seen web sites with “New Page” or “Page 2”
appear along the top of my browser as the web designer clearly
didn’t fathom the benefits he or she had in naming pages.
Links It’s not just about having lots of links on your web site,
it’s having relevant links. If you want to keep your web site
within the mainstream and family-friendly, be careful where you
are linking. Many search engines and directories won’t accept
sites with adult themes, gambling sites, or anything advocating
illegal activities, etc. Keep it clean. Oftentimes you’ll read
about a site having a Google PR [PageRank] of a number from
0-10, with 10 being considered the best.
When one has reached a page rank status they will usually not
welcome newcomers which is what someone with a new web site is –
a 0 page rank. But all sites begin that way and here you’re
learning what Google looks for when it ranks pages so your PR
can start moving up. PR is determined by many factors including
links coming from other sites to yours, longevity of site,
quality of information and keywords found within the site, and
the number of pages your site contains. In other words, Google’s
search engine [or any major or minor search engine or directory]
will spot a 100-page site sooner than it will a single web page.
Many web masters create a links page and add anything that comes
along. That’s not always the best idea and Google doesn’t list
more than 100 links per page anyway. Others will separate their
links page into subjects so that a gardening web site is grouped
in an appropriate category, as would a financial site being with
others within the same category.
A better way to add links is to have them on appropriate pages
that can be reached from your main page. For example, if you’re
designing an eCommerce site that caters to cat care products and
have an entire page devoted to selling vitamins, it would be a
good idea to add links to that page for such related items as
vitamins for children, vitamins for dogs, pet shampoo, health
care products, and other topics that are both closely and
somewhat-closely related. This would be helpful for both you and
the other company’ site you are linking with. It will also
ensure that your vitamins page will get more visitors than if
there were no links listed there.
While it’s more advantageous to have others linking to you, this
is more difficult to do when you’re an unestablished online
presence.
Announce Your Web Site When you have a new web site that you’ve
spent a long time working on and think it’s a significant
addition to the WWW, you want others to know it’s out there.
First, have it analyzed at http://www.sitereportcard.com Keep
statistics on a weekly or monthly basis to monitor your web
site’s progress. 1. Press Release - Writing a press release is a
great way to increase your web site traffic and generate more
interest in your web site and any products or services you might
be selling. Below you’ll find four links to major free press
release sites. Additionally, they provide information on how to
write effective press releases. Your press release will be seen
by more people, get put into the search engines faster, and you
can follow the statistics and upload photos if you pay for the
service. Here are four places where you can send out your
information for free. http://OpenPress.Com http://PRBot.Com
http://express-press-release.com http://www.prweb.com
2. Write Articles - Getting your web site noticed by writing
articles is another effective method for announcing your web
site’s arrival. Of course you must be able to write well, or be
able to hire someone, about your chosen topic. Another
candlemaking company online will not provide tons of
enthusiastic response, but if you have been handcrafting candles
for 20 years and can provide some helpful tips for those just
starting out, you will increase your audience and hopefully your
customer base. Additionally, writing articles establishes your
online credibility.
3. Submit to Search Engines & Directories - This is a way to
make sure more than your immediate family and friends see your
site. When providing information about your site to these
directories, you will oftentimes have to include a reciprocal
link on your site. There are paid search engines and directories
that will get your web site indexed within a matter of days, but
many of them will also do the same service, only taking weeks or
month, for no charge.
The efforts you make to get your web site designed in a
professional manner and put onto the web, whether it’s to show
your business as an online catalogue or your personal site as an
inspiration to others. For those of you launching an eCommerce
site, following the above steps will get you more traffic and
sales.
About the author:
http://www.lisamaliga.com ~ Lisa’s Library of Writing offers
advice on publishing, adult figure skating, aromatherapy, web
design, and Internet promotion. This is the home of fiction and
nonfiction writer Lisa Maliga.
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