Advanced 4 - Links and Comments   Back | What?

As promised, here is a page of links and comments. There are a few links to sites that show you how to write HTML, some that show interesting things you may not know about the web, and others that show you how to get your website on the search engines. - (All off-site links open in a new window.)

Html Tutorials - Learn How to Write Code:

http://www.aumha.org/html/ - aumha.org also has many useful pages to help you with computer problems as well - check them out
http://www.computerhope.com/learnhtm.htm - computerhope.com also has some useful pages to help you with computer problems
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerAll.html - a better tutuorial on writing html and composing your pages than I could ever write

Useful Websites - Learn More Than I Have Space For Here:

Web Page Validator - go to this w3c web page if you want to see if your page is valid
Tips for Webmasters - w3's tips on how to build a better website
Web Pages That Suck - a web site that shows you how to make a good page or web site by showing you what not to do!
Who Framed the Web? - article on using frames in websites
The Problem With Popup Stoppers - interesting article by Jim Eshelman on why you should consider not using popup stoppers
News and Discussion for the Independent Web Professional - webmasterworld.com, a forum with valuable resources and up-to-date information for webmasters

Orphan Page - Example Of What Not To Do:

Orphan Page - (link opens in new window)

Where to locate your web site:

I sometimes get asked where the best place is to locate your web site. Many ISP's (Internet Service Providers) have free web space for personal pages provided to you simply because you are a customer. Usually, these pages are limited as to the size and type of files you can upload, and how much traffic your site will get. If you want to use your ISP's free web space, you will probably need to learn how to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client (program) such as WS-FTP. You can experiment and you can learn a lot.

If you don't want to go to the bother of doing that, there is a simpler way - use a free website service. Geocities was where I started. They had advertising on my pages (which is how they got paid). Although this may not be attractive to you (Geocities would remove the ads for a monthly fee), it is a very good way to get your feet wet. Geocities had a completely automated page building system using templates. There were many add-ons as well, such as a guestbook and form mail. Geocities isn't an option any more, but there are many new ones out there now. Go to free-webhosts.com, look for a free hosting service that meets your needs, and use one of their page building programs to do all the work. What have you got to lose?

If you want to pay for web hosting, you can get paid services, starting at under $10 per month and going up to a few hundred per month. Shop around. Use a Google search on the term "web hosting," and you will come up with hundreds of listings. One of the best ways to select one is to ask webmasters where their sites are hosted.

Will Google ever find my web site?:

Another common question has to do with search engines finding your site.

Search engines will always find your site eventually, unless you specifically place code on your page or in the root directory specifically telling them not to do so. There is a hitch: If there is no other place on the web that your page is listed as a link, search engines will probably never find it.

This is because search engines use automated programs, called robots, to constantly crawl the web looking for new web sites. Once these robots find a new web site, they index it so their search engine can deliver it to you rapidly. They also eventually cache the pages they find, which also speeds up searches.

I have done this as a test: When I was with Geocities, I made a page on Geocities, and specifically avoided telling Geocities to list it on their directory. The site was never found in the several years I had it up. In another test, I placed a link to a site on another website that already appeared in search engine results. It was found in a few weeks, without ever submitting it to a database.

The above happened because search engines use spiders, robots which go from link to link indexing pages.

Because thousands of new sites are added to the world wide web each day, it takes Google and others many weeks to finish a complete search of the web for new sites. Therefore, your site may not be crawled until weeks after you post it. Nevertheless, it will eventually be crawled, unless you take measures to prevent that.

Having your site found by Google and having it appear on the first page or two of a search on a keyword are two different things. An important point that I want to make is that you do not have to pay for search engine listing or positioning if you do certain things right and avoid doing certain things wrong. There are many fine tutorials on how to get a better search engine position. The one at Google is one of the best.

Google Information for Webmasters - Google's tips on how to build a better website
High Rankings Search Engine Optimization - forum with much search engine optimization information
Notes on helping search engines index your Web site - w3c's answer to why your website may not be found by Google

Closing

Thank you for visiting my Web Page Help. If you have any questions or comments, or if you have a topic you think I should add when I revise these pages, please e-mail me: hlang at northcoast.com, or use the feedback form on the next page.

If you want to know how feedback forms work, and a little bit about email security, an explanation is found on the next page below the feedback form.

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