Web Site Creation - pg 8 - Site Maps and Search Engines

By talking about site map, we are skipping ahead a bit, but it is important to have some other things in mind before you get down to coding, or WYSIWYG’ing, your web page. After promising to talk about "site map" I have done research and found out that you site map your site AFTER you create it. So, for now, we will discuss getting your site found by Search Engines. This is something to consider during every step of your page creation.

Note: I have substituted the word carrot for the <> for each page, don’t say “page 1,” “page 2,” etc. Do use very descriptive sentences, like: “Painting information from SaVanVleck” or “Native American characters in the Moon Tree books.”


2. And, don’t forget that detailed ALT text for all images, we have discussed.


3. Use your (carrot) meta name="”keywords”"> to good use with detailed information. If you will look at your WYSIWYG editor's HTML, you will find the "keywords" and "content" at the top of the page. These are two very important keys to being found by search engines.


4. Use CONTENT => also The CONTENT can also be used by search engines as your site’s description when displaying search results. These are where the lines that you see when you google come from.

Below is the AOL Google search for “www.vanvleck studio.” I do not find the AOL Google to be as thorough as a straigh search with:http://www.google.com/, but it was handy.

a href="http://www.vanvleckstudio.com/" target="_blank">pottery, painting, drawings, fairy, doll sculptures, by Sher...carrot /a>
Welcome to VanVleck Studio on-line ... Link to pottery and sculpture by Sheryl VanVleck ... Link to 2-dimensional work by Sheryl VanVleck ...www.vanvleckstudio.com/ - 11k - Similar pages

AND

http://www.vanvleckstudio.com/
Welcome to VanVleck Studio on-line
VanVleck Studio and Gallery is located in a quiet rural area in Brown County, Indiana, USA. ... On the left will be VanVleck Studio, 7873 N. Oak Ridge Road. ...
www.vanvleckstudio.com/4studio.html - 8k - Similar pages
[ More results from www.vanvleckstudio.com ]
http://www.vanvleckstudio.com/4studio.html

My INDEX page is the top search for vanvleckstudio. So, it is saying welcome (probably unnecessary and certainly non-descriptive) Link to pottery and sculpture by Sheryl VanVleck is okay. “Link to 2-dimensional work by Sheryl VanVleck” really does not tell anything about my portrait paintings in three medias. That should be more descriptive for full affect.

a. A caveat here is that search engines will ignore keywords if you repeat a given keyword too often. That means any word used more than seven (7) times, in some search engines, will be ignored.

5. I read some advice in my CoffeeCup HTML, to check out your site on Lynx, and you will see the text only version. This is good to see what the visually handicapped will see, but also good to see what words will pop-out on search engines. My vanvleckstudio.com came up thus (it is too long to copy all in here, so here is the link) seebot.org text view of http://www.vanvleckstudio.com. Suffice it to say that it is a lot of words, but perhaps not what I would intend to point out as the most important information on my site.

6. It is also said that some “well-known free hosting services” are ignored by the search engine. So, if you are serious about marketing from your web site, you should consider having it hosted. It costs me $100 a year for a basic service package from Gold Rush Hosting Solutions. There are cheaper options for hosts, but I got tired of not having someone to email when I got into trouble.

Hey, what can I say? "I got people, now."

Web Page Design - LESSON 1 - email and SPY BOTS

I am definitely not an expert web designer. But, I am learning and seriously working on my new web page for the writer in me.

Just this week, I was told by my web holders, something I already knew and something new. First, my email link, on my web page was the victim of a SPY BOT that trolls the internet and steals your email address, then uses it for SPAM.

I knew this was happening, because I was getting SPAM from my own website and I wrote my friendly and knowledgeable Web “host” Gold Rush Hosting Solutions. These guys are literally on duty 24/7. They are friendly, to boot. I am not so cheerful after 10:00 pm, but these guys are all smiles.

Anyway, AOL has actually requested that they shut off my email forwarding to my AOL account because I am sending out SPAM. It’s a bit inconvenient but not that much. The main thing is, I am not sending out SPAM.

So, if anyone has gotten SPAM from http://www.vanvleckstudio.com/ , trust me; I did not send it out. My web page may be rather messed up now because the new design is not ready and yet I had to take off all the email links to stop the SPY BOT idiots. I also deleted some of the pages that were not valid and so it is all a mess. I don’t know if it will stop those who have already stolen my email but I hope so.

SO, the lesson for today in web design is the second thing I learned from my Host: Do not be nice to your viewers and link to your email or the SPY BOTS will get you and one day you will be, along with a million other people, receiving spam from your own web page.

My Web Host suggests I either just write the email address, without a link, for contact, or use a form for contact. It may be a little more work for you to be checking the form, but it keeps your web page fresh anyway with constant use. This is a good thing for the search engines as one thing they look at is use on the web page.