Internet reality and building a website basics

[Guest guest]

Internet reality and building a website basics

 

by Jan Mares (jan.mares_bbt.se , www.veda.harekrsna.cz)

 

 

"If you build it, and promote it thoroughly and constantly, they will

come - but if it is badly designed they will leave and if there is no

content they will not return."

 

 

Nowadays, especially in commercial sphere, if you don't have a

website, you don't exist. But to have a website which no one visits

makes the same result. Take a deep breath now for a few stats (from an

12/2003 B.A. magazine article by Web on High Ltd., www.woh.co.uk):

 

90% of people use one of two main search engines [Jan: Google and

, but mainly Google]

 

78% don't look beyond the first page of search results (1-10)

 

20% don't wait more than 12 seconds for the site to open and they take

7 seconds to make up their mind if this is the right site for them

 

So this is clearly the question of first impression. Good overview is

given in the article "The Internet Death Penalty: Most Web Visitors

Never Return to Sites After a Bad Experience, Says New Survey"

(www.enterpulse.com/press/051502.html). Conclusion: both a good

website and a good promotion are necessary.

 

Before starting to work on a website consider few things which assure

a good search listing placement, a key to success:

 

- Determine the most important keywords for your site's focus. The

more people search for your keywords, the better - higher - placement

you get. Learn from good sites similar to yours.

 

- Use a professional software like Dreamweaver.

(www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/).

 

- Include the words in your site's URL, title, META keywords and META

description and in text of the main (index) page.

 

- Subscribe to a web counter (see Resources) to monitor the traffic

and use the statistics to improve your site.

 

- Fine tune your site to be quick (errorless and without too big

text/pictures), clear and user friendly (simple, esthetic, ergonomic,

good language and spelling). Avoid frames. Learn from good sites and

become better than similar sites.

 

- Keep the site updated and complete (avoid "pages under

construction"), including links (check them periodically with checking

programs like Xenu, home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html).

 

- The more references, the better placement in search engines. Promote

your site on similar sites by adding link/URL, emailing webmaster to

be added to their links page, leaving your URL in a guest book, using

link/banner exchange (with good and relevant sites), participating in

webrings and newsgroup forums. Send out a keep-in-touch newsletter and

have contact details on every page.

 

- Monitor traffic, use of keywords and references, compare it with

similar sites/competition, evaluate and re-promote to maintain and

improve the placement.

 

If you conclude that the time, money and energy spent to learn how to

make a website would exceed your capacity and/or budget, have the

website made by someone in the know.

 

 

Searching resources

 

Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

 

BROWSING AND SEARCHING INTERNET RESOURCES. Structured and annotated

list of search engines and services.

http://www.lub.lu.se/netlab/documents/nav_menu.html

 

The Extreme Searcher's Webpage

http://extremesearcher.com/index.html

 

Beaucoup search engines (categorized)

http://www.beaucoup.com

 

Search Engine Reviews, Ratings & Tests

http://searchenginewatch.com/

 

ODP - Open Directory Project (affiliate source database for main

search engines)

http://dmoz.org/

 

WhatIs.com (computer terms dictionary)

http://whatis.techtarget.com/

 

 

Website resources

 

Quest108 - Top website design and programming (Varnadi)

http://www.quest108.com/

 

WhoIs Source - Wildcard Domain Search (free/taken domains)

http://www.whois.sc/

 

Free website supplies for webmasters

http://www.familyshoppingbag.com/freewebmastersupplies.htm

 

HTML code help, search engine optimization and web site

maintenance tools by NetMechanic (finetuning)

http://www.netmechanic.com/

 

Link Popularity Check Tool (check references to your site)

http://www.submitexpress.com/linkpop/

 

The Internet Archive (how a website looked in past)

http://www.archive.org/

 

 

Spam, virii, hoaxes, etc.

 

Fight Spam on the Internet!

http://spam.abuse.net/

 

Symantec Security Updates (virus info & help)

http://www-cu.symantec.com/avcenter/

 

Truth Or Fiction - email reality check - verify rumors

http://www.truthorfiction.com/

 

Desktop Yoga - prevention and healing of RSI and Carpal tunnel

syndrome - help your hurting hands

http://www.mydailyyoga.com/yogaindex.html