Validating
Your Code 
Congratulations,
you've made it this far. Your pages reflect hours of compiling information,
editing, finding just the right graphics and valuable links. However, before
you publish your pages, there are a few things you should do.
Every
day the World Wide Web grows larger as more and more people are linking
their Web pages to this rapidly growing advertising medium. With this phenomenonal
growth comes the problem of more and more broken links. Pages are added
and moved which makes it more difficult for you to maintain you web site
and to ensure that your links are still active.
InfoLink
is a program that checks the links on each Web page that you identify.
It checks graphics, documents, ftp, gopher sites, news groups, and e-mail
addresses. With InfoLink, verifying and correcting links is an easy task.
For a more complete listing of HTML Validators for Windows, Mac, and OS/2
platforms, visit Tucows
website.
Publishing
Your Pages  
Once
you've tested your pages on your own system, it's time to publish them
to a server. At the present time, your page only exists on your local disk
which means that no one else can see your site. By copying your page to
a Web server, you are making it available to others.
If
you are online, you already have a Web server. Most Web servers offer space
that you can use to publish your pages. Contact your ISP (Internet Service
Provider), to see what space is available. In many instances, space is
provided to you at no extra cost; rather, it is built into your basic monthly
charge.
With
Netscape Gold, publishing is a simple process. By using one button, you
can select which files or directories you want to upload (publish) to your
Web server. The steps are:
-
Choose
File/Publish or click the Publish button on the toolbar (located just below
the Insert Target button.
-
Select
the Include images in document option to display all of the images
in the current document you wish to publish.
-
When you
click the Include all files in document's folder option, all of
the files (HTML, .GIF, .JPG) in the current directory will be displayed.
Next,
type the location of the remote site to which you want to publish your
Web pages. You will need to contact your ISP to find out what to type in
this box. For example, if your service provider is Cyberport, the URL in
the box would look like:
ftp://www.cyberportal.net
To complete
the publishing process, fill in your user name and password; then click
OK.
Once
you have published your page with all the graphics and other files included,
you might wish to upload some minor changes. Rather than uploading the
entire page, which can be time consuming if you have a lot of graphic files,
you might choose to use a file transfer program such as WS_FTP.
WS_FTP
is the fastest, most powerful Windows file transfer client available. It
is designed for non-programmers; however, it is sophisticated enough for
power users. WS_FTP Pro takes full advantage of Windows' point-and-click
capabilities. A highly intuitive graphical user interface with side-by-side
directory windows for local and remote sites, this program will greatly
simplify all your file transfer tasks.
From
time to time as you perfect your site, you may wish to remove files from
the directory your service provider maintains in your name. Using a program
such as WS_FTP enables you to do that, one file at a time. Likewise, in
the event that you mistakenly alter one of your HTML files, you can retrieve
it by using a program such as WS_FTP.
Registering
with Search Engines  
Registering
with search engines is vital if you hope to draw attention to your site.
Word of mouth advertising is great; however, it is also rather slow. Most
people register their site with the top few engines and directories and
then sit back and wait for the traffic to come. That's okay for a while.
However, most of the authorities on the subject emphasize that you must
re-register with search engines to make your site more visible.
Sending
a Web site that is not ready for promotion is a waste of time. To make
sure your site is worth visiting, you should check for errors in spelling
and for dead links (mentioned earlier). Many of the search engines publish
a page with tips on how to best promote your site. Be sure to check them
out!
Thoughtful
consideration should be given to the title of your web site. The <TITLE>
is the text that appears on the title bar of the browser. This is what
identifies your site when people choose to bookmark it. It is also what
many search engines and directories consider when listing your site. Make
sure that it makes sense and that it includes a few key, descriptive words.
Although
we have worked primarily with Netscape Gold, I suggest the use of another
text editor for the purpose of editing text and troubleshooting various
problems that are certain to occur from time to time. Arachnophilia
is a user friendly program that makes handling these situations quite easy.
When
you open an HTML file in Arachnophilia, you will notice <META> tags
in your HTML programming. Because many search engines and directories use
the information contained in the META tags to categorize a site, it is
extremely important that you include this very important step in the publilshing
process. Keywords can be two or three words. Once source suggests making
a list of 50 words from which a list of the top 20 are chosen.Think about
the customer's point of view when making your list; and only include the
words that you believe best describe the contents of your site and that
will draw the most attention.
Now
you are ready to advertise with the search engines of your choice. Be prepared
to wait from several hours up to six weeks to be included in the best search
engines and directories found on the WWW. Although these companies are
working very hard to keep up with the steady influx of registrations, it
is virtually impossible.
Banner
Exchanges  
Banner
advertising increases awareness about your site and may give you the competitive
edge over other sites offering the same service you do. Link
Exchange and Smart Clicks
are two of the many banner exchange services provided on the Web. Joining
is free for each of these programs. It's simple and takes only a few minutes;
however, you must have a banner which represents your site.For a more extensive
listing of banner exchanges click here.
To check out a variety of banners, go to my Banner
page.
If
you have a program that creates files in a .JPG or .GIF format, banners
are fairly easy to design. Click here
for tips on effective banner design. Or if you would rather have a banner
created for you, click on this
link.
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