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Q. What
is a Domain and why do I need one? A. Your
domain name is the name servers and users will see for your
site (for example,"www.mystore.com") and must be
32 letters or less, including the extension, which is the
part following the dot. Domain names are referred to as a
URL.
Some ready-made packages are offered
by domain registration companies, so registration is part
of the deal. Other companies offering packages will help
you with the process of registering.
If you're creating your own pages,
you'll need to do your own registration. The oldest company
in the business is Network
Solutions. They're quite reputable. Also expensive. There
are other companies that will register your domain name for
about $9 a year. Another often used site is: godaddy.com
The first part of the URL, before the colon, specifies the
access method. The part of the URL after the colon is interpreted
specific to the access method. In general, two slashes after
the colon indicate a machine name (machine:port is also valid).
Q. What
about Web hosting?
A. Web
hosting has become a big, competitive business. There are
many good companies available, and each offers slightly different
features. Make sure your host has the features you need.
Be sure to check their "uptime",
meaning the percentage of time their servers have been running
properly for the last two or three months. ISP check and
similar sites let you search their directory by type of service
offered and give statistics and reviews of the various companies
they list. Sign up for the shortest term they offer, just
to make sure you like them. There are actually companies
who will host your site for free. this is a REALLY BAD idea.
Free can actually be quite costly if your site is slow, or
it's frequently unavailable. Prices are all over the place
so shop and shop some more.
A. Make
the web site match the goal.
Consider what you want to get your visitors to do, then design
the navigation (how people get from one page to another),
the text and graphics to get them to do it.
Plan the site Navigation
Organize your material into pages with related subjects,
then decide how the pages should link together. Keep the
pages short. Search engines won't spider a page with more
than 100K. Put a menu to each page on every page of your
site. Provide a link back to your home page on every page,
so that people can start at the beginning if they get lost.
Using Text
You cannot have a site without text. It's important to write
interesting, informative and concise descriptions. If you're
describing a product you're offering, for example, tell
the visitor what it is, what it's for, how it's different
from others offered on the internet and how it will benefit
the person who buys it.
Using Graphics/Pictures
In addition to creating copy, gather the photos, graphics
and logos you want on the site. It's important to use the
same logos and designs you use on signs and packages and
in printed brochures. This branding creates a coherent
image and improved recognition.
If you are doing your own site, make
sure any images are in GIF or JPG format, and are no bigger
than about 500 pixels wide. Also, try to keep them smaller
than about 50 kbytes. There are many sites where you can
get free graphics.
A. No
one will come to your site if they don't know it's there.
You need to let Search Engines know your there. There are
two types of what are generally called search engines: Engines
that look for your site and services where your site is listed
much like a yellow pages.
Be sure that your page text and meta
tags are optimized to be found by search engines. See our
Search Engine Tutorial for Web Developers.
You don't need to submit your site
to the major search engines like Google. They'll find your
site if you do everything else right. There are several directories
that are human-administered. Some of the important ones to
which you should submit your URL are: Yahoo, the Open Directory
Project, or DMOZ, which is used by many other search engines,
Skaffe, searchit.com, Xoron, and JoeAnt. They're all free.
Commercial sites should be submitted
to Jayde and Thomas Regional. Gimpsy has a free submission
option, but charge $40 to list you within 72 hours. GO AIO
has both free and paid submissions. Also, there are hundreds
of search engines that will list you in return for a reciprocal
link.
Some search engines charge you to be
listed. Yahoo charges an up front fee, but you can get around
that by working on your link exchanges. If you've got a lot
of sites linking to you, they'll spider you (crawl over your
site) without a fee.
You can pay to buy keywords or preferred
placement in search engines. GoogleTM is currently the best
Search Engine. Advertising with them gives you numerous targeted
hits. KanooodleTM is one of the biggest reasonably priced
search engines. Both Google and Kanoodle offer a free "search
the web" box to put on your web pages.
FAQ
