Please refer to previous entries in the "Creating a Web Page" series:

• I: Getting Started
• II: Learning HTML
• III: Text
• IV: Links
• V: Formatting Text and Lists
• VI: Tables
• VII: Colour
• VII.5: Images
• VIII: Sound

Look at me!

Once you've finished your site, you want people to look at it. There are many ways of spreading the word about your site. Family and friends, of course, are an easy source to tap- just send along an email to them and include the address of the site in it.

Hit counters and guestbooks

A hit counter keeps track of the number of people who view your page. Some also keep more detailed information such as what browser your viewers are using and who referred them to your page. A guestbook allows people to leave feedback about your site and messages, sometimes also a link to their own site. You may need to monitor the postings for offensive content. Visiting the sites left by your guests will not only introduce you to many other styles of webpage, but it's good advertising to sign their guestbook in return. Do a search in any major search engine for "free guestbooks" or "free hit counters" and you'll find plenty of entries.

Usenet

Usenet is like a big electronic bulletin board, similar to the conversation forums on h2g2 where the participants post messages and replies. Usenet groups are sorted into categories. Once you find a Usenet group that covers a relevent category, you can just post a message introducing yourself and your site. Be sure to mention why you think the site is relevant to the group, since nothing annoys Usenet users more than cross-posting (plastering the same email message in many newsgroups, including ones that have nothing to do with your subject). Most browsers these days come with a newsreader. In Netscape, go the Communicator menu, then select Newsgroups. MS Outlook has a newsreader option built into it. There are also online newsreader services such as Google Groups. Some require you to register for a free account to use the service, others don’t.

Search engines

The problem with getting listed on search engines is that every one has a different method of categorizing and ranking the sites. Some simply take the first page of text and search that for keywords. Others ask you to put in your own keywords and description when you submit the site. Others have you find the best possible category to list the site under, then submit it under that. An entire industry has sprung up around "Search Engine Optimization" as businesses compete for better ratings. However, the easiest way to make your site as pleasing to search engines as possible is to include META tags in the HTML for your site.

META in Greek means "outside". META tags do not show up in your page, they contain information about your page and are important only to search engines. The META tags are nested in the HEAD tag. There are many possible META tags but I'll give you the most important ones. KEYWORDS and DESCRIPTION are essential for an accurate listing in search engines. AUTHOR and OWNER are more important in copyright situations. EMAIL is optional, in case you want people to be able to contact you (for permissions or whatever).

Sample HTML:

If you go to "View" then "Page Source" in Netscape, or "View" then "Source" in Explorer, you can see the HTML for any page. This can help you by showing some of the more advanced META tags, should you ever choose to use them.

Some of the most popular search engines include
Google,
Yahoo,
Altavista,
AOL, and
Excite. There are literally hundreds of search engines out there, and some of them are specific to a topic or country so you might considering hunting those down too. Submitting a new page for addition to their listings varies slightly from one search engine to the next. If the search engine has categories (like Altavista), sort through the categories to find the one that's most appropriate for your site. Within each category should be a "Submit URL"² or "Add URL" link. For all others, the "Add URL" or "Submit URL" link can be found with a little hunting.

• X: Design Tips