Computers: writing a web page

Session 4 - Review, backgrounds, meta tags, search engines, domain name registration, and webhosts

http://www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us/classes/html4.html

Review

The following tags accept the attribute bgcolor="_______": body, table, td
The font tag accepts the attribute color="______". You can set the background color or color for these elements using any of the color values at the site below:
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/colors.html

To make a two-column webpage, with the left column being narrow, you would use a table like the one below:

<h2>page title</h2> <table border=0 cellpadding=10 width="100%"> <tr> <td width=80 valign="top"> Links: <br>one <br>two <br>three </td> <td valing="top">body text body text body text body text.</td> </tr> </table>
page title

links:
one
two
three body text body text body text body text

Backgrounds

Webpages can have a repeating graphic for the page background, instead of a color. This is controlled in the <body> tag. The attribute is background="file.jpg", like so:
<body background="file.jpg">.

The graphic will be repeated over and over (left to right, top to bottom). The background attribute can also be used with the table tag.

meta tags

Meta tags go between the opening and closing "<head>" tags. They can have two attributes used by search engines to help index your website accurately, "description" and "keywords". Below are these two meta tags for THIS webpage:

<meta name="description" value="The fourth of four introductory
 lessons on writing a basic web page, for a community education class
 through the Minneapolis Public Schools">
 
<meta name="keywords" value="HTML, html, writing a web page,
 how to write a web page, basic HTML, Chris Gregerson,
 computer instruction, training, community education">

The link below will search google for my description text:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+fourth+of+four+introductory+lessons+on+writing+a+basic%22&btnG=Google+Search

Search engines

To get your website indexed by google, go to www.google.com. Find and click the link named "Jobs, Press, & Help". On the next page, click "Submitting your Site", and follow the instructions. You can submit your site to many places at once using submitcorner.com:
http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Submit/

Google is the most prominant search engine, and it sorts results based on how many links there are to a given website. Finding other websites willing to link to you will increase your ranking in search results.

The next most significant factor is what's inside the title tag (<title>), followed by the meta keyword and meta description tags. Lastly, the text on the page itself.

Webhosts

Webhosts generally don't offer technical support by phone. One exception is Yahoo! small business web hosting, which claims to offer 24-hour phone support:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/bzinfo/prod/wh/

You normally have to be able to upload your files by "ftp" on your own, for example. If you want to publish your website under your own domain name with geocities, but without the ads, you can upgrade your Geocities account to one of the paid plans.

If you use a different host, you will need to upload your files (html pages and graphics) using an FTP program, such as WS_FTP: screenshot1, screenshot2, WS_FTP product info. Below are definitions for some host account features:

space or diskspace: measured in megabytes(MB), this is the amount of space you are given on the webserver's hard drive. Geocities gives you 10-155MB free, which is plenty for a beginning site.
bandwidth or transfer: usually measured in gigabytes(GB) per month, this is the amount of date sent from the webhost to strangers visiting your website. More traffic is desirable, but after 3GB to 10GB per month, most webhosts charge additional fees. This is not a problem for smaller, beginning websites.
Some webhosts have a setup fee (e.g. $10 to $30), or restrict their discount prices to those who pay for 6 or 12 months of service at once. This is not unusual.

For more information on webhost terms, see www.goodwebhosting.info Some webhosts I know of are listed below, for purposes of comparison. Epinions.com also has customer reviews of webhosts and comparisons of different plans.

HostingMatters: http://www.hostmatters.com/plans.html
HostRocket: http://www.hostrocket.com/
http://www.epinions.com/inet-Web_Hosting-All

domain name registration

Your webhost will give you your own directory, usually based upon your username -- something like:
http://www.hostingmatters.com/johnanderson/
At this point, you will probably want to register a domain name ("www.johnanderson.com"), so that your site can be found with a name you have chosen. Domain names can be registered through a number of licensed registrars.

Each registrar's website will have you start by seeing if your name is taken. If not, registration can be done online for about $20.00 (for one year). You must provide your contact information and the "nameservers" for the webhost you've chosen. Below are websites for two domain name registrars:
http://www.register.com/
http://www.networksolutions.com/

Appendix

Cascading style sheets

Here is an online demonstration in the use of cascading style sheets sheets:
http://www.w3schools.com/css/demo_default.htm
Here is an intro: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_intro.asp

Online payment processing:

http://www.internetsecure.com/
http://www.verisign.com/products/payment.html
...and pay-pal, which some people have reported problems with:
www.paypalsucks.com, www.trashcity.org/ARTICLES/PAYPAL.HTM

Web graphics and clip-art links

Note: images from clip-art sites (like the web itself) are not necessarily in the public domain; always read usage terms and copyright info. For example, some clip-art is only free when used on personal webpages.
Copyright-Free Photo Archive, listing several federal public-domain photo archives:
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/index.html
Clip art websites:
http://www.barrysclipart.com/clipart/
http://www.best-of-clipart.com/
Logo generator from coolarchive.com:
http://www.coolarchive.com/logogen.cfm
Contact: chris@phototour.minneapolis.mn.us