Web Page Promotion and Web Rings

Dateline: January 98

Promotion - Search Engines and Lists

If you build a better Mouse Trap, the world will come knocking at your door. Unfortunately that's not a true statement on the Internet. You might have a beautifully laid out Web Page with some of the greatest resources and information available on the Net, but if you don't actively promote your site, no one will ever know.

After getting your Web Page on-line, you will need to advertise, advertise, advertise. One of the best means of getting your site recognized is to list it with Search Engines such as YAHOO and ALTA VISTA. You may individually list your site on each search engine by going to them one by one, however, a much easier method is to avail yourself of one of the free multiple listing services such as Add Me, or Submit It.

During the submission process some of the listing services will provide you with an input box for listing your sites content. Some listing services such as Alta Vista only accept your site URL and use a Web Spider to index the rest of your pages and information. In order to provide your site information to this type of listing you must make use of META Tags.

META Tags

The HTML specification uses a special markup element for the purpose of describing your site called the META tag. This tag can be used to provide a web author a means to describe the web pages content without it being seen by the viewer. List Servers such as Alta Vista will extract the information and use it, in identifying, indexing, and cataloging the page. Browser Watch contains an easy to understand resource on the use and formatting of META Tags with links to other resources on using and understanding META Tags.

Reciprocal Links, Banners, and News Groups

Another means of of promoting your site is through the exchange of links with Web sites of similar interest or topic. Most Web Authors would be happy to exchange a link with you providing your content and layout are of decent quality. The process is simple, begin by browsing with a search engine for pages of like interest. When you find a page that you would like, add it to your links page and then email the page author letting him/her know that you have given them a link and would appreciate a link in return.

Banners are yet another way to promote your site. One word of caution, too many banners are a turn off to your visitors and will also significantly increase the download time (another turn off). There are only a few Banner exchange programs, I would recommend, the best of these being The Link Exchange. In a Banner Exchange program, you would create a banner and submit it to the banner exchange site. Your banner is then placed in rotation with other banners and appears on other members pages while your page will display a banner for other members in return. For every two hits (visits) when the banner is loaded, your banner will be shown once on another site.

News Groups provide another source for Web Promotion. Search the newsgroup listings for a discussion group that shares your interests such as rec.collecting.postal-history or sci.military.naval, (two of the groups I subscribe to). You can post a message to the newsgroup announcing a new site and giving a short description of it. You should be aware, however, that some news groups consider that Spamming. Another method for getting your website viewed on a newsgroup is to use a text file at the end of your news and email postings. This is the method I use. Create a small text file with your name, email address, and site URL. Under the Options heading of your browser window, locate Mail and News Preferences and select Identity. There, you will find a box for adding your sigfile.txt.

Web Rings

A Webring consists of a group of sites with similar interests and/or themes. The sites are linked together in a continuous loop using code and graphical links. A Ring provides an efficient means of grouping together web sites of similar interest so that the Web "Surfer" can browse member web pages in a sequential loop. This provides more exposure (visits) for the web ring member and affords the viewer who is interested in viewing only those pages dealing with a particular subject, a convenient topical index.

Web Rings come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from commercial to personal. A list of available ring sites arranged by topic can be found at Ring World. You can join one of the available Web Rings listed or if you possess sufficient HTML editing skills, you can create your own web ring. If you chose the latter path remember the axiom in the first paragraph, advertise, advertise, advertise. You should list your Ring Home Page separately with all of the List Servers. Another aspect of joining a ring is that it provides a sense of community. Some Rings have discussion groups available (Chat Programs - Another topic for later on). I regularly exchange email with some good friends who share similar interests, that I have met through the Internet, from as far away as Holland and Singapore.

In Closing, the purpose of all the promotional methods discussed in the article are simply to get people to notice that you have built a Better Mouse Trap.

Until next week, I bid you "Fair Winds and Following Seas."

This is your Web site shipmates, help me to bring you the features and articles you want to see here. Suggestions, ideas, articles, and criticisms are welcome and needed. Drop me a note in the "Box", I promise I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

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