Transcript Promotion for Web Developers

Web Developer Foundations:
Using XHTML
Chapter 11
Web Page Promotion
Concepts
1
Learning
Outcomes

In this chapter, you will learn how to:






describe the difference between search
engines and search indexes
describe the components of a search engine
design web pages that are friendly to search
engines
request that a web site is added to a search
engine
monitor a search engine listing
describe other web site promotion activities
2
According to
Nielsen/NetRatings
(reported at
http://searchengine
watch.com/reports/
netratings.html):
Yahoo!
(http://yahoo.com)
and MSN
(http://msn.com)
are the two most
popular sites used
for searching the
Web during a
recent month
Popular Search Engines
& Search Indexes
Search Index
(also called Search Directory)

Popular Search Indexes:





Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com
Open Directory http://www.dmoz.org
Each site is reviewed by an editor before being
added to a search index
The search index maintains a hierarchical
category of topics and places web site listings into
these categories.
When visitors use a search index they have the
option of immediately typing in a search term or
"drilling" down into the hierarchy for relevant sites.
4
Search Engine
Components

Popular Search Engines:
Google http://www.google.com
 Overture http://www.overture.com


Search engines use the following
components:
Robot
 Database (also used by search indexes)
 Search form (also used by search indexes)

5
Search Engine
Robot

A robot (sometimes called a spider or bot):





A program that automatically traverses the hypertext structure of the
Web by retrieving a web page document and following any hyperlinks
on the page.
Moves “like a robot spider” on the Web, accessing and documenting
web pages.
The robot categorizes the pages and stores information about the web
site and the web pages in a database.
While various robots may work differently, in general they access
and may store the following sections of web pages: title, meta tag
keywords, meta tag description, and some of the text on the page
(usually either the first few sentences or the text contained in
heading tags).
Visit the “Web Robots Pages” at http://www.robotstxt.org for more
info about web robots.
6
Search Engine
Database




A database is a collection of information organized so that its
contents can easily be accessed, managed, and updated.
Database Management Systems (DBMSs) such as Oracle,
SQL Server, or DB2 are used to configure and manage the
database.
The web page that displays the results of your search has
obtained the information from the database used by the
search engine site.
Some search engines, such as AOL (http://www.aol.com),
iWon (http://www.iwon.com), and MSN (http://www.msn.com)
use a database provided by Inktomi (http://www.inktomi.com).
7
Search Engine
Search Form





The part you are most familiar with!
The search form is the graphical user interface (GUI) that
allows a user to request a word or phrase to search for. It is
usually just a text box and a submit button.
The visitor to the search engine types words (called
keywords) related to their search into the text box.
When the form is submitted, the data typed into the text box
is sent to a server-side script that searches the database
using the keywords you have entered.
The search results (also called a result set) is a list that
contains information such as the URLs for web pages that
meet your criteria.
8
Search Engine
Search Results





This result set is formatted in a web page that contains a
link to each page along with additional information that
might include the page title, a brief description, the first few
lines of text, or the size of the page.
Next, the web server at the search engine site sends the
search results page to your browser for display.
The order the pages are displayed in the results page may
depend on paid advertisements, alphabetical order, and link
popularity (more on this later).
Each search engine has their own policy for ordering the
search results.
Be aware that these policies can change over time.
9
Designing Web Pages
for Promotion

<meta name="keywords" content=" ">




Brainstorm about terms and phrases that people
may use when searching for your site.
They should be words or phrases that describe
your web site or business.
These terms and phrases are your keywords.
Create a list of them and don't forget to add
common misspellings of your keywords to the list
10
Designing Web Pages
for Promotion

<meta name="description" content=" ">




What is special about your web site that would
make someone want to visit?
With this in mind, write a few sentences about
your web site and/or business.
This description should be inviting and interesting
so that a person searching the Web will choose
your site from the listing provided by a search
engine or search directory.
Some search engines will display your
description in their search engine results.
11
XHTML
<meta> tag




The meta tag
A stand alone tag
Placed in the header section
Attributes:



name
content
<meta name="value" content="value" />
Meta tags used by search engines:


name=“keywords”
name=“description”
12
Keywords & Description
Meta Tags

The keywords and description meta tags for a web
site about a web development consulting firm called
“Acme Design” could be configured as follows:
<meta name="keywords" content="Acme Design web
development e-commerce ecommerce consulting consultation
maintenance redesign Akme” />
<meta name="description" content="Acme Design, a premier
web consulting group that specializes in E-commerce, web site
design, web site development, and web site re-design." />
13
Listing in a
Search Engine





Wait until your site is finished – don’t submit “under
construction” web sites!
Visit Search Engine and look for “Add URL” or
“Submit your Site”, or “Add your Site”, etc. link.
Follow the directions and fill out the form. There is a
trend towards fees for listing (called paid inclusion),
or for express submission.
A spider from the search engine will visit your web
site and index it.
Allow several weeks and test the search engine to
see if your site is listed.
14
Monitor
Search Engine Listings

Manual Check (available from your ISP or web host)
Analyze web site logs

Run an automated tool to track and analyze keywords

15
Link
Popularity



Link popularity is a rating determined by a search
engine based on the number of sites that link to a
particular web site and the quality of the sites that
the links are from
For example, a link from a well known site such as
Martha Stewart’s site, http://marthastewart.com,
would be considered a higher quality link than one
from your friend’s home page on a free web server
somewhere.
The link popularity of your web site can determine
its order in the search engine results page.
16
Checking Link
Popularity


Analyze your log file.
Visit a link popularity checking service web site



http://linkpopularity.com or http://linkpopularitycheck.com
These sites will run a report which checks link popularity
on a number of search engines.
Visit particular search engines and check for
yourself.

At Google and AltaVista type “link:yourdomainname.com”
into the search box and the sites that link to
yourdomainname.com will be listed.
17
Other Site Promotion
Activities











Affiliate Programs
Banner Ads
Banner Exchange
Reciprocal Link Agreements
Newsletters
“Sticky” Site Features
Personal Recommendations
Web Rings
Newsgroup and Listserv Postings
Traditional Media Ads
Leverage Existing Marketing Materials
18
Summary





This chapter introduced concepts related to promoting
your web site.
The activities involved in submitting web sites to
search engines and search directories were discussed
along with techniques for making your web site more
useful to search engines.
Other web site promotion activities such as banner
ads and newsletters were also examined.
At this point, you should have an idea of what is
involved in the other side of web site development –
marketing and promotion.
You can help the marketing staff by creating web sites
that work with search engines and directories by
following the suggestions in this chapter.
19