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Other Common Web Elements

 

 

 

The benefits of using an experienced designer and web developer as that they will garantee your site not only looks good but has the critical invisible coding that search engines require to find you while making all the scripts and technologies seamless to you and your visitors.

Home > Training > Tips
     
Basic Web Process Characters & Tags Widgets Scripts, DIVs, and CSS... Oh My!

For more information or to get a no-obligation quote, contact info@guymercier.com or use the convenient online form below.

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Other items to consider:

*Links above are samples.

Your IP Server Control Panel

  • Create FTP User Accounts (First duty is to provide an account for your web guy or gal. You could also provide the username and password to access the server that the IP provider supplied for your account if your webmaster can be trusted. He/she will then be able to create the items below.)
  • Creation of Email Accounts
  • Spam Control Settings
  • Email Campaigns
  • Password Protect Files
  • Web Site Statistics
  • DNS Changes
  • MySql Database
  • Also contains Web Tools and Scripts
 

Tips, Steps, & Practical Information You Need to Get Online

Step 1: Domain Name Registration

Your first step is to see if your domain name is available. Domain names can be purchased for as little as $10 per year. You do not need to register your domain with an Internet Provider (IP) if you are not getting server space with the same company. You can start here at GoDaddy.com. You can enter a domain name and see if it is available.

Domain Owners

To find out who owns a domain name, you can go online and access "who is" at http://www.whois.net/ It will provide the name, contact info along with other details about the owner of the domain name.

Step 2: IP Server Space

Once you have purchased your domain name you need need to find an IP Server to host your site. Here are a few IP Server providers: LiquidBStudios.com, Omnis, Rogers or an other IP provider of your choice. If you accidentally registered your domain name without finding your IP your will need to change the DNS numbers to redirect to your IP server.

Your IP server is where you can create your email accounts, check your web statistics, change the DNS entry numbers, provide FTP access to external users such as your web developer, and upload files to the server.

These IP providers may also provide you with a few tools to help you create your site such as Front Page or provide additional scripts or programs to your pages.

Your web developer can assist you to find your way around your control panel or provide directions.

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Step 3: Web Site Design, Creation, and Production

You can use one of the free web site templates that are easily found online. These might be good to keep your costs down and will provide you access to make your own updates. The downfall of these sites as that often they will not allow you to add any additional features or scripts to your site. You will be limited by what they "think" you'll need. For example, Word Press is one of the free templates that a lot of people are using these days as it allows you to add your meta tags. Be aware that it has been known to carry viruses and it does have limitations.

Using a web developer or designer will be expensive. The benefits will be that your site will be virus free and will be customized to meet your needs. He/she will be able to incorporate additional scripts and technologies to ensure your site is the best it can be and meet --often exceed-- your expectations. They will also ensure your site has the necessary meta tags. Meta tags are very important if you want web search engines to recognize or find your site.

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Other Common Web Elements

Favicon

A Favicon is the graphic that appears with the URL address line.

Example
Example of a Favicon

You can create your own Favicon by visiting this site. http://www.favicon.cc/ It will create the icon for you and provide the code that needs to be placed within the "head" of your web page. The "head" is only accessible within the source code of your page. If you are using a "free web template" they may not allow you access to the source code.

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Meta Tags

These tags are very important to ensure that the web search engines find you. Your web page should at least have a "title". A title tag is the title of your page. It will display in the web browser tab window.

Example
Sample of Title Tag

Alt Tags
Alt tags is the text that appears for a graphic on your page until it loads. It is also recognized my search engines. Title tags can be added to graphics or links. When a title tag is entered for a graphic or link, a pop-up window will appear with the entered text if the user rolls over the item. Rollover this link to see a title tag.

Keywords
Other key words can be entered to increase the changes of people searching for your site.

A few more popular meta tags include: short and long descriptions for charts or diagram, date created, author, and more.

Entering meta tags will also make your content more accessible to online visitors who use devices that reads the text. It ensures that your content is accessible to everyone and a multitude or internet devices that are available today such as your Blackberry, Ipod, etc....

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More Technologies and Scripts

Your web designer/developer can incorporate more technologies into your web pages such as an expandable menu as shown in the right column of my home page. He/she can also add other scripts to display your content such as the slide show Javascript that is shown in my portfolio. They will also be able to add or create any database features required for password protect pages, login scripts, or ecommerce sites. They will also be able to write the scripts that are necessary for any online form.

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Production of Graphics

Your web graphics should be prepared in RGB and saved as either a JPEG or GIF.

Fireworks is a software program that will let you create your graphics and will export and minimize to the file size without loosing resolution quality.

You can use any graphics program that allows you to save and export to RGB JPEG of GIF. You can also now use PNG files that are transparent and resize nicely online and for your Microsoft Office Programs. They are better then using GIFS and JPEGS when you need to keep the backgrounds transparent.

CMYK images will not display online.

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Site Structure

Your site should contain a basic structure that identifies the main sections of your site. These should be your "Main Menu" pages that repeat on every web page.

Your site can contain as many sub-sections as you'd like within a "main section". For example, if you were selling products, "products" would be the Main Menu button and catalogues of varied products can become sub-sections of the main area.

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Word Imports

Be aware that importing text from other programs such as MS Word will often retain the attributes applied to your Word file. These attributes will need to be removed from your Word file before importing the content to your web page. Removing the unnecessary attributes in the code will ensure your web site page will view and display properly.

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Flash

Visit Brenda Chapmans' site to view a sample of an audio clip. The Podcast on her site is a Flash audio file.

Flash should be kept to a minimal. The program should be used to create audio, video, and or to animate graphics. Web sites created totally in Flash will not contain the necessary meta tags search engine look for and will not display on the varied devices available today for the web. They can take a lot of time to load. If they do not have the plug-in, they'll need to download it. If used effectively, it can improve your visitors online experience.

Visit the Ottawa Therapy Dogs site to view a sample of a video file. The article "A Therapy Dog for Libraries and Schools" has the Flash video sample.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Capital Crime Writers site has a sample of a Flash Password.

For more information or to get a no-obligation quote, contact info@guymercier.com

  
         
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