You've created this blockbuster Web site and your ready to launch
it into orbit. How do you do it. It's super-easy with an FTP program.
PC folks may want to get WS_FTP
or CuteFTP. Many
Mac folks like Fetch.
In either case, read a brief tutorial for PC
Folks or Mac
Folks on the Webmonkey site for orientation. If your site requires
a CGI script, JAVA application or any other server-side program, check
with your host provider to see if that server-side stuff is automatically
provided or how it should be handled.
The greatest Web site in the world won't do you much
good if no one ever sees it. For starters, you need to insert appropriate
META tags that provide information
that search engines can use to index your Web site. A tutorial
on "Search
Engine Watch" explains how this works.
Some search engines and directories don't rely on
META tags for indexing. Instead, some send out "spiders"
or "robots" that run around the Web looking at Web sites
and gleaning information from them. And then there are some that want
you to submit your Web site to them; and some n this last group have
the nerve to charge money to give you a higher rating.
Frankly, this business of getting a high ranking
for your Web site in the search engines is very complicated. But you'll
find very thorough tutorials on "Search
Engine Watch" that explains
how the various search engines go about indexing Web sites--which
ones rely on META tags, which send out spiders, etc. Another way to
go about it is to visit each search engine's Web site and read its
instructions for submission.
After reading the above tutorials, you may feel
that you're ready to submit your site to the appropriate search engines.
But if the whole thing seems a bit overwhelming, there are plenty of
submission services who'll promise (for a fee) to get you a top ranking
in the search engines. You can locate them by entering "submit
service" or "submission service" into your favorite search
engine.
