Thread: Newbie to webmastering please help

Hi,

I hope you can help a newbie in webmastering, as I have just made a web site and need some help please.

I finished my site and have uploaded it to my web server (using coreftp lite in sftp mode), and it is on the internet (pardon my not wanting to share yet, but I think it needs some alterations before I would want to show it to experienced people like you).

Anyway, after uploading my web site and asking google to crawl it, I have realised it needs to get onto google with search terms that are likely to get it to near the first page. I have researched it a bit and originally thought I need to add meta tags to each page, but have been told that this is not required for google ??? I am confused about that, as I thought you input that which you think your client base would type, and then if typed into google, it would look at those meta tags and match them up. I realise it is more complicated than my limited knowledge understands, but I still thought this was pretty much what meta tags are for.

Secondly, I think I need a site map for google, and have looked at google webmaster tools where they suggested a few third party tools for this, but do not know which is best to use. I made the web site using wysiwyg web builder version 8, and this has a facility to make a site map automatically. Does it make much diffrence which one I use ?

I should explain at this point that I do not know how to write html, hence the use of a wysiwyg type software.

Thirdly, I have enabled hotlink protection at the server for my images (as I am on a shared server with a bandwidth limit), and I would like to know if this would preclude google showing those images in the search results, images page ?

Should I rename all my images to be recognisable names that describe the image (at the moments they are just numbers), again, for google to index them better, or does this not matter.

My last question is about managing the web site; when I want to make changes, do I just alter the original on my computer then upload the entire web site again, and does that then overwrite the existing web site in the server (obviously presuming that the web site page file names are all the same), just as it would do in windows if you made another file of the same name where it would ask if you want to overwrite it ?

I am nervous about how to tackle the above alteration when I know what to do, which is why I am asking about site management.

I tried to ask these questions on the forum for the software as I thought they would know the answers to some of these questions, however, they did not help much, hence my asking here.

If you could offer any advice at all it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Hi, and welcome to the Internet.

The first thing you should do is create an account at Google's Webmaster Tools.

You will find details there on how to submit your site. For indexing. But note that as it's a new site, and if there aren't lots of other links to your site (not by joining in bogus 'link sharing' scams, but by having compelling, interesting material), you won't find Google all that quick to index it.

Search terms are an important aspect of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), but as for 'likely to get it to near the first page', it ain't gonna happen for a long time. Every new webmaster has exactly the same ambition. Here's all you need to know quickly about SEO, written (of course) by Google.

Do NOT pay anyone to do SEO for you. If there was ever a 'promise the world, deliver a small suburb' industry that's it.

Google ignores META tags these days. Some other search engines make limited use of them. They don't do any harm.

Site maps are trivial. Just look at someone else's (here's one of mine), copy it and edit it to reflect your own pages.

Learn HTML. Buy a book such as Web Design in a Nutshell or visit W3Schools and work through their tutorial.

It's best to have good names, and 'alt' tags for your images.

Learn HTML (and CSS).

Yes, you make changes on your computer than upload the changed pages. Not the entire website. Your FTP client will probably prompt you for the over-write. Then change the update date in your sitemap.

If you really want people to help, you should name your site. Then you'll get more practical advice.

Learn HTML and CSS.

Good luck!

Oh, and learn HTML and CSS.

Originally Posted by CoolRunning

It's best to have good names, and 'alt' tags for your images.

MY software has a setting that says "alternative text" next to each image file. Does this sound like the same thing as you are talking about ?

Originally Posted by CoolRunning

Yes, you make changes on your computer than upload the changed pages. Not the entire website. Your FTP client will probably prompt you for the over-write. Then change the update date in your sitemap.

Are you takling about the dates as are shown in the link to your own site map sample ?


Thank you very much for taking the time to write back and to welcome me to this forum; It's very much appreciated.

Originally Posted by audionow

MY software has a setting that says "alternative text" next to each image file. Does this sound like the same thing as you are talking about ?

Yes. But don't just do it, find out why you're doing it! See this reference as to what it means. But although they don't say it, the search engines like it!

Are you talking about the dates as are shown in the link to your own site map sample ?

Yes, just insert your own urls, the 'last updated' dates, and the approximate update frequency for each page. And verify it through Google Webmaster tools.

Thank you very much for taking the time to write back and to welcome me to this forum; It's very much appreciated.

No wuckers. Have fun. Post your url. Learn HTML.

Originally Posted by CoolRunning

Post your url.

Could I pm you about this please ?