CIT 256 SEO and Web Commerce Dr. Beryl Hoffman

After you create a website Buy a domain name and rent web server space or go for a free one if you don’t mind ads. /domain.html, hosting-plans/ /domain.htmlhttp://reviews.cnet.com/web- hosting-plans/ Upload the web site to the web server (use web server’s ftp tools, or Manage Site with Dreamweaver) Submit site to Google ( ) or wait for bot to find it.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization After you put up a website, make sure customers can find it in search engines using SEO techniques. Getting a top Google ranking on certain search keywords is big business! People usually shop in the top 3 results for their search!

Google Rankings Google uses a combination of on-page and off-page elements for ranking your website in a certain keyword search: On page: The keyword content on your page: title, meta tags, H1/H2 headers, frequency of keywords on your site. Off page references: how many and what kind of other web sites link to your web site. If you cheat (for ex. pay others to link to your site), they will ban you! You can pay for advertised spots (Google Adwords), but still want “organic” top rankings.

Titles, Meta Tags, and Headings Important first step, use unique title and meta tags, headings and text instead of images for logo: SEO: CIT 256 Web Design (not used as much any more) SEO: CIT 256 Web Design In Dreamweaver, do Insert/HTML/Head Tags/Keywords and Description

Other SEO tips Alt tags on images Good URL and link texts Breadcrumb trails Use keywords frequently basics/ basics/

HTML Validation or in Dreamweaver (Windows/Results/Validation) checks your HTML to make sure it follows the standards. If you are using XHTML, you need to close all tags, use lower case, etc.

Favicons Favicon: a favicon is a small image displayed for your website on the address bar of the browser. Create one at from an uploaded image or design online. Copy the.ico file into your main site directory. In Dreamweaver, do Insert/HTML/head tags/link and browse to find the.ico file and type in “shortcut icon” next to rel.

Off-Site Links, Research, and Advertising Rankings go up as others link to your pages. Use to see who links to your page. Use to see what keywords have low or high competition from other sites. Use these keywords on your site. Use Google searches yourself to see if your web site comes up. Use advertising and social-media to promote your site.

Maintenance Research with Google Analytics A free tool where you register your online site and copy some code into your website. Then, log in to view statistics on site traffic, e.g. how many visitors you had, average length of visit, if they bounced out right away, traffic source (where they came from), etc. See google-analytics.php for interpreting analytics data. google-analytics.php

E-Commerce/Getting Paid Many web hosts will have their own shopping cart apps that you can use for free with your subscription. Paypal and Google Wallet allow credit card or online payment and take 2.9% + 30 cents for each transaction. Paypal recommended shopping carts: -cart -cart

E-commerce Sites with Databases Most E-commerce sites have a database to keep track of their customers, products, etc. Interacting with databases stored on the server requires server-side programming. To learn how to build sites using databases, take the CIT Databases course and the CIT Web Programming course to learn server-side programming using JavaScript and PHP.

Uploading to a web server from Dreamweaver Our department web server is: Design/ Design/ Dreamweaver: Site menu/New site or Manage Sites and Edit (pencil) button. Server tab/ + button to add a server. Connect using: FTP FTP Address: ftp.readyhosting.com Username: elms Password (keep this secret): CIT4ever! Root Directory: Classes/Web Design/YourName/

Uploading to a web server from Dreamweaver cont. Test. Make sure you get the right directory so you don’t overwrite others’ work!!!!) Upload: Select your root directory for your website in the bottom right web site navigator in Dreamweaver and hit the Up arrow to upload it all. Test the uploaded web site at Design. Click on your directory. Your index.html page will load automatically.