The topics covered in this section:
Setting up a website requires understanding three ideas:
Q: So, a domain name. What is it?
A: A domain name is a method of identifying your website and the computer it’s stored on, wherever that computer is in the world.
The principle is very similar to that of a mobile telephone number and handset. If you want somone to call you, you need a phone number registered with a service provider and a handset set up to receive your calls. (Obviously you yourself are the third part of the deal: you need to be able to answer the call.)
A domain name functions something like a telephone number in our metaphor. Find out how to register a domain name.
Q:So, ‘website’ means two different things?
A: Yes. In common speech we don’t differentiate betweent the two. A website is both the directory (the ‘folder’ or space) on a webserver and the documents in it. You could see it as the difference between a mobile phone handset and the human answering the call.
Q: And a webserver is...?
A: Just a computer doing a specialised job; storing websites and responding to requests from human users to see their contents.
FwboNet does two things: It registers domain names, and sets up website space on a webserver. We can also give you advice about how to compose website documents — the webpages human’s want to see; we don’t, however, compose or design them for you.
Q: I’ve got a new website: how do I get it to come up on Google?
A: There’s a long answer and a short answer.
The short answer is that Google (and other search engines) send little programs (sometimes called ‘spiders’) around the Internet that ‘read’ the HTML documents that make up websites. (Every webpage a human sees up is some form of HTML document). These spiders make an assessment of what your site is about based on the words you use in the site and where they appear in the document structure.
Computer programs — these ‘spiders’ — can’t actually ‘read’ as humans do. So there’s a game we play with them to give them information that helps them understand what your site is about. The competition may well have got a grasp of the game, so if you want to be on that first page with them, or at number one, you need to play that game too.
You need to attract search engines to come and look at your site and make that evaluation. You won’t appear in a Google return just by magic. So:
1/ Tell the search engines that you exist. Go to the Open Directory Project and follow their instructions. Then go to the Google submissions page and similarly follow their instructions.
2/ Have links from other sites — topic-related to your own — for the spiders to follow and find your site (see below). This will aid routine re-evaluations as well as make your site look lively.
For more information see Google’s own Webmaster Guidelines page.
Read the article Web Friendly Text and follow it’s recommendations as thoroughly as you can: there’s much more you can do, but you will need to be willing to tinker with your website’s HTML documents.For a more thorough look at these issues read Findability and Search Engine Optimisation in the Internet Support section of this website
Q: Is there anything I should be doing to link up with other FWBO websites?
A: There are several things you can do; see The FWBO on the Internet section of this website (password protected: email the FWBO Internet Worker —
Q: I’ve heard it’s necessary to ‘maintain ’ links — how does one do this?
A: Links — like email addresses and phone numbers — fall obsolete. Just as active and healthy links attract spiders, dead and redundant ones turn them away because they make your site look old and out-of-date.
Periodically check the integrity of your links page with an automated link checking tool: update, correct and even prune any links that are damaged, redirecting or redundant. FWBO people can obtain an up-to-date links page from this site (password protected: email the FWBO Internet Worker —