Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines: While developing your website, it is important to optimize it so that it will be ready for search engine submission. In other words, make sure you do not forget to include the important "Meta Tag" title and keyword information that I referred to in STEP FOUR. Once your site is fully developed and you have published it to the Web, you can go to Google.com and Yahoo.com (for starters) to submit your URL (your domain address) so that your website will start to come up when people do a search using pertinent (Meta Tag) keywords.

Boosting Your Site's Search Engine Ranking
Website (page) ranking is your site's placement in search engine results when someone does a keyword query of a product, business, service, etc.  The more information you have included in your "Meta Tag" descriptions, as well as what is actually written on the Web pages themselves, are extremely important to help boost your search engine ratings.

• If you are using the option to submit your URL for free (as I did), it may take a while (from 1-3 months, anyway) for your site to come up #1 (or even appear on the first few pages of search engine results). This is true even if someone used the exact name of your website or business (or your own name -- no matter how unusual) in the keyword inquiry. Don't be discouraged about this, however, as your new website will (in due time) come up in the first place position when your business name (sometimes in conjunction with other keywords) is used.

• Getting your ranking up to the top can be a very tricky thing to accomplish since many factors come into play. One factor, for example, is how many other websites out there offer the exact same goods, services and/or information as you are offering on your website. (Unfortunately sites like mine are a dime a dozen.) Additionally, if your competition has paid to advertise their website with Google or Yahoo (and you haven't), that will naturally bump them up ahead of you.

• One free method that may help to boost your site's ranking a bit is to have your website link appear on a ton of other people's websites. Exposure is the key! The more, the better!

• NOTE: If you do any type of print media advertising in newspapers, etc., make sure that you include your website address in your article or ad, since the more "hits" your site receives in a given period of time, the better its overall ranking with search engines.

The good news is that the longer your website is up, the better its chance of coming up higher in search engine results.  This is true because it should accumulate exposure just from being around so long. Of course, you will need to try at least some of the things I suggested in the bullet points above, but time alone can be your friend too. Now isn't that nice for a change!

*Please note that if you do not care about your ranking (as may be the case if your website was only designed to be a resource for existing customers, family or organization members), then you really do not need to fret too much over the business of working hard to promote it.

E-stores & PayPal (optional)
If you age going to sell anything or take donations on your website, it is a good idea to have a PayPal account. This is a very easy process as well, and PayPal will take you step by step through it.

Password Protection (optional)
Some people prefer to have their Website (or certain areas of their site) protected from viewing by the general public. If you assign a user name and password to a folder in your Yahoo Password Manager, then people will need to know the access information in order to view Web pages stored in that particular protected folder. Yahoo has a pretty good Q & A about this (and many other things you might want to do with your website) if you are using them to Host it. There are also lots of inexpensive password software programs that you can purchase if you'd like to set up customized login pages for the protected areas of your website.

Yahoo offers many FREE add-ons with each of their Website Hosting accounts, which are really quite easy to incorporate into your web pages or site's navigation system.

These add-ons include: BLOGS, GALLERIES, GUEST BOOKS, CONTACT FORMS, etc.

You can "ADD" these various features to your website by creating a link to the new pages that Yahoo will automatically generate for you. If you have opted to create a contact form, however, you may want to insert the code directly into an existing web page. Existing pages can be made more interactive in many ways simply by plopping java scripts (or other sorts of codes) right into the html of your page. This is accomplished right in the "CODE" mode when using a standard website editor (i.e., FrontPage, Expression Web or Dreamweaver) or by using the simple Notepad feature, which should be found in the ACCESSORIES location on your PC. What's really great is that there are many websites that give these scripts (or codes) away for FREE, and using them can immensely enhance a web page. (DynamicDrive.com is one such website that you'll want to bookmark if you decide to start working with scripts.)

As a side note regarding SOURCE CODES, when you right click your mouse on any web page, you should be able to view the source code for that particular page by clicking "View Page Source" on the menu. (I learned a lot just by doing this when I was teaching myself html and learning how to incorporate new scripts into my own pages.) Again, to work within the source code on your web pages, you can either use a regular website editor -- such as FrontPage or Expression Web -- or you can play around with the code right inside your computer's Notepad (as mentioned in the paragraph above). Just be sure to use a .htm or .html ending when naming any "new" web page documents in Notepad. If the document is made up of website code, then using one of these two endings will automatically turn your html document into a web page that's viewable in a browser. It won't be searchable on the Internet, however, until it is uploaded -- or imported -- to your Website. This can get a little complicated if you have not first taught yourself at least a little html, but I will more thoroughly explain this (and so much more) in future lessons to be posted on this site soon.

How to find your Add-Ons: You will find Yahoo's "add-ons" link for your website right inside your Web Hosting admin panel. Just revisit the "Create and Update" link referred to in LESSON FOUR. If you do not currently have a tab for that page open in your browser, then here's a quick refresher on how to get there:

(1) Login to your regular FREE Yahoo email account;
(2.) Click on the blue link for your Website E-mail -- not the FREE Yahoo email;
(3.) Click on the "Manage My Services" link;
(4.) Click on the "Website Hosting Panel" link;
5.) Click on the "Create and Update" link;

Now you will need to scroll down to about the 4th block on the "Create & Update" page (which looks like the block shown in the screenshot below) and click the "Add-Ons" link located inside the block.

NOTE: As you look at the screenshot ABOVE, you may become curious about some of the other things you'll be able to explore as your website construction and management abilities expand. It is my hope that I will be able to give you a little more first-hand insight regarding some of these other areas in subsequent lessons. Some of the things I have (and will) discuss -- and more -- is also addressed in Yahoo's various Q&A sections, so you can always refer to them for additional instruction at any time.

These pages were only intended to get the newbie Webmaster started with building their own website. As I've said, Yahoo offers plenty more of their own instruction and support once you have an account with them, so you'll never be without the information and/or resources you need to get the job done. If you have read through all the steps on these pages, then at least you now have an idea of what's involved and can see how easy it will be to manage your own website account through Yahoo.

The screenshots I have provided on these pages only reflect how Yahoo's administrative panels can be accessed. Other hosting companies have their own formats, so the process may vary a bit from one to the next. The other thing that varies between website hosting providers is what's included with their hosting plan. Yahoo offers unlimited email inbox storage with each of their website hosting plans (with more e-mail boxes than you'll likely ever need to use). This is just one of the many reasons I tend plug their services above all others. After all, I want you to have the easiest website administrative job possible, as well as get the most out of your monthly hosting fee.

The next lessons I will be posting here (in the Summer of 2008) will hopefully instruct those who want to move to the next level get there more easily. The lessons will include "how to" build and access (import/upload/publish) your website using different kinds of web editing programs such as Microsoft FrontPage and Expression Web. Even if you start out creating your website using Yahoo's easier SiteBuilding tools, you may find you want to further expand your capabilities, and these other programs offer enough freedom to do just that. To review any of the website construction processes that I have discussed to this point, please use the "STEP" menu located in the (upper) right column area of this page.