Recently, I changed one of my blogging sites from a sub-domain to a regular domain located at http://www.mustech.net. I am frequently asked about this process and if I have any “cheat sheets”, tips or shortcuts for the entire process. While I can say with great certainty that the “process” has become much easier over the past few years, it still can be a little bit tricky for the non-technical and non-savvy end-user. However, it’s certainly not unattainable and can be accomplished by almost anyone that is not afraid to experiment a little.
The good news is that obtaining your very own website and domain name is not very pricey and can be accomplished, in most cases, for under $100.00 US dollars. There are many freeware website builders available that do not require “coding knowledge” and online help files about these topics available on the internet. This once expensive, difficult, and time consuming process has become both affordable and relatively easy.
The following information contains eight of the steps that I used with the re-listing and securing of the new mustech.net domain and producing the website hosted therein:
* First things first, register your new domain name
I register all my domain names through http://www.godaddy.com. At godaddy.com (and other top domain registration services) you can check to see if the domain you want is already registered or “free for the taking”. If the site is not available, they will recommend alternate names; usually, the new names that they generate are usable and pretty good.
One of the great benefits of using a premier site such as GoDaddy.com to register your domains is the ease of use that is provided with the managing and maintaining of your domains. Additionally, these sites provide a whole host of site tracking, domain and informational options that simply are not provided by other smaller registrars.
TIP: For a few dollars more you can register a private registration for your domain. I recommend private registrations as they will protect you from a slew of unsolicited e-mails and also provide a shield against new domain name scavenging spammers. In short, PRIVATE REGISTRATION = LESS SPAM!
* Second, secure your web hosting provider and transfer the domain name to their DNS servers
Personally, I have been using ARDENT HOSTING for a number of years. They provide excellent pricing and unparalled technical support. They are constantly updating their APACHE, MYSQL, PHP and CPANEL software to the latest versions so that their customers are able to use the latest and greatest software.
Regardless of who you use, make sure that they provide the most current web related programs, daily backups of your site and have multiple connections to their web servers. Don’t forget to check their server “uptimes”. I recommend using only sites that have greater than 99% uptime and can actually provide you with this documentation. Anything less will translate into your site missing incoming traffic because the web server hosting your site may be offline too much.
TIP: There are many quality web hosting providers that will provide you with both the domain name registration and web hosting providing services in one package. Make sure that you look over a few different providers before you decide on one so that you can make a more informed decision.
*Third, Build your new site
This is quite a nebulous and dense topic. There are many software and techniques for creating a web site. For www.mustech.net, I use the “WordPress” freeware found at www.wordpress.org as the main page creation tool. There are plenty of freeware and online website building software available. To find them, perform a search on Google, Yahoo or MSN using such keywords as “website”, “building”, “freeware”, “online”, “creation”, etc.
If you are looking for a GREAT freeware ftp client for use with uploading your website to your host, the following three are probably the best. I use them all.
FileZilla: WINDOWS, Download at filezilla.sourceforge.net
Core FTP LE: Windows, Download at www.coreftp.com
Cyberduck: Mac, Download at cyberduck.ch
*TIP: Before you pay for any software, make sure that there isn’t a FREEWARE version available. There are many good and excellent freeware versions of software available for almost every purpose that you might need. To start finding freeware and saving money, I suggest using snapfiles.com. Snapfiles is a great resource, with an easy to use interface, for finding software. Make sure to check the “FREEWARE ONLY” option while searching this site.
*Fourth, SEO your site
SEO means Search Engine Optimization. Before you list your site with the search directories, you probably should check the contents of your site for optimum compatibility, usability and search friendliness. This is what SEO is all about; making sure your web site can be found and is search engine friendly. Some of these tools will actually show you what your website looks like to a “web spider” such as a “googlebot” or other web crawler. By using this type of information, you can change your site to more accurately reflect what you want it to.
SEO tools include software such as:
-Website Speed Tests
-PageRank analyzers
-Broken Link Tests
-Link Popularity Checkers
-Keyword Generators and Tests
-Metatag analysis
-Robots.txt tools
-Code validation
The following list includes sites that I use frequently when looking at information contained within a new site or analyzing an old site for better SEO friendliness:
FREE SEO TOOLS from the SEOCOMANY: www.seocompany.ca/tool/seo-tools.html
FREE SEO TOOLS from SEOBOOK: tools.seobook.com
FREE SEO TOOLS from the WEBMASTER TOOL KIT: www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-opt
FREE SEO TOOLS from AUDIT MY PC: www.auditmypc.com
TIP: At first these tools may seem confusing, but after you use them, you will begin to understand them better. After you understand them, you will know why they are so important! Proper SEO utilization takes time, don’t expect to understand it all immediately and if you get completely lost with this, there are, literally, hundreds of pay services available that are eager to help you!
*Fifth, Embed a JavaScript that will analyze your web traffic
If you want to better understand the people who are visiting your site or simply want information on your site demographics and keyword popularity, you will need a site tracker installed. I use a few of them with all of my sites.
Probably the best (and a little complicated to understand) is Google Analytics. It’s free and will prove invaluable to any serious website owner; especially, if your are marketing or selling items on your site. It can be obtained for free from Google at: www.google.com/analytics.
A great site tracker is also available for free from the people at “Stat Counter”. It can be obtained for free from: www.statcounter.com.
If you are a blogger, another great and easy to use site tracker can be found from the folks at Ice Rocket. It can be obtained for free from: www.icerocket.com
TIP: All these trackers can be obtained for free but you will have to register for them. To install these JavaScripts, I recommend pasting them into the footer of your web pages just before the “/body” tag to obtain the best results.
*Sixth, make a sitemap
Although, technically this item could be listed under the SEO tools found above, it is SO important that I am listing it separately. A sitemap is “road map” to your site for directories such as Google, Yahoo and others. By using a sitemap, the content of your site will be listed faster and more information will be gleaned from the web searching “spiders,” for listings at the directories, than without it.
Sitemaps are not hard to make using a simple text editor, but the length of today’s websites almost requires the usage of a sitemap generator. There are a number of great online and freeware sitemap generators available to use. There are even great plug-ins for popular blogging tools, such as WordPress, that can generate sitemaps automatically as you blog.
The one I use for WordPress, and recommend, was created by Arne Brachold and can found at: www.arnebrachhold.de/cat/seo/googlemap/. He calls this plug-in: Google Sitemap Generator 3.
General sitemap generators:
Online:
www.auditmypc.com/free-sitemap-generator
www.xml-sitemaps.com
www.sitemapspal.com
www.freesitemapgenerator.co
Software:
GY Sitemap Generator:
www.nexusion.com/sitemapper.html
TIP: The sitemap file should reside in the root directory of your website. This is where your “main” index file resides for your site. If you have sub-domains and/or other domains residing in directories on your host, you should make a sitemap for each of them as well. Google sitemaps and Yahoo sitemaps are compiled into different formats. You will need to make a sitemap for each to obtain optimal results and have the both contained and saved to your web hosted site.
The Google sitemap will end in a .xml extension and the yahoo will end in a .rss extension; sitemap.xml and sitemap.rss. The better generators will ask you what type of sitemap (or for what engine) you want to create.
*7th, List your new site name with the search engines
No matter how great your site is, no one will find it unless it is listed with the search engines. There are many ways to “submit your url” to search engines, both for money and for free.
The importance of getting your site listed quickly with the following directories cannot be underestimated. You can submit them manually by visiting the following links (manual submission links are found in the parentheses):
Google (www.google.com/addurl)
Yahoo (search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html)
MSN (search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD)
DMOZ (dmoz.org/add.html)
There are also many “free” websites that will list your new website without cost and use an automated url submitting process. Please note that the collective wisdom of the Internet world is that manual submissions “hold more weight” than automated submissions.
To manually list your site with a directory, simply go to the site with which you would like to be listed and search for terms such as “add a url” or “submit a url”. When you find them you will also find the location and information about how to register your new site with them.
That being said, automatic submissions are a great start and good way to begin getting your site listed. The following are free sites that will list your new website automatically with web directories:
Freewebsubmission.com: freewebsubmission.com
Submit Express: www.submitexpress.com
Submit Shop: www.submitshop.com/freesubmit/freesubmit.html
If you are creating a blog or a site that supports rss feeds, make sure that you lookup the various free directory submission sites for them as well. You will find that listing your site with them may actually provide you more visitors than the major search engines do (you can find out who is coming from where by using the tracking JavaScripts talked about above).
TIP: Many domain registration services and web-hosting services will provide you with free registrations to the top directory sites. Make sure you check with them to see if this free service is available to you.
*8th, Sit back and relax
It may take days, weeks or even months for your site to start showing up in the directories and visitors to start being “referred” from them. Be patient! Make sure you don’t submit your site(s) too many times or the directory services may think you are spamming them and the listing of your site may take even longer!
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About: Prof. Joseph M. Pisano
Joseph M. Pisano’s Informational Website: http://www.jpisano.com
MUSic & TECHnology News and Headlines: http://www.mustech.net
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Prof. Joseph M. Pisano is the Assistant Chairman of Music and Fine Arts, Associate Director of Bands and the Director of Music and Fine Arts Technology at Grove City College. He is also an active trumpeter, musician, clinician, conductor, jazz advocate, adjudicator and educator
Grove City College is a private, highly competitive four year institution located in Grove City, PA
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