Optimizing Your Site For The Search Engines

By Margot B
Posted Wednesday, December 1, 2004

So you've built your web site! Don't submit it to the search engines until you've given it a tune-up to make it read for the search engines.

With "Net Mechanic" at (http://www.netmechanic.com) you will find "HTML Toolbox" that will scan your pages and let you know about errors before your customers find them. Learn which meta and title tags are best for your web site. They'll even insert them into your Web page for you, and check your spelling as well.

Net Mechanic has a search engine starter that will submit your site to 12 popular search engines. This is their free sample.

To prepare your site for search engine submission they offer a free sample of their Keyword Popularity Support. With this program, you'll learn which keywords will get the most traffic to your site.

To test up to five Web pages they offer a free sample of "HTML Tool- box". You can get a free tune-up. With this you can repair common HTML errors, find broken links, get help with HTML tags. You can get a free test [of up to five pages] of the download time of your site.

They offer a free monthly tune up. Then they will give you, as a free sample, your search engine ranking in six top search engines and they will check your rank every week and send a page rank report to you.

HTML Toolbox is safe to use. Their tools won't automatically change any- thing on your site. All their repairs are on a copy of yur Web page so that you can download and install when you're ready.

Another item to check is the size of your graphic images. Few visitors are willing to stare at your blank screen for 10-20 seconds while your graphic images load. With Net Mechanic's free "Gif Bot" you can reduce your image file size, optimize images, re-use images, pre-load images. If you re-use the same image on your web site, such as company logos and navigational menu bars and icons, site visitors will only have to wait for a single download; the images are cached on your hard drive and display immediately.

For more detailed information see (http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol3/ loadtime_no6.htm). You can get a free evaluation of your site's graphic image size at (http://www.cdmusicstore.com/gifwizard.htm) They find the bloated graphics on your web site and tell you how much they need to be reduced. They optimize the graphics automatically.

Tips for reducing file size; save your high resolution art at 72dpi. Crop or shrink graphics. Use fewer than 256 colors for GIFs where possible. Save JPEG files in 'low' or 'medium' quality.

With (http://websitegarage.netscape.com/) in their program "GIF Lube" you can type in the URL of your site, or the image, and their technology will immediately compress the image and give you back the results.

If practical, test your site to see how it will look in different browsers on different machines. If may take time and money, butit's the only way you can truly see how your site appears on different browsers. If you make a mistake in your HTML code, Internet Explorer will presume to know what you meant, and display it correctly, while in Netscape it may not show anything but a blank page.

Or you can go to Net Mechanic at (http://www.netmechanic.com) They'll let you view your site exactly as it appears on 14 different platform and browser combinations. This service is reasonably priced.

Last, but not least, Net Mechanic has a free newsletter giving you valuable Web design and maintenance tips. They have a strict privacy policy,they will not sell or give away personal information.

About the Author
Margot B is a writer, editor,Webmaster, Website Designer, Writer of non-fiction and children's fiction
mailto:margotb@wonderport.com Web: (http://www.writers.Org-HQ.com) (http://websitebuilder4free.Biz-page.com) (http://margotsnewsmedia.News-HQ.com)