Page titles

To help obtain high page rankings with search engines, the contents of your page title are one of the most important things that need to be dealt with. The page title is the first amount of information provided to a search engine describing the contents of the page. You should also be aware that the page title provides information about the contents not only to search engines, but to visitors as well. The page title will show up at the top of the browser window. Your page title should include your keywords and should be no longer than 60 characters long. If it is too long, your visitor will only see the first part. An easy way to figure out the length of a page title is to type it into a word processor that contains a word count feature. Since your page title needs to be a certain length, it is important to make the best use of the space, and although some words that are not key, will use up that valuable space, the title itself still needs to make sense. A keyword in your title can be repeated, but having the same words more than two times is not recommended. Compare your page title to others and see what makes their content look appealing enough to catch a potential visitor's eyes. Your page title needs to stand out between the other nine titles on the search engine results page. As you design your site, remember the fact that visitors may be directed to somewhere other than the homepage because the search engine believes it is the best match for a keyword. With this in mind, all pages of your website should be considered unique and have their own title.

Meta tags

For your site to be effective, you need to develop Meta tags. These tags are a site description and a keyword list. It is important to note that not all search engines use these Meta tags. Starting with your home page, you will need to insert two Meta tags. The first is a Meta description sentence and the second is a Meta keyword list. The information you put here is for search engines to use when they review your site. This review process is known as crawling and is done with a program called a spider or robot. The description tag serves two purposes. The spiders search it for keywords and it is also displayed to a surfer as they view search engine results. The information obtained by the spiders is kept in a database that is used when a person types in a query to a search engine. When you create your Meta keyword list, order them from the most relevant to the least. The first part of your list should contain the keywords that best describe your site and are unique enough that when someone does a search, there is not a large amount of competition to go up against. Make sure that all the keywords used in the description tags are again listed. The words at the end of your list are known as wildcards and include synonyms and words that could have been spelled wrong when someone was doing a search. During your Meta tag creation process, do not be afraid to go to other people's websites and see what they have used. Type in the same words you would like to include in your lists and see what the search engines display. This is a very good way to help determine your competition.

The thing about computer languages is that there is some weird heaviness on the actual work involved. People are scared of by codes and although they see the power, they just can't seem to get going because they have no idea where to start.

That is where training comes in. And of course, fun training. You need to be taken by hand and shown exactly what you need to do, where you need to do it, and when you need to take the right action.

The funny thing about CSS is that it allows you to create your website in the fraction of the time when you would do it using tables. It's hard to believe, but still after all these years of promotion for CSS people (and companies!) still heavily rely on tables for layout. They have no idea that they are simply wasting time on old techniques that will be useless in a matter of time.

So where do you need to pay attention on when you are looking for a CSS Guide?

1. The Teacher

The number one thing you need to be sure of is that your teacher knows where he or she is talking about. Why is he or she teaching about Cascading Stylesheet, because they need to from their boss? Because they think they can teach, no matter the subject?

Think of that, how many teachers are only "teaching" stuff, and never practice it their own? Ask yourself "why" are you teaching you me this. Are you the best in the field? Where did you get your knowledge from?

2. Teaching Style

So the teacher may be a great person, has all the required skills, has a passion for the subject and knows about everything of it. But can your teacher deliver? Does he or she KNOW how to explain things? How to take you by hand and show you step-by-step how things work?

Is it fun to follow along with the teacher? CSS is one of those topics that can become boring easily when it's only discussed in a technical way. Make sure you know what you can expect!

An even more important thing is cutting right to the case. You don't want to end up with all kind of knowledge that you will never use in practice. It simply isn't useful to learn every possible css style there is when you just get started. And this brings us to the third point you need to pay attention on when you are looking for a css guide.

3. Teaching / learning speed

Can you keep up with the course? Does your teacher decide the speed, or do you? Of course a great way to follow a course is one that allows you to define your own speed. Home study courses and guides are wonderful for that.

4. Delivery

How is your guide delivered? Are you somebody that likes to read, follow along with a training video or both? Decide what you like, training videos are great, because they allow you to follow along in a real life situation. This means hands on practice, which is exactly what you need if you want to become good in CSS.

5. Contents

Last but not least, content. What is discussed in the guide? What is marked as important? Do you get a total reference, or do you know you don't need that, that the real thing you need is a hands on course with day-to-day subjects? Decide what you want to know, just the basics, how to create full layouts, or just how to create a menu using 100% CSS.

It's up to you now, decide what you need, you know how important the 5 above points are, and where you need to pay attention on. And one last tip, make sure you get some preview videos or sample chapter before following any course, it can save you a lot of time and money at the same time.

Hilco van der Meer
CSS Expert

This article will teach you how to make a web site even if you don't know any HTML, CSS or any other web design languages.

The easiest way to get a web site up and running with minimal experience is to use an online site builder. Online site builders are web building software that are hosted on the internet. They can be used by total newbies to build web pages with minimal technical knowledge.

Here are several reasons why you should consider using an online site builder to make a web site.

• WYSIWYG

  Online site builders offer you a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing interface. This means that you need little or no html knowledge to begin using it. Everything is done visually. The site builder will then produce the necessary HTML code that will make up your website.

• Short learning curve

  With online site builders, you can put together a website in very short amount of time. The process of building a website using online site builders is very easy to understand. You just go through a series of steps and supply the site builder with the information it asks for and it will set everything up for you.

• One button click publishing

  One of the biggest problem a newbie has with making a web site is publishing it to the internet. With online site builders, you don't have to worry about messing with FTP software to upload your webpages. Often, all you need to do is click on a "Save" or "Publish" button and your website is live on the internet for all to see.

• Variety of predesigned layouts

  Most online site builders also comes with a variety of designs to choose from. This gives you that professional look instantly. Without you having to learn the fine points of creating great looking sites.

• Minimal requirements

  Since it's web based, all you need to use an online site builder is a web browser and an internet connection. You don't have to worry about downloading programs and installing them. You can access an online site builder from any computer and you will always have access to the latest features.

Now, how do you gain access to an online site builder?

Most good web host provide a basic site builder with their services. Though very basic, you can still make a decent web sites with it.

I would recommend you sign up for specialized site builder. These site builders specializes in building a specific type of website. You have online site builders that build content sites, some that build ecommerce sites and others that build multimedia sites. So, it really depends on what type of site you'd like to build.

Either way, online site builders are a great way for newbies to learn how to make a web site without any technical knowledge.