Optimizing Your Site for the Search Engines

So youve built your web site! Dont submit it to the search engines until youve given it a tune-up to make it ready 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. Theyll 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, youll 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 wont 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 youre 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 Mechanics 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 sites 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, but its 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
Theyll 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&Associates

Margot B is a writer, editor, and web site developer.Article Auto-Respond: margotb@sendfree.com
http://websitebuilder4free.Biz-page.com
http://www26.brinkster.com/margotb

margotb@prweb.com
http://margot.bravepages.com