Promoting a Web site is an integral part of marketing a business or organization. One of the locally based experts in Web site marketing in Greater Cleveland is NewMedia, Inc. ( http://www.nmedia.com/ ) They produce a fine series of seminars on e-business strategy and projects.

Mariamnne Ingalls, (http://www.mariamne.com/ ) who was the leader of the GCPCUG Web SIG for several years, (http://www.gcpcug.org/webteam.htm ) teaches a very nice two-session course on Web site promotion at Cleveland State University. The Winter 2000 edition of this class is described at: http://www.conted.csuohio.edu/ce/cecomw00.html

She made a presentation to the Web SIG of the CDPUG Web SIG in Solon on March 4, 2000 in Solon and provided a few more tips that are incorporated here.

To find the most popular search engines, check the most popular sites on the Web as determined at http://www.100hot.com.

Search Engine Watch provides much useful information for Web site promoters: http://searchenginewatch.com/

The course mentioned useful Web sites:

http://www.virtualpromote.com/promotea.html

http://www.deadlock.com/promote/

http://www.100hot.com/

To access the course select it from the above Web page by clicking on its title: "Successful Web Site Promotion."

Major topics in this course are:

-META tags

-Registering with search engines and web directories

-Promotion services

-Link exchanges and Web "rings"

-Pro's and con's of automatic submission services

-Promotion software

-Banner ads

-On-line Web promotion resources.

An example of an online search tool registration form:

Altavista, add URL page (found through a link from home page.):

http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=addurl

Searchenginewatch is an important site to anyone trying to promote their presence on the Web.

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/

Cleveland-Northeast Ohio sites to register with:

Crain's Cleveland Business Internet Interchange

http://www.crainscleveland.com/

Cleveland SitesOnline

http://clevelandsitesonline.com/dev/

Cleveland State University's Cleveland Index

http://www.csuohio.edu/cleveix.html

Cleveland Search

http://www.clevelandsearch.com

Other Web Site Promotion sites:

http://newapps.internet.com/appstopics/Win_95_Web_Site_Promotion_Tools.html

http://websearch.about.com/internet/websearch/msub25.htm?rnk=r1&terms=how+to+promote+a+Web+site

http://html.about.com/compute/html/msubpromote.htm?rnk=r3&terms=how+to+promote+a+Web+site

http://websearch.about.com/internet/websearch/library/insider/blfollow26.htm?rnk=r8&terms=how+to+promote+a+Web+site

http://www.pr2.com/

http://www.promotionworld.com/

Web Site Validation

Why bother to validate your HTML code? As open standards become more and more important and browsers become more and more diverse, it becomes necessary to agree upon a standard for HTML. Validation is a check to see if your HEML code meets the standard. There are a number of validation services available that allow you to submit an URL or piece of code for validation. You can also download a copy of publicly available HTML validation tool and run it off your hard drive. Some Web page editors come with validators. This provides faster validation, without overtaxing the resources of the Internet. -Eric Ladd, HTML Validation.

Software programmers check programming code for proper syntax. The same for good Web site builders that religiously check their HTML code syntax

Here is the granddaddy of Web Site validation sites. It is provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C):

http://validator.w3.org/

To for more description of validation check out "HTML Validation by Eric Ladd at this URL:

http://www.twf.ro/calculatoare/PlatiniumEdHTMLJAVACGI/ch21.htm

This document is dated. Only one validation link on worked:

Dr. HTML

http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/