Traffic
by Heather Champ
What comes after the design process is over? You've built it. You've most likely invested a few months researching, developing, and creating your site, and now it's launched and online. There are a number of ways to both announce your presence and bring recognition for your efforts.The veritable plethora of Web crawling worms will eventually make their way to your door, but you can take matters into your own hands--Submit your details.
Sites like Submit It! are a great way to do a blanket announcement. Your information will be relayed to a number of search engines. There are also a number of services that, for a fee, will perform the same acts. This came to my attention by way of somewhat spam-like e-mails that I've repeatedly received over the past few weeks, but that's a whole other story.
Be prepared for the worms arrival. Including a smart, concise <META> tag will ensure that you are presenting the best possible presentation of your site. Some people employ excessive keywording that may go beyond a fair description of the content, for example, including multiple occurrences of the word "sex," etc. Most likely, the individuals who would find your site through this method may have something else on their mind.
The <META> tag looks like this and is placed within <HEAD> ... </HEAD>:
<META name="description" content="this is the information that will be returned from a users search">
<META name="keywords" content="specific key words that will pull your site during a users search">
While search engines can ensure a better chance at traffic, there are ways to achieve recognition for a job well done. Yahoo's Best of the Web is a comprehensive listing of various sites that award daily or weekly laurels for a variety of types. Look through the listings and determine which of these sites might be interested in your work. It's no use submitting a sports site to someone who recognizes a unique recipe of the day.
If you've done your homework and submitted a proper request, you stand a good chance of eventually being selected. And if the accolades aren't rolling in fast enough you can always visit The Corporation's Icon Gallery and select the awards of your choice.
A few highlights of Web awards include David Siegel's, author of Creating Killer WebSites, High Five Awards. It's considered to be one of the most sought after, prestigious awards online for high design recognition. Additionally Karawynn Long has created People Chase, a Web ring with three categories of varying design and content recognition.
It's important to remember that a Web site is a somewhat "living" entity. Yes, the initial process is over, but updating and extending the content will ensure the longevity of interest. Traffic--hits, page impressions, and unique page view elements that can justify maintaining a site. Don't let your hard work become a "cobweb" while you seek to lure surfers.
Correction: In last week's Movie Mania I incorrectly identified the e-mail interface in "The Saint" site as a Flash Component. The e-mail interface and subsequent Shockwave experiences were all authored in Director.