PROMOTING YOUR CATTERY
How to Construct a Web Site

by Karen Lawrence
Reprinted with permission, Cat Fanciers' Almanac, April 1997

Counters, Guestbook and Search Engines

I know, I know! I haven't explained where you can get a really neat counter for the bottom of your pages, or set yourself up with a guestbook. So, for those wanting a couple of extra doodads on their site ......

INSTALLING A COUNTER

I'm not a big fan of having a counter on a page (it reminds me of an odometer!). People do seem, however, to enjoy watching the numbers on theirs change with every hit, so if you really want one go to http://www.digits.com and set one up for yourself. It's relatively easy to follow their step-by-step instructions. The code for your counter will be automatically generated on their web site, and will look something like this:

A counter will look something like this:

Use your mouse to highlight the HTML code, and hit CTRL C to copy it. Put the cursor on your page of html/text where you want the obnoxious little thing to be, and hit CTRL V to paste the text.

The counter will be an image file, so you may want to align it either by itself on a line by using <center></center> tags around it, or align it to the text besides it.

UPDATE: The digits.com site is no longer allowing the creation of new free counters pending the arrival of more hardware. My suggestion is to visit http://www.altavista.digital.com and search for the word "counter". There will be many sites that have free ones available - just pick whichever one you want.

A GUESTBOOK

While it is just as easy to setup a link on your web site that people can use to send you comments on your pages, there is also the option of setting up a guestbook that people can "sign". There is a site at http://www.htmlgear.lycos.com/specs/guest.html that will allow you to set up a free guestbook, just by following their instructions. HTML code that is automatically generated, and that should be cut and pasted into your HTML code looks something like this:

<center> <a href=http://www.Lpage.com/wgb/wgbsign.dbm?owner=tailsend>Please Sign Our Guestbook</a> | <a href=http://www.Lpage.com/wgb/wgbview.dbm?owner=tailsend>View The Guestbook</a> <br>Guestbook courtesy of <a href="http://www.LPage.com">LPage.com</a> </center>

which looks like this on your web site:

Please Sign Our Guestbook | View The Guestbook
Guestbook courtesy of LPage.com

The text that appears on your web site can, of course, be changed to whatever you want it to say.

A word about the Lpage.com site and guestbooks. It's unreliable. While the service it provides is free, it's popularity causes it some grief. The site is often down because of database problems, and space problems for saving the notes to thousands of guestbooks. Access to the site to read your guestbook is much easier in non-peak hours. In the long run, it's a good service. It just gets frustrating to use occasionally.

ONE LAST THING .....

Keywords. If you are planning to submit your site to a search engine, you will want to list a number of key words that will generate the URL for your site as a result of a search for one of those words. The easiest way to do this is through the use of a META tag at the beginning of your top level (opening) page for the web site. META tags can be complicated, but never fear .... there is a site that will automatically generate one for you. All you will have to do is fill in the information you want to appear, and then cut and paste the generated tags into the HTML code for your top level page. The Meta Generator can be found at http://vancouver-webpages.com/VWbot/mk-metas.html

The tag that will be generated might look something like this:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML>

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Tailsend Cattery - Welcome</TITLE>
<META NAME="key words" CONTENT="cat cats Abyssinian Maine Coon Persian CFA shows Canada cattery pedigree club breeder ">
<LINK REV=made href="mailto:klawrenc@freenet.npiec.on.ca">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="site of information about pedigreed cats, cat shows and cat clubs">
</HEAD>

THAT DONE, NOW HOW DO I ATTRACT VISITORS TO MY SITE?

Well, you've finally completed your initial web site, have put it online and checked that all of the links work just fine .... now what? Just how do you get people to come and visit your site?

Word of mouth is always good. Let your friends know the URL, and if they have web sites you can always ask them to include a link to your site. Let the people on mailing lists that you subscribe to know where to look for it as well. If you are listed on the Fanciers Breeder Referral List, ask Barb French to include the URL with your listing. .

Search engines are probably the way that most people look for information on the web. Enter a key word, hit search, and up pops links to a zillion and one sites related to that key word. Of course, there are numerous search engines on the web, and it could take forever to seek them all out and let them know your URL. There is a site called Submit-It that makes this easier. By going to http://www.submit-it.com, you will have access to all of the search engines on one page, and can follow the directions to submit your URL to each of them to your heart's content!