Your first web site:

Basically you need three things in order to have a web site running on the Internet. Each of which can be obtained separately and from different sources.

Note! If needed we can also provide hosting and domain name services for you.

Requisites for a functional web site:
• A domain name: ±

A domain name.
Your www.myidentity.com, the common extensions (.com, .net, .org, .info, .la, or .md ) can be obtained from an accredited registrar or if you wish to use a different extension (for instance .cl for Chile) from the country NIC´s.
You can use our Global whois services to find available domain names.
You will need the DNS names pointing to your web host in order to show up on the Internet (usually something in the lines of: ns1.myisp.com & ns2.myisp.com), these are provided by your web-host.


• A web host: ±
A Web host
Some person or (preferably) a company that has a server permanently connected to the Internet and is willing to "host" your web pages for you.
Use common sense when selecting one, check out other´s opinions, see how long they exist, and if they are really cheap find out how they make their money.
For if your host goes down so does your web site.
We use the servers from Dreamhost for ourselves and our clients.

• Web pages: ±
Web pages
The documents that contain the code, instructions and information to be displayed by a web browser.
This is the main service that we provide.
Content and search engines:
Some basic truths.
Both the protocol used to transfer the information from a server to your computer (http or hyper text transfer protocol) and the main language used by web browsers to display this information (html or hyper text markup language) contain the word "text" and yes as you already guessed this means that the fundamental fabric of the world wide web is predominantly text based.

• Now what does this mean in practical terms? ±
Search engines are in the business of providing the most relevant content based on the search terms entered by their clients.
They gather this information by crawling the content (mainly the text) of your web site and then classify it according to a wide number of criteria (mostly secret and continuously changing).
The basic criteria are the relevance of the content of your pages, the words used to describe it and how many other (relevant!) sites think your information is worthwhile linking to. We have created a basic "botview" page analyzer which gives you an idea of how the search engines see your pages.

• Compiling your content. ±
  • Keep in mind that search engines can not or only with great difficulty "read" the content of graphics and flash animation.
  • Whatever message you want to convey, say it with text and illustrate it with a graphic where appropriate, not the other way around.
  • Make sure your content is relevant (very important!)
  • Use graphics and animations to illustrate or clarify a point, do not base your site and the connection between its pages on it.
    Unless you are in the entertainment business the amusement value of an irrelevant animation tends to disperse on subsequent visits, again relevance is the keyword here.
  • Avoid self-glorifying sites as nobody but you is really interested.
  • Add physical contact info like address, telephone and fax number as it inspires a little confidence when your client knows he can give you a ring when there is an urgent question.
    And don't forget you are on the "world wide web" once you get on the net, so add your country to your address and the country code for telephone numbers in order to avoid confusion.
  • Try and avoid a "click here to enter" home page, due to the fact that these pages in general contain little useful info they tend to do badly in the search engines.

• Linking to or from others ±
• Search engine submissions ±
  • First of all, if you don't submit your site actively, the chances are high that you will still start appearing in the major search engines after a while, as they actively crawl the web looking for info to present to their users. Active submission however will speed up this process. 
  • Be wary of commercial companies that give you a guarantee, nobody can guarantee you a high search position for popular keywords. Make sure to check them out, a general search in one of the bigger search engines will generally give you plenty to read on them (obviously avoiding info given clearly by themselves about themselves).
  • Be wary of anybody that has a "secret formula", "insider info" or "great trick", even if they do, the search engines will invariably find out and simply ban you from their listings.
  • Have patience, in some cases it can take up to three months before you might see any results at all.

• Some interesting reading and info ±

• A little about titles & meta tags ±
  • Title tag: suggested length 50~80 characters or around 6~10 words
  • Description meta tag: An ideal description should be within 150~200 characters, which correctly describes the content of the page. Make sure to use a few key phrases.
  • Keywords meta tag: is now completely ignored by all the major search-engines.
  • Bold texts and URL descriptions (anchor texts): the general consensus is that bold texts and URL descriptions have added importance. But again use wisely don't overdo it.