Basic Webmaster Help Topics



Basic Help

Insert a "Description" Meta Tag   [top]

  1. Access your web page through a text editor. Most website hosts will have an access area for you to edit your web page code.
  2. Once there, look for the follow tags <head> </head>.
  3. On an empty line (usually represented by a number to the left of the text editor) anywhere between those two tags, type the following:
    <meta name="description" content="[your description]" />
  4. Insert the unique description for your web page by replacing the [your description] area, including removing the brackets.

Fix My Web Page Title 2  [top]

  1. Access your web page through a text editor. Most website hosts will have an access area for you to edit your web page code.
  2. Once there, look for the follow tags <head> </head>.
  3. On an empty line (usually represented by a number to the left of the text editor) anywhere between those two tags, type the following:
    <title>[your title]</title>
  4. Insert the unique description for your web page by replacing the [your title] area, including removing the brackets.

Apply NoFollow Instruction  [top]

  1. Access your web page through a text editor. Most website hosts will have an access area for you to edit your web page code.
  2. For "nofollow" on advertising links, locate the <a http:...>link text</a> reference to the ad within your website page code.
  3. After the <a, add a space and rel="nofollow" followed by another space before the rest of the link code. For example: before: <a href="http://www.adlocation.com">Affiliate Text Ad</a> and after: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.adlocation.com">Affiliate Text Ad</a>
  4. For an entire page, locate the <head> and </head> tags, then insert the following on any blank line between those two tags:
  5. <meta name="robots" content="nofollow" />

Open A Link In A New Window  [top]

  1. Access your web page through a text editor. Most website hosts will have an access area for you to edit your web page code.
  2. Locate the <a http:...>link text</a> reference to the ad within your website page code.
  3. After the http: string, add a space and target="blank". For example: before: <a href="http://www.adlocation.com">Some Text Link</a> and after: <a href="http://www.adlocation.com" target="blank">Some Text Link</a>

Create a robots.txt File  [top]

  1. Open your text editor, and save a new text file as robots.txt to the public_html directory. This is where your homepage file is (usually called index.html, index.htm, or index.php).
  2. Copy the following two lines to the newly saved file:
    User-Agent: [Spider or Bot name]
    Disallow: [Directory or File Name]
  3. If you wish, you may specify which name to replace [Spider or Bot name] with at www.robotstxt.org. Otherwise, you may specify * (a wildcard symbol).
  4. Replace [Directory or File Name] with the exact directories or individual file locations to which you wish to deny search engine robots. For example: /images or images/me.jpg. Repeat this line as often as necessary.
  5. If you are specifying search engines, repreat the entire block of code in Step Two as many times as necessary.

Create Breadcrumbs  [top]

  1. Access your web page through a text editor. Most website hosts will have an access area for you to edit your web page code. Any page past the home page will do.
  2. Locate the <body> and </body> tags.
  3. Between the two tags, perhaps beneath the heading of your website page copy, paste the following:
    <a href="[previous link location]">[previous page name] > </a>[current page name]
  4. Replace [previous link location] with the link location of the previous web page (e.g., index.html).
  5. Replace [previous page name] with the previous web page's name (e.g., Home Page).
  6. Replace [current page name] with the current page's name (e.g., Photo Album).
  7. If you are deeper into your website, precede the code with one <a href="[previous link location]">[previous page name] > </a> for each page level.

Create a Useful 404 Page  [top]

Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled.

  1. If the file doesn't already exist in your public_html directory, create a .htaccess file with the below code, it will ensure that all your directories and pages of your old domain will get correctly redirected to your new domain.
    The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website (i.e the same directory where your index file is placed)
  2. Add the following:
  3. ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html

  4. Create your notfound.html web page and save it to your public_html directory. Consider including any or all of the following to customize error handling:
    • A link to your main page, with a suggestion that the visitor can find what he wants there.
    • If you have a search engine for your website, you should definitely put a search box on that page. Many people prefer to simply type a query than to scan through your site map.
    • A link to your site map, which lists all the pages on your website.
    • If you know of frequently mistyped URLs on your site, you can even put links to the correct location directly on the page, so that visitors who arrive there from outside can quickly get to the correct page. Remember, you don't want to lose that visitor, so do all you can to help him.
    • Any other navigational aids that you may have - for example, if you have a drop down navigation menu on your normal pages, you should probably put one here as well.

 

301 Redirect  [top]

Redirect Old Domain to New Domain: Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled.

  1. If the file doesn't already exist in your public_html directory, create a .htaccess file with the below code, it will ensure that all your directories and pages of your old domain will get correctly redirected to your new domain.
    The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website (i.e the same directory where your index file is placed)
  2. Add the following:
  3. Options +FollowSymLinks
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

  4. Please REPLACE www.newdomain.com in the above code with your actual domain name.

Redirect to www version of your domain name: Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled.

  1. If the file doesn't already exist in your public_html directory, create a .htaccess file with the below code, it will ensure that all requests coming in to domain.com will get redirected to www.domain.com
    The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website (i.e the same directory where your index file is placed)
  2. Options +FollowSymlinks
    RewriteEngine on
    rewritecond %{http_host} ^domain.com [nc]
    rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]
  3. Please REPLACE domain.com and www.newdomain.com with your actual domain name.


Create a Link  [top]

  1. Look for the place between the <body> and </body> tags where you want your link to appear.
  2. Type <a href="[link destination with http://...]">Link Text</a> More Text If Desired.
  3. Replace [link destination with http://...] with a website address.
  4. Replace Link Text and More Text If Desired with your desired verbiage. Note the Link Text will be what your visitors click on to reach the link you send them to.