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Now that you have provided us with all the "dry" data, it is time to add "special" touches on YourSpaceOnline. Step three will take you through all the questions about your Domain name (your "www" address in cyberspace) and where you plan to park your final website on the world wide web. You will also be asked to name the pages on your site and the links that will take you there. Finally, step three will gather the initial search criteria for your META tags, so others will be able to find you on the web.
YourSpaceOnline will become your proud internet presence.
STEP THREE
You will need some specific information before you can complete this part of the order process. If you are not ready to answer all the questions, we ask that you NOT begin just yet. You can take as long as you need to finalize your order. We hope it will be soon, but your order number will be stored indefinitely. Please remember, to be able to accommodate our 48-hour guarantee, we need to have all the information before we begin creating YourSpaceOnline. Once you completed the first part of the order process, you were issued an order number. Please refer to this number when submitting your data in Steps 3 and 4. (If you have "cookies" enabled on your browser, this number will be stored for thirty days.)
What you will need:
- DOMAIN NAME (www.________________.com) This is perhaps one of the most exciting parts in establishing your presence online... getting your name. Think carefully. This is how you will be known to all your visitors. If you have not purchased your URL yet, we will be happy to secure your name for you. Just let us know what you want. Soon we will have a search available on the form itself to check for the availability of your domain choice, but until that time, please go to Network Solutions to check on the availability of your domain name. Let us know what we can get for you, and possibly an alternative. If we have any problems, we will contact you.
If you already have a domain name (or "URL") and are interested in having YourSpaceOnline.com host your website, we will need to know where that URL is parked and what your password is so we can transfer your domain name to point to your website on our servers.
- Page and Link Names - When you purchased your website package, you selected the options that best suited your needs. Each package specifies the maximum number of pages allowable without incurring "extra page" charges. Each of these pages will need both a name to put on top of the page and browser window, as well as a name for the link. Generally the link name is more abbreviated than the complete name for the page.
Here is an example that might help
Page names: Home Page, The Story Behind "Crocodile Tears", Road Shows and Booking Information, The Latest CD Release, Our Earlier Years on Vinyl, How and Where to Purchase Our Music, and finally How to Contact Us and Our Agents.
The links for this set might well have more abbreviated names: Home, About Us, Touring, News, Discography, The Stores, and Contact Us.
If you are not confident as to how to complete this section, make a note in the "comments" area provided. We can help guide you during the phone consultation. Perhaps some writing and editing services might help pull all your information together.
- What if the previous step made you realize that the pages included in your chosen website package just are NOT going to be enough... Relax Step 3 allows you to upgrade your package if necessary.
- META Tags and Search criteria - When we complete Your Space Online we are confident that one of your biggest wishes is that folks all over the world will access you and your information via your webite. But how are they going to find you? You cannot just create a website and have visitors magically appear -- people need to be able to find your website! This is where "Meta Tags and Search Criteria" come in to play. While YourSpaceOnline cannot guarantee specific placement on a specific search engine, we do include the insertion of META tags and submission to the major free search engines as part of each of our packages. META Tags are hidden criteria that "talk" to search engines. For Step 3 you may want to research the different META tags to see what best suits your purpose. There are three META we will be quesitoning you about:
1. Title of your site: This should give a rough idea about what you and your site is about but. Keep it simple! Remember, only the first 40 or so characters will be visible on many of the search engines.
2. Description: Limit this to 20 words. It is suggested that you NOT repeat your title in this shortened description of your site.
3. Keywords: This is the most difficult step to prepare for. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. This is a list of all the keywords and phrases that you would love to have point to Your Space Online. If that is not hard enough, they must be in order of priority. Certain search engines only allow limited numbers. A good trick is to include common mispellings of keywords. You are in a much smaller race for them. We have found the BEST way to do this is to search online. Find a site like yours, look at the source for their META tags. Take your time... and try to be as complete as possible. The Search Engines will reward you for your time and effort on this section by.
Ok, you are now ready to complete Step 3 or to read about THE FINAL STEPS.
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