GDT 150 Design for the Internet: Fall 2001
Class Notes 11.27
Review Subjects
- document title (in head) *required*
- alt tags on images *required*
- don't use properties inspector to format text - use stylesheets
Search Engines
In order to show up in many search engines, you have to submit your site to the search engine, which is generally free, but not always. Other search engines, such as google, will list your site based on the number of links to your site.
Key to placement in both these types of search engines is relevance to the search phrase. Search engines look at many things when determining relevance, and each one uses different criteria. Two things are generally very important: content in your page (html text, alt tags to a lesser degree), and meta tags. Meta tags contain meta-data, which is data about data, information about your webpage.
There are two types of meta tags that search engines generally use:
- Keywords
- Description
Keywords
Keywords are potential search terms that would result in your site. They can be either words or short phrases, and are separated by commas in the tag. Make them simple and make them agree with the content on your page. Don't repeat the same word or phrase many times; many search engines will block your site if you do.
Description
The description shows up when search results are returned. Again, make it short and descriptive of your site.
Adding Meta Tags in Dreamweaver
- Make sure the Objects palette is showing and choose Head elements from the drop down list at the top of the palette.
- Click on the appropriate type of meta tag you would like to insert: keywords, description, or meta tag.
- Type the appropriate content into the dialog box. If it's keywords, separate them by commas; if it's description, make it a sentence.
- Click "OK"
- Check the code in the head and you'll see your meta tags
There are many different meta tags that can be inserted, that do many different things, such as declaring the author of a document, the characterset of a document, redirecting the browser to a different page, etc. The syntax for any meta tag will be: <meta name="name" content="content" /> or <meta http-equiv="name" content="content" />
Optimizing Graphics
- Using Image>Mode>Indexed Color
- Locking colors
- Using a specific palette
- Controlling dither
- Use flat colors!
- Reuse graphics whenever possible
Transparency
- Pick up background color with eyedropper
- Hide background color layer(s)
- File>Save For Web
- Choose matte color - grab it from eyedropper
- Make sure Transparency is checked
- Proceed as normal
