IMS Web Tips issue 2

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IMS Web Tips ******** ISSUE 2 July 13 1999 *********
"Free Tips and Tricks for getting the most out of your Web Site.
This e-mail is being sent to you because you subscribed to
tips@VirtualMechanics.com
Virtual Mechanics, http://www.VirtualMechanics.com

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In this issue:

1. Protecting your art.
2. Search Engine positioning. Part Two
3. Our weekly IMS Tip: Importing HTML and Scripts
4. User Questions: How to Create Frames
5. In next weeks issue.

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1. Protecting your art.

Last week I told you that my daughter had devised a method to
protect her awards from being downloaded by visitors and
asked that you visit her site at www.imsvm.com/winaward.htm
and try to steal one. Naturally within a few hours I had several
e-mails with some of the awards attached. In order for a picture
to be displayed on a visitors monitor it must first be
downloaded and cached on the viewers machine. Anyone that
views a picture over the Internet will consequently end up with
the picture on their computer whether they want it or not. Any
determined and half knowledgeable user will therefore be able
to get a picture from your web site if they really want it.

Even so, it is possible to help protect your work from the casual
visitor or to make the task of taking a picture more difficult. In
my daughters case, she simply positioned an invisible
rectangle over each picture so that when a user tries too right
click it, the mouse hits the rectangle instead of the picture. This
is very easily done in IMS Web Engine and IMS Web Spinner
with the Rectangle button. Once created, simply drag and scale
the Rectangle Object over the Images you want to protect. If you
want to make the task of stealing the Object even more complex,
you could position multiple bitmap rectangles at the same
location as the real Image then use a behavior to keep all but the
real Image invisible. The would-be thief would then have to go
through your HTML code in some detail to determine which
images needed to be looked at to find the one they wanted. The
effort could just be too much trouble. I have posted an example at
is2fig1. To prevent excessive download times, keep the fake images small.

Another method submitted by Steve Cartwright uses a Script to
disable the right mouse button making it difficult for a visitor to
right click and save the image.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=3D"JavaScript">

</script>

Is2fig2
Steve Cartwright
Website Designs (UK) Limited
www.website-designs.com

To use this script on your web site simply use Ctrl-C to copy
the above text and Ctrl-V to paste it into the IMS Text editor. Be
sure to set the editor to HTML mode and read section 3 of this
news letter for help on Importing and Using Scripts and HTML.

You should remember that the Internet is basically a public
forum. Anything that you post on a web site can be taken if
the visitor is determined and knowledge. Always be sure to
include a Copyright Notice on your page and make it clear that
the material belongs to you or give credit to the owner. If
something is really so important that you do not want it taking
then it should probably not be posted. Finally, consider if it
really is that important. In the case of an award the value is that
you won it and not necessarily that you have the picture.
Anyone can get a good replica of an Oscar or can even
sometimes buy a real one from a stars estate sale. The real
value in an award however, is in having won it and not in
possessing it.

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2. Search Engine Positioning. Part Two

Most Web Masters whether they work on their own personal
web site or work on a fortune 500 company web site, are
constantly looking for ways to improve their ranking on the
major Internet Search Engines. There appears to be no system
to ensuring a top ranking unless you buy it on the GoTo search
engine. Even so, there are many things a Web Manager can do
to significantly improve their position. Last week I talked about
how the Search Engines use Meta Tags to gather information
and rank Web Sites. This week I will talk about some of the
things you need to do when setting up your Meta Tags and
some of the things you need to consider when composing the
text on your page.

As I mentioned last week, the Page Title, Meta Description and
Meta Keyword tags are the most important. These tags are
placed between the <HEAD> tags at the top of the HTML
document:

<html>
<head>
<title>Enter a page title</title>
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Enter a page description">
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="Enter, your, search engine, meta tags ">
</head>

is2fig3

Both IMS Web Engine and IMS Web Spinner will automatically
generate basic tags. If you are not using IMS products or are
manually editing a web page, change the text between the quotes
following the Description command in the Meta Tags and
between the Title Tags for the page title. In IMS applications, the
Page Title and Meta Tags are entered in the Tile Dialog of the
Page Editor (Sunset Button).

The following suggestions may be helpful when formatting these
tags.
1. The title should read like a brief introduction to your company
and page. Try to include the most important keywords from your
web page text. If for example you have a web page for electric train
sets, you may use a title such as: "Jim's Hobby Shop featuring
Electric Train Sets, games and hobbies for boys and girls of all
ages". You should limit the title to 69 characters.
2. The Description Tag should be formatted in the same way with
the most important keywords and phrases first. "Electric Train,
game and hobby web site for boys and girls of all ages from Jim's
Hobby Shop".
3. Your Meta Keyword Tag should list all possible combinations
of keywords and phrases that may be used to search for your site.
You can be quite liberal here since you have up to 2000 character
that can be included. List your keywords and phrases separated
by commas and avoid junk words like "Worlds greatest, best" etc.
Use lots of different combinations of your keywords including
common misspellings but do not repeat as this may be interpreted
as spamming and stop the keyword indexing. A good example
would be: "electric train sets, electric trains, train sets, trains,
hobbies, hobby shop, toys, toy shop, games" etc. Keep going
through all possible combinations without repeating yourself. Use
the plural form of words when it makes sense.

One of the most difficult dilemmas I face when it comes time to
compose a web site is deciding how to set up the main page. The
dilemma is whether to create a page that is as esthetically pleasing
and as innovative as possible or to create a page that is going to
be index better by the majority of search engines. If Search
Engine positioning is a higher priority, then you will need to set
up a page that includes a reasonable amount of well chosen text.
Most search engines use this text to help categorize and rank
the page. Lycos in particular, requires at least 75 words in order
for your page to be indexed.

The Virtual Mechanics site position improved substantially
shortly after we changed the introduction to:'HTML authoring,
Dynamic HTML, Wysiwyg HTML and Animation Authoring
has never been easier or more affordable. Now you can create
professional Web Pages in minutes.'

Here is another tip for those of you using CSS to dynamically
position elements on your Web Page. This includes everyone
using IMS Web Spinner and IMS Web Engine. The search
engines look at the first 80 or more words on the page. When
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are used, the text positioned at
the top of the page may not necessarily be the text that is first
read in the HTML document. This is because when the
document is published, the text at the back is written first and
the text at the front is written last. The text that you wish the
search engine to find first should consequently be the text
that is 'Behind' all other Objects on the page. In IMS Web
Engine and IMS Web Spinner, you can move an Object to the
back by selecting the Object then selecting the 'Order -To
Back' command in the Arrange menu.

Most search engines will now test pages for spamming and
delist them Here are some things NOT to do:

1. Keyword stuffing. Keywords that are overused by repeating
them too many times in the Meta Tags and text body.
2. Page redirects. Most search engine do not like this. If you
must have one ensure that it has a reasonable delay.
3. Invisible text. Over use of Hidden text or setting text to the
same color as the background so that it can be indexed but
not seen.
4. Small Text. If the print can only be read by a lawyer with a
magnifying glass it will be incarcerated.

I do not personally like some of these restrictions since they
can hinder the legitimate use of effects and features. For
instance, the Virtual Mechanics site initially had a redirect to
another page if a Version 4 or later Browser was detected. This
enabled us to design a DHTML page for those that could see
it and a standard page for Browsers that could not. Concern
about how the search engines would list the page caused us
to remove it.

More about submitting your now correctly formatted site to
the search engines next week.

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3. Our Weekly IMS Tip: Importing HTML and Scripts

A common Tech Support question we receive relates to
importing HTML and scripts to display counters, banners, site
meters etc. The IMS Text Editor can be used to import all kinds
of HTML and scripts provided you are careful and adhere to a
few simple rules. One of the most common tech support
problems we encounter is a result of importing Bad HTML,
incorrectly cutting and pasting imported HTML or mixing
HTML and Rich Text.

Follow these suggestions when you want to Import HTML or
Scripts.
1. Always set the IMS Text editor to HTML mode through the
drop down box at the upper right of the editor window. It is
sometimes possible to mix Rich Text and HTML but it is not
recommended. We will talk about this in another news letter.
2. Use CTRL-C and CTRL-V to accurately copy and paste the
HTML you wish to import or import HTML from a file with the
Import HTML command in the File Menu.
3. Check that the HTML is valid. Imported HTML may not
include HTML or BODY tags since these are generated by the
IMS program. Most HTML tags have a closing tag associated
with them. If for example you import a form, you should see
both a <FORM> and </FORM> tag.
4. Most imported HTML Objects will have a fixed Width and
Height but can be positioned on the page like any other Object.
Use the top left corner to position the Object. Stretch the
bounding box to approximate the Object's size to help you
position it and nearby Objects..
5. Test your Page as soon as you have finished importing a
HTML Object. Look for errors and recheck your code if you
see any.
6. If your page includes HTML Objects and generates script or
HTML errors, try deleting the imported HTML Objects one at a
time while testing your page with the Preview command. If the
script error disappears, you will have identified the Object that
is causing the problem.
7. If your code includes a link or Image on an Internet site, keep
in mind that it will not work unless you are on-line when you
Preview.

As an example, you can get HTML code to add a site meter to
your web page. Visit the Site Meter web page.
After filling out their brief registration you will receive the
necessary code in an e-mail. You would simply cut and paste
the HTML you receive into the IMS Text editor while in HTML
mode. Follow the steps above to ensure you do it right. Keep in
mind that the counter will not work unless you are on-line.

This is an example of the code you would receive. Do not use
this code since it is a meter for http://www.dhtlmvm.com

<a href="http://www.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=natjw" target=_top><img src="http://www.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=natjw" alt="Site Meter" nosave border=0></a>

Is2fig4

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4. Reader Questions. Frames

We have recently received several questions regarding Frames
and does IMS support them? The simple answer is no. Neither
IMS Web Engine nor IMS Web Spinner directly support frames.
Support for frames is a high priority and direct support will be
included in a near future release. Apart from the fact that most
major Web developers do not use frames for several reasons,
the main reason why we have not provided support to date is
because setting up a Frame page is a relatively simple task for
anyone that knows just a little HTML.

How simple? A frame is a HTML page that loads one or more
other pages. You can create a frame page quickly with any text
editor and then save the file with a ".htm" extension. Figure
is2fig5 is an example of a Frame page.

<html>
<head>
<title>Enter a page title</title>
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Enter a page description">
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="Enter, your, search engine, meta tags ">
</head>
<frameset border="false" frameborder="0" border="0" cols="15%,3*">
<frame name="leftpage" src="left.htm" scrolling="no" target="main">
<frame name="rightpage" src="right.htm" target="main">
<noframes size="64px">
<body>
<p>This page uses frames, but your browser doesn't support them. </p>
</body>
</noframes>
</frameset>
</html>

Figure is2fig5:

This page displays two other pages; one at the right and one
at the left. The left page does not scroll and occupies 15% of
the screen. The right page does scroll and occupies the rest of
the screen. To substitute your own pages simply change the
name of the left page from "left.htm" and the right page from
"right.htm" to the name of your own pages.

There are many excellent books on creating HTML with
reference to frames. One I can recommend is HTML Goodies by
Joe Burns. If you really do not want to learn HTML or want to
create a Frame Page quickly and easily then just be patient a
little longer. We hope to have frames available within the next
couple of months.

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5. Next week.

1. Adding special characters to your text.
2. Submitting your Web Site to the search engines.
3. IMS tip: Adding HTML Link Lists to a text Object.
4. Reader Questions. We will attempt to answer another
question on any Internet related topic.

Send your Questions to tips@VirtualMechanics.com with
Question as your Subject. If we don't know the answer, another
reader may.

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© Copyright 1999 Virtual Mechanics
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