HTML: Advanced

Here is the syllabus.

Supplemental course information/materials:

1. Submitting your website to a search engine:
   • Submit your website to Google.
   • Submit your website to Yahoo!.
   • Submit your website to the Open Directory Project (DMOZ). This is an important site because the "Open Directory powers the core directory services for the Web's largest and most popular search engines and portals, including Netscape Search, AOL Search, Google, Lycos, HotBot, DirectHit, and hundreds of others." (quoted from http://dmoz.org/about.html.
   • The procedure for MSN is different. First, search for your website on MSN. If it isn't found, then you should be prompted to send the address to them.
2. Submitting a sitemap/feed to a search engine:
   • A sitemap (sometimes called a feed) helps a search engine index your website more effectively. This concept is different than that of the HTML sitemap that allows humans to navigate your website more effectively. Google would like you to use a sitemap. The preferred format for sitemaps (but not the only one) is the XML-based Sitemap Protocol [Sitemap Protocol information from sitemaps.org] [Sitemap Protocol information from Google]. Find out more about sitemaps at sitemaps.org.
   • Here is the sitemap for this website. (If you want to learn more about Extensible Markup Language, a.k.a. XML, consider taking an XML class.)
   • Submit your sitemap to Google Sitemaps (you will need Google account).
   • Submit your sitemap to Yahoo! Site Explorer (you will need a Yahoo! ID).
3. A robot is "a program that automatically traverses the Web's hypertext structure by retrieving a document, and recursively retrieving all documents that are referenced" (quoted from the The Web Robots FAQ.) Many websites use a robots exclusion file to influence the way in which robots traverse them. Here is the robots exclusion file used by this website. Other examples include the CSU robots exclusion file, the Google robots exclusion file, and the ABCNews.com robots exclusion file. Learn more about robot exclusion on the Web Robots Pages.
4. Here is the favicon used by this website. Favicons should be loaded to the website's root directory, and are usually 16 pixels x 16 pixels, although the Yahoo! favicon is 32 pixels x 32 pixels. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer may have a problem displaying your favicon. Other browsers should have no problem.
5. Here is the cascading style sheet used by this website.
6. This shows you how to go about creating Flash without Flash (.ppt). Keep in mind that Flash poses some special challenges for search engine optimization, and that there may not be the demand for Flash as a job skill that you might suspect.
7. Right-click and download this Flash object that was made by Anim-FX.
8. Right-click and download this editable text file that contains parameters used by the above Flash object. Be sure to download in the same folder as the Flash object.
9. Here is an HTML document incorporating the above Flash object (and thus, the text file containing its parameters.) Right-click and download this file in the same folder as the above files.
10. Right-click and download this Flash object that is used in the upper left corner of each page on this web site.
11. Right-click and download this editable text file that contains parameters used by the above Flash object. Be sure to download in the same folder as the Flash object.
12. Right-click and download this JavaScript file that uses Javascript to write HTML that embeds the same Flash object in the upper left corner of each page on this web site.
13. Here is an HTML document with important links relating to this course.