# Presentation: 070755

## Web Site Creation and Promotion

- Nancy Soreide
- NOAA/PMEL
- Nancy.N.Soreide@noaa.gov

## Vision

- A NOAA Web consisting of focused, world-class web sites explaining NOAA’s work in terms easily understood by a wide range of users.

## Method

- Create a world class web site
- Good design
- Good, scientifically validated content
- Promote the web site
- Effective advertisement
- Register with search engines
- Request links to your site

## Create a world class web site

- Use good design principles
- Good design, organization, navigation
- http://usability.gov/guides/
- Accessible – Section 508
- http://www.doc.gov/webresources/Standard6.html
- Assure that the content is of the very highest quality!!!

## Submit to the search engines

- Over 85% of web users use a Search Engine to find information.
- So your effort here really pays off!
- There are MANY search engines:
- Google, HotBot, Excite, AltaVista, Lycos, Inktomi, and many many more
- Prepare a succinct description of your web site
- Sometimes you can use only a phrase, or sometimes up to a few sentences.

## Use the Submit It! utility

- Submit It! submits to many search engines
- http://submitit.bcentral.com/
- Click on “sign up now”
- Look for free option (I have never paid)
- It will lead you through the submission to many search engines

## Submit directly

- Submit your site directly to the popular search engines
- Look for “submit your URL” or “suggest a site”
- Keep looking!  Be persistent, and register with ALL search engines!
- Every time you find a new search engine, REGISTER WITH IT.

## Register with Yahoo

- Go to www.yahoo.com
- Find the right Yahoo category for your site
- This is time consuming, but necessary!
- From this category, click on “suggest a site” at the bottom of the page
- Read and follow the directions

## Request others to link to you

- Search the web for sites that you wish were linking to you.
- Note where on the site your URL should go
- Look for the webmaster email address
- Be a detective.  Go back to their home page, and keep looking.  It will be somewhere.  Be persistent!
- Send their webmaster an email
- Politely offer your site as a candidate for them to link to
- Send up to 100 of these emails!
- Persist!  Each time you find an appropriate site, request a link!

## Asking for a link... 

- Examples
- NOAA Home Page, NSF pages, Smithsonian pages, USA Today, Scientific American, educational sites, etc.
- But be certain it is really appropriate for your web page!!!
- Send their webmaster an email politely offering your site as a candidate for them to link to:
- Request the link
- Suggest where their site might link to you (by URL)
- Describe your site
- Present your site’s credentials
- Provide contact information

## Example email:

- Please consider linking to NOAA's Arctic Theme Page, which links Arctic related data from widely distributed national and international research institutes, to form a rich and comprehensive resource web site focused on the Arctic:
-          http://www.arctic.noaa.gov
- Our site might be appropriate under the Arctic Sciences Section of the Office of Polar Programs "Related links" at http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/wwwsites.htm#arctic.

- Continued on next page...

- (This is an email that I sent to the webmaster at NSF)

- Request the link...

- Suggest where their site might link to you...

- Include your URL...

## Continued on next page...

- Included in the NOAA Arctic theme page are:
-  Essays on key Arctic issues by respected Arctic scientists
-  Frequently Asked Questions About the Arctic
-  Current status of the Arctic environment
-  Central access to widely-distributed data and information related to the Arctic from research institutions world-wide
-  Color graphics and animations of Arctic related data
-  Educational links, including topics such as Northern Lights, Arctic pollution, animals, maps, Arctic exploration, Native Peoples, and more.

- Continued from preceding page...

- Describe your site...

## Continued from preceding page...

- The Arctic Theme page is sponsored by NOAA's Arctic Research Office at http://aro.oar.noaa.gov/, and has been favorably reviewed by Science Magazine, Scientific American, Yahoo, USA Today, etc.  If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me or webmaster@arctic.noaa.gov.
- Regards, Nancy Soreide
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nancy N. Soreide                       Internet:  nns@pmel.noaa.gov
- Associate Director for Information Technology
- NOAA/PMEL/OD                        Phone:    206-526-6728
- 7600 Sand Point Way NE           FAX:      206-526-6815
- Seattle, WA 98115                      http://www.pmel.noaa.gov
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Present credentials and provide contact info...

## The Payoff

- If your site has value
- Great content, good design and navigation
- And you are persistent
- They will link to you
- Others will find their links to you
- Your web traffic will grow
- You will get rave reviews

- http://www.epic.noaa.gov/talks/nns/outreach2002