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Database-Driven Sites with FrontPage

Many website owners are faced with the challenge of keeping their sites fresh with updated content.  Maintaining a frequently updated site is critical these days as it keeps your visitors intrigued and also appeals to the search engines.  This means that you are likely to rank higher and therefore, generate more quality traffic.  An easy and efficient way to overcome this challenge is to create a database-driven website.

Databases and Website Content

Database-driven sites are powerful because they offer the ability to easily generate fresh, updated content.  For most developers, this is enabled by the combination of PHP and MySQL.  Unfortunately, these technologies can be very complex and will definitely take some time learning.  Thankfully, a FrontPage web hosting solution can empower you to create a database-driven and use it with virtually any database, including MS SQL, Access, Oracle or the open-source MySQL.

Making a Database Connection with FrontPage

To make a database full of information that will be displayed on the website you created with FrontPage, all you have to do is connect it to the data you want it to show.  A database connection is merely a function that allows your page to connect with a database via server-side scripting.  While this could be performed with PHP and MySQL, doing it with FrontPage is much easier.  This is because FrontPage lets you create a template that will modify the content by communicating with the database and automatically creating a new page without any additional coding.

Before getting to the template, the first thing you need to do is manually create a database in an application such as Microsoft SQL Server, Access, Excel or Oracle.  The database may contain customer messages or just about any other content you want inserted on the pages of your website.  After creating the database, set up the template where you want the information to be displayed.   The advantage of having a template in FrontPage is that it gives you the ability to change the content of your page by importing new content from a database without needing to re-code the page itself.  As long as you connect the page to the new content in the database, it will be generated on the server-side whenever your visitors view the page.

To import content, simply choose “File” from the “Tool” bar and open the “Import” menu.  After browsing for the file you want to import, select “Yes” when asked if you to create a connection for it.  That’s basically it.  FrontPage offers a great way to make sure your pages are frequently updated and appealing to your visitors with fresh content.

Summary

You will have to do a little more to truly customize your database-driven site, but FrontPage hosting is so user-friendly, that nearly every task you want to perform is simplified through a wizard or tutorial that goes along with it.  Because FrontPage is such a forgiving tool, even if you do make mistakes, detecting and correcting the problem will be a piece of cake.

Options for Valuable Search Engine Submission

Your website is finally done and now you are ready to bring in some quality traffic.  There is certainly no shortage of promotional techniques and search engine optimization is one of the most effective.  SEO consists of numerous elements but this article will focus on the first step – search engine submission.

The Importance of Search Engines

A search engine is like the local Yellow Pages book.  Whereas the Yellow Pages only contains listings in your area, a search engine offers world wide reach.   Each uses robots or spiders that crawl the web in search of pages to index in their database.  Search engines are driven by keywords as this is what a user types in the box to find the content they are looking for.  While keyword implementation and link popularity play a major role in getting your site to rank well, manually submitting your site is equally important.

Google and Yahoo

Google and Yahoo are easily the two most significant search engines on the web.  Although Google is arguably the most popular, Yahoo is often deemed as the best.  When performing identical searches in both engines, you will find that Yahoo gives you a lot of results Google looks over.  Be that as it may, both should be at the top of your list for search engine submission.  If your site isn’t listed here, you are missing out on a great deal of traffic.

MSN

A relatively new option, MSN is a search engine developed by Microsoft.  Though not as popular as Google and Yahoo, getting your site listed in MSN is equally important as it has become the third highest ranked search engine on the market.  With this search engine, you can either submit your site via Live Search or Submit Express, both of which are trusted links through MSN.

Lycos

Lycos is a combination of a search engine and online directory, quite similar to Yahoo.  It normally takes about four weeks to have your site listed which all depends on when you made the submission.  The Lycos search engine spiders typically operate every four weeks, so if you submit just before the next scheduled crawl, there is a chance that your site could get listed fairly quickly.

Looksmart

Looksmart is a search engine that specializes in commercial advertising.  This search engine is quickly gaining ground as more webmasters realize the benefit of online advertising.  The downside to Looksmart is that submitting your site will cost you a pretty penny along with a lengthy waiting period.  There is also an express service but this of course, is priced much higher.  Non-profit organizations can submit their sites on Looksmart for free.

Northern Light

The Northern Light search engine is becoming increasingly popular as it indexes all new site submissions in about three to four weeks.  This search engine is extremely easy to use and submitting to it will cost you nothing.

When submitting to a search engine, make sure the description of your site is longer than 24 words.  Avoid using HTML tags as well as any descriptions that can be viewed as marketing terms.  A submission will not guarantee you top ranking on the front page of Google, but is that first critical step to getting some decent exposure for your site.