Is there a place in GDI where one can search as we used to in printed manuals? I have been a member for over a year and have done nothing -- but would like to get started. I need an education on web design, graphics available, terms defined (for instance what the heck is a meta tag?) I'd also like information on ideal sites, etc. 
I am a grandmother (young in heart even if the calendar doesn't recognize it) and self taught on the computer. I've taught myself the skills I needed in various positions. Now, I'm retired, and want to add to our retirement income. I'm finding there are lots of holes in my knowledge. I'd also be open to any printed references others have had success with. P. S. I note I am under "Post Moderation" and that my post will appear after approval. If you're not approved -- are you notified?
Hello,
Meta Tags are similar to the system that you have at your Local Library... The Books are indexed according to their subject, author, language, etc etc
Meta Tags are the Internet equivelant...
Keywords have been mentioned lots in this topic;
I want to add a little about Keywords and adding Weight to your Keywords...
SE's use complex formulas to work out the value of each Keyword in your Meta's
The number of times present, the number of variations (importatant), how often repeats (repeat phrases etc are BAD) Bold Text, H1, 2,3 4 5 Tags (header) as well as colours and alt tabs... there is more to it than this, but to Add a Keyword to your metaTag you need to make sure it plays an importany role to your webpage.
I know that I am Rambling here but actually this is a HUGE SUBJECT that would take days to go into... I just want to give you a bit to be going on with...
There are Porgrammes available that will actually assess your Webpage to see how it ranks, they will also suggest how you need to change things for a better Ranking... I use a Programme called Web CEO... I can use it to do many neat tricks that would take me forever to work out manually...
Your Keywords should be present in your Url, your Title, the start and end of your page and lots of variations in between.
Your Keywords Should also be present in the Headers of your Page (H1 H2 etc)
Keywords and Meta Tags should not use any special case or will be rejected (*/+='@;:/?><.,!"£$%^&*() etc)
You wnt a high rating to get closer to the Top odf SEARCH RESULTS...
If you have too much erelevant content on your Page (too many words, phrases that do not relate to the Keywords) or worse still, not enough content on your Webpage it will rank very low...
Links from other Websites are also added to the equasion when working out your RANKING...
The more links you have pointing towards your Webpage the better your Ranking will be.... If only it was that simple... If the links to your Website are placed with the wrong Keywords or there is a lot of other links and content, this will actually reduce your RANKING so things like Pixel Ads can seriously harm your PR...
Also if you try to have hidden text etc to booster your PR, they will know about it and penalise you for it. (example the text and background is the same colour or an image obscures the text)
You can also be rejected if you spam the Search Engines... There are many submitters available but most of them will do you more harm than good because they just send out the info regardless of submission rules etc so the Search Engines will block you, easier than asking you to please stop submitting the same page over and over...
I will leave it at this for now because I know that your head is probably hurting already, just ask questions and the answers will be given...
