Catholic Networking in the New Digital Continent: Web Development Methods for Catholic Bloggers and Site Owners

Learn by Example
Getting Good Ideas
7 Writing Forms
Blog Title Ideas
Info Services
Optimizing Well
Catholic SEO
Privacy Policy

Get additional visitor traffic to your site

To add visitor traffic to your Catholic blog or web site, you can register in one of the webrings managed by the site at WebRing.com. Kindly visit the Catholic and Ecumenical WebRing Network page and choose the webring with the same theme as your blog or web site.

Learning HTML in Basic and Small Catholic Web Site Development

Introduction

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is the computer language that is basic to the World Wide Web. If you want to join the lay Catholic mission on the Web by developing a small Catholic web site, with a blog and a Catholic network, learn basic HTML is required. HTML is not that difficult. Once you know the basics, you can upload your site to the mainstream of the Web. A good source for learning HTML is the book "HTML Complete", by Sybex. This is not the only source. You can also search for free tutorials online using the search phrase "free html tutorials".

Basic format

The basic format of a HTML web page is as follows:

<html>
<head>
<title>Your Catholic Family Web Site Title on the Net</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Your message on the Net.</p>
</body>
</html>

HTML in more detail

There are many other elements that go into a web page using HTML. The complete and detailed html page is given below:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Your Catholic Family Web Site Title on the Net</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<meta name="Author" content="Author information">
<meta name="Description" content="Your description">
<meta name="Keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2...">
<meta name="Robots" content="index,follow">
<base href="http://www.yourdomain.net/">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="yourstylesheet.css">
</head>
<body>
<p>Your message about the Catholic faith on the Net.</p>
</body>
</html>

The DOCTYPE declaration (in the first line of an html page) is an important element of the html page. This declaration is important for validating your html page with the W3C's validation standards. (Although you may hear in the news online that the Web is moving towards HTML5, the new version of HTML, you need not be overly concerned about this as the version has not yet been fully developed and HTML4 is still basic for all web browsers).

General description of the codes and some tips

The information between the <head> and </head> tags are not visible when your page is uploaded in the browser. However, the information you will place within them are very important factors in the indexing of your html page in the search engines.

For Catholic purposes, there is an advantage to making "catholic" the first word in your description meta tag, <meta name="Description" content="Catholic....">. And it is also an advantage to make it the first key word, in your key word meta tag, <meta name="Keywords" content="catholic....">. The more key phrases that you place with the word "catholic" in the key word meta tag, the higher the possibility of your web page obtaining a high ranking in the "catholic" results pages of a search engine query. This same principle holds true also for the text between the body tags of your html page. Without forgetting balance and harmony in the text, the more you place "catholic" key phrases in the body of your html page, and in your description meta tag and your key word meta tag, the more likely your site will rank within the top ten of the search engine results pages for "catholic" search queries. (Tip: Popular key words and key phrases using the "catholic" key word are - "catholic churches", "catholic saints", and "catholic schools". If you write an article with a theme related to these key phrases, you can make your html page rank well in the search engines. A well-ranked Catholic web site will draw more visitor traffic).

Balance and harmony in your Catholic web site

In writing text in the body of your html page, don't forget the need for balance and harmony - i.e., writing from the point of view of the reader and the search engines. If you write for the reader only, you may lose the important SEO (Search Engine Optimization) factor: the use of "catholic" key words and key phrases to rank well in the search engines. On the other hand, if you write your text with the search engines only in mind, you may forget the sense of balance and harmony that is needed by readers to understand well the article. Without balance and harmony, your readers will find the English text you use as mechanical - without that writing spirit that is often found in printed publications. The ideal therefore is to strike a good balance and harmony between the two objectives: both using the SEO factor and also writing for the readers' good experience.

To help you find a good balance, there are many free online key word density tools that will give you a good estimate and gauge of a web page's key word density. www.ranks.nl, is one such free online tool that can give a precise gauge on how the use of your "catholic" key word balances and harmonizes within your entire html page. A key word density (for example, "catholic saints") between 5% to 8% is a good balance. Too high will make it hard for your readers. Too low and your page might not rank well.

More resources online for your Catholic web site

There are many other details needed to produce an excellent web page that is helpful both to your readers and at the same time aesthetically pleasing (as regards web design) to the internet public at large. For a complete list of books and link resources to help you produce quality designed html web pages (on an affordable budget), you can check them at Web Resources. This is just a starter list. You can add more using the search engines for more information you do not find in the starter list. With the search query "free html classes", you will already reap a lot of results in your search.

Summary

The Web is progressing at such high exponential rate. For those who need to learn the basics of web development, then web 1.0 technology is the technology that can build a solid foundation for your Catholic web site, an accompanying blog and social network. Web 1.0 technology is all the foundational technology developed before the Web 2.0 technology revolution,i.e., social bookmarking and social networking. So, before you decide to venture into Web 2.0 development, it would be good to learn the basics of the Web first. With the basics well understood, your Catholic web site, blog and social network will be built on solid footing on the Web. And one of these basics is learning HTML well and proficiently.

If you need extra help on certain HTML issues you may stumble upon and could not resolve, kindly do not hesitate to send a message at the email address of this site. Use the Contact Information page for questions and clarifications. There is a big difference in building a Catholic web site from the regular e-commerce or business sites that we see on the Web. This site will be happy to help you with all the information you need to use HTML and other Web technology from a Catholic perspective.

Visit, search, or subscribe to the updates of this network

Get ideas and updates on basic and small Catholic web site development, blogging, social networking, and web applications from:

Friendfeed: Provides content ideas from Catholic news and technology updates
Network feed: Discover ideas on blogging, web site development, social networking, and web applications
A post at Catholic Internet Mission blog periodically summarizes all the articles and content in the Network feed. To visit, search or subscribe to the blog, click here
Search Network: Search the network for ideas to write Catholic articles and to post to blogs.

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