How does my page get on the Internet?
Once you have completed you web site, it needs to be uploaded to a web server for others to be able to access your pages.  A web server is a computer that "serves up" web pages, and you will need a password to save information on the server.  To move files onto an internet web server, you will use File Transfer Protocol, or FTP.  On a Windows computer, this program is called FTP and on a Mac, Fetch.

Once your web pages have moved from a client computer to a server computer, anyone anywhere in the world will be able to see them. All they would need to do is type in the address that is the location for your website.  To make life a little easier on the end user, (and your address a little shorter), you will load all your files into a directory on the server, and name your main file "index.html".  That way, when someone types in your address, which will be something like:
http://www.cas.american.edu/~spud/spr98/yourname/
they will go directly to your "main page".  This also offers some protection for you, as your directory listing will not be available for the world to see.

If you want people to have a better chance at finding your webpage without knowing you exact address, you might want to register your page with a search engine.  The first step is to use the <META> tags to create a description of your web site.  In the <META CONTENT> tag, type in some nouns that describe what your site is about.  In the <META NAME> tag, type in the name of your website.  These tags will be used by a search engine when it "visits" your site, and will register your page under certain catagories in its database.  It is important to remember that a search engine is not an actually human being. Although a human might oversee the whole process, the search engine that looks for and registers new web sites is really responding to what you put in those meta tags, so be as descriptive as possible.

To register your site, go to the main page of the search engine of your choice.  Follow the link that says "Add URL" or "Register URL" from the help pages for that search engine.  There is usually no cost associated with registering your URL, but if you want to advertise on the search engine, you can purchase banner ads, which will come up at the top and bottom of a search results page when an end user uses that search engine.  Some search engines use banner ads that are matched in some way to the type of query typed in by the user.

There are many more options you could add to your web page, including java scripts (known as applets), Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML), frames, and on and on.  For more information, try these pages.

Good luck and happy webbing!
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