STEP 3: PAGES AND DIRECTORIES

In this section, enter information about the Index page to be generated such as the name, the “content” you want displayed and more.

Index Page Name

Overview:

The Index page is the name of the page that links all of the ~~appName~~ keyword pages together.  This is the front door to your website.  On a web site, the main page is called "index.htm" or "index.html".  This is the first page that greets all visitors whether or not the "index.htm" is written at the end of the domain name or not.  When a group of template pages are created within a folder or a directory, the same rule applies, in general the file that will automatically be opened in that folder will be a file called “index.htm”. Other commonly used index file extensions include: .html and .php. However, ~~appName~~ index pages will not look like a normal website main page. The ~~appName~~ index page has a specific purpose. Its main purpose is to help keep all of your template pages linked together. It is not recommended that you use a index page as your main website index page.

NOTE: The extension name of your index page will also determine what extension will be applied to all of the keyword pages created in this group. For example if you chose to create an index page called "index.php" then your keyword pages would be keyword.php. In the same way, choosing to call the index page "bob.html" would indicate to ~~appName~~ to call all of your keyword pages "keyword.html" where keyword would be replaced with the actual keyword for which that page is being optimized.


How to:

In the Index Page Name data entry box specify the actual name of the page you want to link all of the ~~appName~~ pages that will be created in this session.

For example:
  • index.htm
  • thindex.htm
  • index2.html
or any other page name that you choose. The page name must contain only characters and numbers. The use of "/" or other symbols is not acceptable.

CAUTION: If you are creating the template pages in your main directory, (the same directory a website index page is normally located) then you will want to change the name from index to something else or it will be overwritten! You can avoid this possibility by installing ~~appName~~ in a separate folder/directory.

Common Error Messages

If an index file of the same name as you specified exists in the subdirectory folder you specified ~~appName~~ will tell you a file already exists.  You will have the choice of overwriting the existing file or to choose a new index file name for this group of template pages.

IE: index.htm

Index Page Image



The ~~appName~~ Way:

~~appName~~, by default will create a page called “index.htm”.  If desired a person can specify a different name and extension (the ending part of the file name found after the period.  For example the “.htm” in index.htm is the extension.) for this file.  Unless you have a specific reason to choose a different file name then it is suggested that you stick with the default.

If you are using ~~appName~~ on a Yahoo domain, you may want to change the name of the index page to “index.php”.   Please note changing the name of the index page is for Advanced users of ~~appName~~.


Background:

As mentioned earlier the index pages are created to link the ~~appName~~ keyword pages together. In a normal website the Index Page is the one central page from which every other page cascades. A standard website can reach 3 or 4 or more levels down. In a ~~appName~~ website, we promote a much flatter page organization. Even the largest ~~appName~~ website will only be 2 levels deep. This encourages Search Engine spiders to view more of the sight as they do not have to travel complicated directory structures.

Index Page Content

Overview:

Enter the description or content that will be displayed on the Index page.  Use the What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) editor to input the data that will be displayed on the index page.

This editor allows you to easily format your template pages without struggling with source code or other formatting commands. Microsoft Word and Front Page are examples of WYSIWYG editors.


How To:

Click anywhere within the Index Page data entry area and begin typing. You can use the control buttons to change the formatting of the text that you enter here.

Background:

If your keyword pages are done properly, the index page should rarely be seen. If however it is viewed it must present the same professional view of your website as the keyword pages. The Index page content should be very similar to the Keyword Page Content that is displayed entered during Step 3. The biggest difference is that the index page will not be optimized for any specific keywords. The index page is only optimized for main theme for this session's keywords.

Directory Name (Subdirectory)

Overview:

Enter the name of the folder or directory where you want the template pages created.  This is an optional step.

How to:

Enter the name of the sub directory or folder where your template pages will be created. The directory name can only contain characters or numbers.  Do not enter a / or \ or : or & or any other special characters.

Leave this blank if you want the template pages created in the same directory that the ~~appName~~ program is running in.

The sub-directory will be created for you if it does not already exist.

Note: If you enter a directory name that already exists, the contents of that sub-directory will be overwritten.


The ~~appName~~ Way:

Professional ~~appName~~ users put each group of keywords into a separate folder or directory so they can take advantage of the “Related Directories” function.

See “Related Directories” for additional information. Naming of the subdirectory should in-line with the main focus of the keyword pages that you are creating in this session. For example if your entire website was dedicated to "Sports Cars" you could have one folder for "American Sports Cars" one folder for "German Sports Cars" and finally one subdirectory for "Italian Sports Cars". I am sure you may have found other ways of organizing the Sports Car themed web site. But each subdirectory represents the work of a different session. Each session would also have different Index page and Keyword page content, but that is an entirely different topic.

Placing all groups of keywords into separate folders also makes the maintenance of you website easier as all of the template pages are grouped together.  If all of the pages are dumped into the same directory, then attempting to do any clean-up or maintenance in this area is much more difficult.


Background:

Although optional it is highly recommended that you create a specific folder for each group of keywords.  Using the main theme for the keyword group will help organize your pages on your hosting account.

Directory Image

Related Directories

Overview:

Use the Related Directories to build links to previously created groups of similar or related keyword pages.

How To:

Select the first directory (clicking on it's name with the left mouse button) then by depressing the Ctrl key (Control key) on the keyboard and simultaneously clicking with the mouse on the next  related sub directory you want to link.  Repeat this process until all of the related sub-directories you want to link with the pages that will be created during the current session are selected. 

Related Directory Image

Related Directory Image

If there are no names listed in the Related Directories box, you may not have used ~~appName~~ before or have not placed pages that have been previously created into their own sub-directory.


The ~~appName~~ Way:

Use the Related Directories to build links to previously created groups of similar or related keyword groups.  Although there may be a tendency to over abuse this feature by linking everything to everything else, resist the temptation and link only related items together.  In this way the Search engines will pick up on the related nature of the links and will help in the listing.

Background:

This option will add links from the template pages you are currently building, to a previously built set of template pages in a different sub directory (folder) so the search engines can spider (scan) over to your previously built template pages for faster indexing of these.

This also means you will only need to get the newest template pages into the search engines for them to index your full site.

This feature is important if you have created several sub directories of keywords related to "cars" and several related to "horses" for example.  You can link all of the "car" related Template page directories to a new "car" related sub directory by selecting the first directory (clicking on it's name with the right mouse button) then by pressing the Ctrl and Alt keys on the keyboard simultaneously and clicking on the next "car" related sub directory with the mouse and continuing this process until all related sub directories are selected.  This feature will ensure that you don't mix "apples" and "oranges" or in this case "cars" and "horses"!