Are you
researching your family history? A great way of
generating interest that may lead to further
information is to create a web site of your
family tree and family history information.
Many of the better Genealogy Software programs
provide the opportunity to do this.
Alternatively, submitting your GEDCOM file to
the numerous (and free) genealogy sites gives
your name and history a presence on the World
Wide Web. Another alternative is to use a free
hosting service, eg Yahoo GeoCities where you
can create your own web site. However these
free hosting sites often have restrictions on
how much you can display and are often
difficult for the first time user.
The best way to design, develop and publish
your own personalized family tree website is to
use a HTML Editor like FrontPage or one of the
many (sometimes free) HTML editors available on
the internet. You will need to purchase a
domain name and web hosting.
The following tips will help you create a
family tree web site:
Title. The correct title to your web
page is critical. It helps search engines
identify your page, and searchers to find your
page. Something like “The History of the
Jones Family in Alabama” or “The
Ancestors and Family History of Robert Jones in
Alabama” is far better than “My
Family Tree”!.
Header. The first paragraph, or header,
should contain the surnames of the principal
families researched and displayed in your
family tree. Again, not just a list of names,
but proper sentences which include key words
such as family, family tree, ancestors,
genealogy and family history.
Content. Visitors and search engines are
looking for quality content, particularly on
the home page of your web site. Just a list of
names being researched is not enough. Compose a
few paragraphs briefly describing your family
history, with links to your other pages for
more detailed family information. Limit your
images on the home page to perhaps to one
family photograph, again with links to your
other photographs.
Navigation. Good websites have good
navigation which allows visitors and search
engines to find their way around the web site.
Navigation buttons or text links must be on all
pages. Particularly important is a Home link on
each page.
Meta Tags. Meta Tags are essential on
all web sites. Without Meta Tags web sites will
be hard for searchers to find and will rank
very lowly in many search engine listings.
There is no point in having a web site that
cannot be found. Do it soon to improve your
‘findability’ and search engine
ranking. A later article on Meta tags will help
further.
The Importance of Links. If you have a
family tree web site, having other genealogy
web sites linking to you is a proven way of
generating traffic and improving your page rank
in search engines. ‘Link
Popularity’ is measured by the number if
inward links you have to your sites. Inward
links should be
from quality genealogy sites. A links page on
your web site is essential. Links can be
obtained by inviting webmasters from similar
sites to exchange links with you, or by joining
a link exchange site. Do not exchange links
with inappropriate sites eg gaming and porn! On
your links page invite other web
masters to contact you for an exchange. So that
the search engines and visitors can find your
links page, ensure that there is a link on your
home page to the links page.
Contact Details. So that visitors can
contact you it is important that you display
your email address prominently. To avoid email
harvesters and spammers show your email address
as an image or use a free email
account, eg hotmail.
Observing the above tips will help you build a
web site that proudly represents your family
tree. Later articles will cover other issues
relating to family tree web site design.
Jim Hammond is a Family History Researcher who
has created the free Genealogy Search Australia
search engine and directory to assist new and
experienced genealogists and family historians.
Please visit Jim's family tree website: The
Hammond Genealogy - From Ireland and Scotland
to Australia at http://www.hammondfamily.id.au
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