Web Design for this site

getting rid of byte order mark - that messy foreign looking tag at top of pages etc
Download and install Notepad++
Open the file with Notepad++
In the menu select "Encoding" and set it to "Encode in UTF-8 without BOM"
2016 that has changed now "Convert UTF-8" the without BOM has been removed
Save the file and the BOM will be gone.

Text for a Redirect file
<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en">
<head><meta charset="UTF-8">

<title></title>
</head>

<body>

<p>
<a href="1845jlankshear.htm">Sorry Moved click for new page</a>
</body>

</html>

Indexing the suite for search engines Google Webmaster Tools verification file

The Ping to start Spider etc

http://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=http://sites.rootsweb.com/~lankshear/sitemap.xml

FileZilla FTP Screen Shots - I use FileZilla to publish my pages and Barry has a set up page

From Pat Geary a link to SEO web design tips that can help to optimize your website properly.
http://www.webguru-india.com/blog/25-seo-web-design-tips/
Some of these suggestions can be implemented on the Rootsweb servers and some cannot. Many of there suggestions have been mentioned here before.
For those of you who may not know what SEO is, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.

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Just documenting how I changed my web in January 2008 - mainly for me but it might be of interest

I am using CSS through external style sheet and SSI includes - previously I used Frontpage includes but changing anything meant processing all pages again

Each document Structure is like this

<!DOCTYPE HTML>	Changed to HTML5 09/2018
<html> <head> <title>whatever fits the page - usually same as header h1</title>	a title that I can enter in Frontpage by clicking right for page properties
<!--#include virtual="../_includes/ssimetatags.txt" -->	calls a standard file that has Meta tags which I think can be same for every file
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../styleron.css">	the stylesheet - this works on my HD so I leave the href as relative rather than to URL which would use broadband - so I have to watch if relative link is right
</head> <body>
<!--#include virtual="../_includes/ronheadssi.htm" -->	the file that shows the long picture of people and the navigation line see below now a header usually the same as page title header banner is same for every page
<!--#include virtual="../_includes/leftmenu.htm" -->	the left menu - I have different files for sub sets in my web Genealogy Links - left menuLANKSHEAR left menuEAGLE left menuHAYBALL left menu LEST WE FORGET left menu
<h1>whatever - usually same as page title ---</h1>	- h1 tag is defined by style sheet
the page itself - the body of data	will start alongside the top of leftmenu as float was used for leftmenu
<!--#include virtual="../_includes/ronfootssi.htm" -->	The footer with some more navigation - the same for every page
</body> </html>

The files called

Mostly changed Meta with HTML5 in 2018 including adding Viewport for Mobile phones

Deleted this one 31/10/2018 everyone says no need. only need if noindex
<META name="Robots" content="index,follow">

again help http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com/html-document-structure.html

ronheadssi.htm

Basic structure - I've taken out the mapping etc detail

<div id="container"> this style drives basic page indent etc before the banner
within the includehead - I could have in every file but I save space by having in header and close div in footer

<b>Genealogy of Lankshear and associated families </b> -----by Ron Lankshear and Others

<map name="FPMap0">
<area href="../RoyalMarines/edwin_lankshear1.htm" shape="rect" coords="314, 6, 341, 58" alt="Edwin Lankshear">
...... and more mapping lines </map>
<img src="http;//freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com../_includes/panorama.jpg" usemap="#FPMap0" alt="Click a picture - I am coding links to the people">

<div id="topmenu">
<ul> <li>.... several list items the are covered by the topmenu style so appear across the page rather than down

<li><a href="http;//freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com../index.htm">Home</a></li> <li>lots more list items </ul>
</div> </div>
end the banner and topmenu div

Leftmenunav but this is now the 2nd menu not on left

<div id="leftcolumn"> open div for the float column

<div id="leftmenu"> open list within that

<ul> <li><a title="Lankshear - sources used in Research" </li> </ul> the list very simple to do

</div> close list div

</div> close column div

<div ID="content"> now open the div for the body of the document - the style means that this starts to right but at top of the left menu

I open it in the leftmenu file so that I can close it in the footer - then I do not have to have these tags in every file.......

ronfootssi.htm

</div> </div> closing the style content and container I did try in footer file but Frontpage does confuse itself so best in each main file

<br><a href="index.htm">Back to index page</a>|<a href="../index.htm">Previous</a>

<div id="botmenu">
<ul> <li><b><a href="mailto;[email protected]">Ron Lankshear</a> © 2001- 2008 All Rights Reserved</b> </li>
<li>- This page modified on USA server </li>
<li><b><font color="#0000FF" size="5"><a href="http;//freepages.religions.rootsweb.com../">
<img src="http;//freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com../_includes/fish.gif" width="50" height="18" alt="Ron's Faith Page"></a></font></b></li>
</ul> </div>

The Style Sheet - Styleron.css

I inherited this from a kind expert - major change was deciding that Links would be Green and moving them to one place - instead of several different colours for each document part.and this action did change the stylesheet size which pleased w3c validation

and I added the left column float