featuredhosts https://featuredhosts.com/ Best Web Hostings Reviews Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:41:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://featuredhosts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hosting-icon-150x150.png featuredhosts https://featuredhosts.com/ 32 32 How To Choose the Perfect Web Hosting https://featuredhosts.com/how-to-choose-the-perfect-web-hosting/ https://featuredhosts.com/how-to-choose-the-perfect-web-hosting/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2020 08:49:02 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=1489 The web host plays an important role to make your business website successful and it is not just website loading time which you need to consider but many other things too. If you are new to buy a web host or looking for the suggestions which you should consider before choosing a web host, the following points will surely help you.

Customer support

Customer support plays an important role when it comes to choosing a web host. Many web site owners are more concerned about price and main features of web hosting companies and neglect to check their customer support service.

It is important to go with a web hosting company that offers excellent customer support as well as 365/24/7 live chat to their customers. No one wants to wait to hear from support when his/her website is down.

Among the web hosts we reviewed, two of them stand out in terms of customer support. They are SiteGround and GreenGeeks.

Backup and Security

Make sure that the web hosting company offers the free or at least the paid backup option to restore your web content in time of need.

Security plays a crucial role when it comes to selecting a web important files hosting company. The minimum security that is expected for a web host is SSL security which protects visitor critical information using https protocol. Most hosting companies now provide “Let’s Encrypt” free SSL with their plans. However, if you have an e-commerce website you need to consider using another layer of security by purchasing an advanced SSL certificate.

Having an SSL certificates is a must, but not enough. You should also think about other security issues such as malware scanning and hacking prevention.

Refund policy

If you are new in the business and not sure whether your selected web hosting company will suit your needs, then you should only purchase a web hosting plan from a company with a refund policy. This will allow you to get your money back if you do not like their services or face any problems with their support.

Most web hosting companies offer at least 30 days no questions money back guarantee. Others offer 45 days or more. For example, FastComet offers 45 days, while DreamHost offers 97 days,. A2hosting offers a prorated refund any time after the first 30 days trial period.

Signing up with a hosting company that provides a longer refund policy is a smart choice idea, especially if you are moving from one host to another.

Technical specifications

This is the most important point to consider before choosing a web host. If you are planning to start an e-commerce site then you make sure that the company offers the required features including the web languages like HTML, PHP and Java Scripts etc. If you are not experienced, then picking the web hosting company which allows you to install different web scripts without doing any programming. Other technical features to look at cPanel, RAM, processing power and the number of scripts offered by company etc.

Customer support

Customer support plays an important role when it’s come to choose a web host. What will you do you if you stuck or facing difficulty to operate your hosting account or lose your website content? You probably look for the customer support including tech support. So, make sure that the web hosting company you are choosing is not only good for the specifications and have the low price but also provide an excellent customer support services too.

Uptime and Loading Time

The uptime of the web host should be 100% (or at least 99%) where the loading time of the website should be fast. You can get idea about them through online reviews of existing customers or even browse the websites hosted on the specific web hosting company’s server.

Price

Price of a product (Especially online products) shouldn’t be your first concern. Going to beyond budget is not a good idea but at the same time, choosing a web host on the basis of price is not a good idea. Do not jump into cheapest web hosting plan as they come up with a lot of drawbacks but also do not pay over your planned budget.

You should note that most web hosting companies have higher renewal fees compared to the original price you signed up for. So, it is highly recommended to check hosting renewal prices before signing up. However, there are a few companies that have fixed renewal prices such as  Hostmetro.

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/how-to-choose-the-perfect-web-hosting/feed/ 1327 Top 10 benefits of Cloud Hosting https://featuredhosts.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-cloud-hosting/ https://featuredhosts.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-cloud-hosting/#comments Thu, 27 Feb 2020 12:12:39 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=643

Cloud hosting is the buzz word of the town. The reason behind this is its ease of scale, flexibility, and high performance. There are many benefits offered by cloud servers as compared to traditional hosting.

  1. Flexible Pricing: With traditional hosting, you have to pay a fixed amount no matter you are using the resources or not. This is not the case with cloud hosting. Here you pay for only what you use. Its flexible pricing structure is one of the key reasons for its recent boom.
  2. Easy to Scale: Aliyun cloud server is one of the players in the market who lets you see the performance of your site in real-time. This way you have better knowledge about how your business is doing. You can easily scale your server resources without having to wait for any approval.
  3. Server Environment: In traditional hosting your site is located on a single server. Imagine if something happens to that server, all your data is lost, in seconds. However, in the case of cloud hosting you are provided with a redundant server environment. A backup will be saved in case of an emergency.
  4. High Uptime: Cloud hosting has a very high uptime. It is much faster than traditional hosting. In traditional hosting, your site is using the power of only one server. But in the case of cloud hosting, you are virtually using way too many servers at the same time. This way your site would be able to tackle an unexpected traffic surge.
  5. Speedy Setup Process: If you are using a traditional server, it takes some time to make your site live. This time may vary from a few hours to even a day. However, the setup process is super fast with cloud hosting. Your site will be up and running within minutes.
  6. No Hardware Issues: A physical server has to deal with many issues like a ransomware attack, hardware failure, system overload, etc. On the other hand, the cloud server has no such issues. It is insulated from all the issues of a physical server.
  7. Better Website Speed: If there is a website A that is hosted on a physical server and another website B is hosted on a cloud server then the speed of A will be much faster than B. However, things also depend on the type of website as well as the location of the end-user.
  8. The Best Option for a Site with High Traffic: As already stated, the cloud server can better manage traffic. If your website has to deal with an unexpected surge in traffic, then there is nothing better than a cloud server. Cloud hosting allows you to scale up or down your server resources as per need.
  9. Easy to Manage your Server: When cloud hosting was new in the market it needed a bit of technical expertise to manage it. However, we have come a long way. Now managing cloud hosting has become simpler as compared to physical hosting.
  10. Decreased Environment Impact: A cloud server depends very little on physical components. This is the reason why the environmental impact decreases significantly when you are using a cloud server. With cloud hosting, you are using very few data centers. It is one of the best ways of hosting in this generation.

There are so many benefits of cloud hosting that it is becoming difficult for me to put all of them down in one article. However, a good cloud company is also important. Aliyun Cloud Server is the leading player in this direction. They have a very attractive pricing structure. You would love it.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dong_Wong/2659905

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10310827

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-cloud-hosting/feed/ 9 Points to consider when choosing web hosting https://featuredhosts.com/how-to-choose-a-web-host-web-hosting-guide/ https://featuredhosts.com/how-to-choose-a-web-host-web-hosting-guide/#comments Thu, 27 Feb 2020 12:11:32 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=640

Choosing the right Web Host matters

Whether you’re putting up a personal website or a commercial one, you should choose your web hosting provider wisely. The reason is that you will most definitely want your website to be seen by the largest number of people. To do that it is essential to take a little time to go over certain basic but very important factors that will ensure more visibility for your site.

Points to consider when choosing web hosting

There are so many web hosting providers and packages on offer today. Each one of them have their own unique advantages and weaknesses. So how would one decide which one to choose?

Even after you zone in on a particular provider, you still need to choose the hosting package that will suit you. Every web hosting site offer many different types of packages to choose from. The most popular type is the ‘Unlimited Bandwidth’ package.

The following points should make your task of choosing web hosting simpler for you.

1. Server Uptime & Customer Support:

The most basic thing for a website to be found on the internet depends on whether the server where the files are stored is online i.e. up and running at any given time. This is called Server Uptime.You will find that most of the web hosting providers will claim a 99.99% server uptime. Some even claimed 100%.

If you have time, search for comments by users of the provider on internet forums or elsewhere online. Or go for the larger more established hosting companies who have built a trusted reputation. Most good hosting companies have multiple server data and power backups. A few also promised 100% and they do that by guaranteeing refund of fees in the eventuality that any downtime might happen.

Another very important feature of a good web hosting is Customer Support. They should provide customers with 24/7 phone and internet support. They should have a good collection of tutorials and FAQs readily on their site in case you might need help. Make no mistake, you will contact your hosting support more often than you think, especially if you are serious about your website.

2. Pricing & included features

The range of pricing and features included in web hosting packages are pretty wide. You will want a fair balance of features and quality that will suit your needs. As with any other product, cheap usually gets less quality. On the other hand some pricing can be exorbitant without any special value.

The prices of hosting packages are usually dependent on the set of features included. These includes data storage and bandwidth limits, number of allowed addon domains and subdomains, number of email and ftp accounts hosted, shared or virtual or dedicated server plans, programming languages and databases, site tools, shopping cart etc, and the list goes on. One can be easily confused with these numerous choices more so if you are not familiar with them. Don’t worry, we will cover the essential ones in the next paras.

Pricing for a fair value shared hosting packages usually starts around 6-8 US$ per month. Virtual Private/Dedicated Server around US$ 30-50 pm and Dedicated Servers at US$ 60-80 pm.

Pricing tip: If you have not acquired a domain name or want to add another, then some packages include free domain with hosting. They can be a good bargain.

3. Data Storage and Bandwidth limits

If you are new to putting up websites, you might have very little idea about how much data storage space and bandwidth your site will need. First off, don’t worry too much about this. Even the most professional people will tell you that themselves. Because your needs will grow as the number of visitors to your website increases, you will know all about it as you go along.

Data Storage Space: Unless you intend to host lots of video/movie clips or a gigantic amount of big resolution pictures, most hosting packages will do. Normal websites rarely occupy beyond 40-50 MB (megabytes of storage space). The basic shared hosting package for the top registrar costing $4.99 pm includes 10 GB(1000 MB) of storage space.

Bandwidth Limits: Bandwidth limit is the amount of data transfers your hosting permits per month. This depends on how much visitors your site has and the type of files you serve i.e. basic web pages, pictures or video clips etc. Here too, not that much to worry about for normal websites. Most hosting providers will offer “Unlimited Bandwidth” even on their value shared hosting packages.

One word of caution though for those intending to host video/movie clips or high resolution pictures. Do not be fooled by Unlimited Bandwidth Shared Hosting packages. If you go through the “Terms of Use” and “Common Usage Policy” for most shared hosting packages, they will undoubtedly have a section where it says that you are not permitted or will be charged extra for “abnormally high data bandwidth usage”. Advice is you will probably be better off choosing VPS or dedicated server or Cloud hosting or high bandwidth packages.

4. Shared Hosting vs Virtual Private Server vs Dedicated Server vs Cloud Hosting

How to choose between these types of hosting? Putting it simply, you should choose by how busy or popular you think your site will be viz Shared – VPS – Dedicated – Cloud, in that order.

Shared Hosting: Majority of websites on the internet are on Shared hosting. It is good for personal and small websites. They are the most economical of hosting packages. In shared hosting, a number of hosting accounts usually 10-100 are hosted on a single physical server. They share the same server storage and broadband connection.

Shared hosting is particularly recommended for starters and small to medium personal and commercial websites that do not host picture/movie/video downloads.They can cost between $5-$15 per month.

Virtual Private Servers: This type of hosting is usually used by medium websites with medium storage and bandwidth requirements. Virtual Private Servers are hosted on unique ip addresses (eg. 192.170.1.8) and are virtually like a dedicated physical stand-alone server, but with less cost than a physical dedicated server. The way it works is that multiple accounts say 3-10 are hosted on a single physical server, each accounts having it’s own unique host id or ip address, data storage and bandwidth separated from each other by software.

VPS hosting can cost between $30 to $150 per month depending on the features for a 1 year contract. Note: All hosting packages price decrease as you increase the number of years of contract.

Dedicated Server: They are usually used by the medium to big websites who need storage and bandwidth scalable to their requirements. They are hosted on separate physical servers. In other words they have a server rented out to them. They have full control over the server with its own unique address, hard disk, ram and bandwidth.

The price of renting a dedicated server depends on the physical components of the server, the hard disk capacity, the processor version, the amount of ram and the broadband connection. Prices can vary between $65 to $200 and beyond per month.

Cloud Hosting: A relatively new thing in the world of web hosting, Cloud hosting is the next generation type of hosting. Instead of having one physical server, cloud hosting uses several servers located in different locations connected to each other.

The main advantages of cloud hosting is the scalability factor and cost efficiency. For big websites there is big benefits. As a website grows larger than its current capability, all they need to do is add another server to join the networked group of servers.

Cloud hosting packages can be priced anywhere from $100 to $550 and beyond depending on the storage and bandwidth requirements.

5. Addon Domains & Sub Domains

Addon Domains are the domain names i.e. websites eg. “http://www.yoursite1.com”, “http://www.yoursite2.com” that you want to host with your hosting provider. If you intend to host more than one website, you need to choose the package that allows it. Most of the cheapest web hosting packages will allow only one website.

Sub Domains: They are the different directories that you may want to create eg. “http://directory1.yoursite.com” or “http://directory2.yoursite.com”. The number of Sub Domains allowed may be different on different packages. Do not confuse this with folders eg. “http://www.yoursite.com/folder1” or “http://www.yoursite.com/folder2”. There is no limit on folders.

6. Email and FTP accounts

Email Accounts: These are unique email accounts for your website/s eg. “name@yoursite.com”. You can set these up and give it to anyone, your friends, visitors, customers. No worries here cause most of the hosting packages will give you plenty.

FTP Accounts: FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol”. FTP accounts are used to access your hosting files from web softwares. They are of tremendous help to web masters in that they allow you to update, delete or create new files and folders in your host directly from web design software and ftp softwares. No worries here too as most packages will give you more than 10 accounts. You can allocate this to your designers and co workers as you like.

7. Programming Languages & Databases

Frontpage Server Extension, PHP5, Custom PHP.ini, Perl w/FASTCGI, Python CGI, Java, Ruby CGI, Ruby on Rails w/FASTCGI, ColdFusion, MySQL(Unix), MsAccess, MySQL(Win) etc.

These are programming softwares and databases used by your hosting server. They are used for the more advanced web features like automated content management, user management, running scripts and programs etc. If you don’t understand them, you don’t need to. Because most of the package include the popular languages and databases that you might need when you want to use them.

8. Content Management, Blogs, Forums: Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, Nucleas, Moodle, WordPress, Geeklog, Lifetype, Serendipity, phpBB, SMF, Vanilla Forum etc.

These are ready made tools for setting up blogs, forums and content management to enhance websites. Most packages have enough choices here too.

9. Website Tools, Marketing Tools, Shopping Cart Website Tools: Website Builder, Web Analytics Tools, FrontPage Extensions, Google Custom Search, Google Webmaster Tools etc.

These are basic tools that helps in building websites, gauging website popularity and statistics and site enhancements included in most hosting packages.

Marketing Tools: Google AdWords Credit – $50, Yahoo! Search Marketing Credit – $25, Facebook Ads Credit – $50 etc.

These are ad credits for advertising your website. They are great bargains if it is included.

Shopping Cart – For those wishing to sell products online this tool is quite important. Most packages include them.

10. Web hosting tips for good SEO

One of the things that improves Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and should be considered when choosing a web host is the location of the server. Experience shows that search engines favor locally hosted websites when search is made. Big search engines like Google are known to give preference to locally hosted sites. This means that to rank higher in, for eg., UK, it helps to have a web hosting server that is located within the UK. Another thing that also is known to help SEO in local search rankings is regional TLDs or domain names. So for UK, the domains.co.uk or.org.uk are given preference.

Another point to note is that shared hosting can hurt your website’s SEO rankings. Experts believe that if you have a site which shares the same server and ip address as a Google penalized site, your site also suffers as a result. The obvious way to avoid this is to host your site or sites on a separate ip address which will mean a dedicated server of a Virtual Private Server.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6264485

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/how-to-choose-a-web-host-web-hosting-guide/feed/ 107 What Is SEO and How It Changed Over the Years? https://featuredhosts.com/what-is-seo-and-how-how-has-it-changed-over-the-years/ https://featuredhosts.com/what-is-seo-and-how-how-has-it-changed-over-the-years/#comments Thu, 27 Feb 2020 12:10:26 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=637

Many business owners will here hear the phrase ‘search engine optimisation’ (or SEO) from friends in the business community or even competitors and may consider it as a route to increasing sales, but what is SEO? Alternatively, a business owner may have tried ‘SEO services’ in the past and found it either didn’t work as well as expected or was working, but no longer as effective – this article explains what SEO is, and why ‘new’ SEO is working better than ever.

I have been working in search engine optimisation and ranking website market, before it was even called SEO. Here are the changes in SEO since the start of the new millennium and what you should be looking for in the SEO services that your SEO Agency offers or provides.

We take a look back at SEO through the years and explain what SEO is today and how best to utilise it for our website.

SEO in 2000

Back at the start of the Millennium the ‘big’ search engines that most people were using were Lycos and Excite. Of course, back then a very small percentage of the UK population had access to the internet and those that did had a slow ‘dial-up’ system.

Websites were one or two pages with basic information to allow them to load quickly (within 20 seconds). SEO practices back then were to ‘hide’ as many keywords on a page as possible, so the website was found for those searches without making the page look to spammy for visitors.

In 2002 Google launched something called ‘AdWords’ and it was predicted to be the death of SEO, as people could pay for prominence, on the now the number 1 website for starting internet searches.

In 2003, Yahoo purchased Inktomi, AltaVista and FAST, which was basically the end of all of the ‘smaller’ search engines. Google started to stamp down on ‘spam’ practices and websites. At the same time Google realised that ‘AdWords’ were not going to kill off SEO and that in fact the ‘natural listings’ encouraged visitors back to their search engine platform. Google started to recognise ‘professional SEO’ experts and promoted good SEO rather than spamming SEO.

2004 saw the first website ‘banned’ from the internet as Google took action against websites that were spamming them. They also took legal action against the “SEO Company” responsible.

To rank a website in 2006 you just needed links back to your website and so buying links / link exchange was all the rage and most websites had a web page where they would list companies and links to their website (I am still amazed how many websites continue this practice).

Between 2004 and 2008 Google, now was the only real “player” in the search engine world, started taking action against poor linking practices and companies and started tightening up on spam and buying links. The ‘Noughties” ended with all “naughty” SEO practices being practically stamped out, as Google concentrated on ranking websites based on their content and it’s relevance to the search being carried out.

SEO in 2010

Between 2010 and 2015 we started to see the search engines take notice of ‘Social Media’ sites and soon the results were filled with Twitter ‘tweets’ in the results. (I can still see the face of one of my customers when searching Google for his business, and the whole first page of the search results were compiled of tweets of a Twitter conversation that two members of staff had been having about how terrible the company was!)

Videos and images were also brought in to the search results with the Google ‘Caffeine’ update.

Google introduced “personal search results” with the websites shown in the search results based on your previous searches and websites you had visited before. This caused a ‘bit of a stir’ in the SEO world as customers claimed their websites were “top of Google” for any search they did related to their industry, just because they had visited their own website many times before, so Google of course fed them back the website for all relevant searches. This can still be a bit of an issue until you show them the new ‘Google Incognito search’.

The focus on ranking websites was on being found for BIG keywords. A ‘Plumber’ in Bristol would want to rank for that search, and so that was the focus.

Google ‘Panda’ and ‘Penguin’ updates figuratively killed off ‘link exchanges’ with huge penalties for websites who had irrelevant links pointing towards them. At the same time Google introduced “no follow links” to allow websites to provide relevant links to other websites and information without penalising either party. It was the start of “safe linking”. Quality and relevant content was now the key to ranking in the search engines.

A report by the ‘Office For National Statistics’ in 2014 stated:

  • 38 million adults (76%) in Great Britain accessed the Internet every day, 21 million more than in 2006, when directly comparable records began.
  • Access to the Internet using a mobile phone more than doubled between 2010 and 2014, from 24% to 58%.
  • 74% of all adults bought goods or services online, up from 53% in 2008. Clothes (49%) were the most popular online purchase in 2014.
  • Of all adults in Great Britain, 67% are aware of Internet storage space services, but the take up of these services to store data is much lower at 35%.
  • In Great Britain, 22 million households (84%) had Internet access in 2014, up from 57% in 2006.
  • Fixed broadband Internet connections were used by 91% of households.

The UK was now (almost) internet savvy and usage of mobile phones to visit websites was huge.

SEO 2015 and Onwards

The biggest change to the search engines in 2015 was the ‘penalisation’ of websites that were not “mobile friendly” – a mobile friendly website has different information for the smaller screen to make it easier for the user to read and understand. In ensuring that users got the best experience Google started ranking mobile friendly or responsive websites (where the website automatically changes its size and format to fit the screen) higher in the rankings.

The UK population were using their mobile phones for local searches, and local companies could at last gain an advantage over the large corporates or ‘national’ companies on the internet.

The introduction of ‘semantic search’, where Google brings back websites in the results not based on the keywords, but the content on a page, again changed the way SEO agencies looked at working on websites. Ranking for the ‘Big’ keywords, such as ‘Plumber Bristol’ became less important, as internet users became more savvy with their searches. ‘Long tail keywords’, and as many as possible, started to grow website visitors and more importantly, conversions.

What is The SEO Process Today?

It is probably correct to say that the processes or practices associated with search engine optimization have now out grown the term ‘SEO’

In years gone by working the content and structure of a website was enough. Now, there is so much more to do to not only rank a website in search engines, but to get customer engagement. A better description of the service would be ‘digital marketing’.

Old practices, as mentioned earlier, meant ‘big’ keywords were key to ranking. A focus on a single keyword per page or even for a whole website would rank the business and back then it was all about ‘rankings’.

Old way of doing SEO

Today there are a number of factors to consider in regards to SEO. ‘Semantic search’ is the main driver and conversion the main goal, not rankings.

Semantic search is where Google returns information on the page, not the description the website creator input, back to the searcher. An example of this would be to take the ‘Plumber Bristol’ example. A few years ago you would have concentrated on ranking the business for “Plumber Bristol”, “Plumber in Bristol” and perhaps “Emergency Plumber Bristol” – although this still holds true for businesses that offer a solution for ‘distress purchases’ (where time and a solution outweigh the need for information and advice) better practice throughout a website is to add content that offers advice and guidance and includes ‘long tail keywords’ (3 or 4 word searches) such as “Emergency plumber with free callout in Bristol” or “Reviews for an Emergency Plumber near me”. Google wants the user to have the best experience and find the relevant information quickly, and semantic search achieves this. This is also sensible for a business owner. Would you rather your website was found by a searcher looking for “Plumber Bristol” where they could be after information, looking to get a job, looking for a plumbing service that you may not offer, or for a specific and targeted search such as “best emergency Plumber near BS7″? “Plumber Bristol” will get you a website visitor, being found for “best emergency Plumber near BS7″ will get you a customer.

In terms of keywords this is the largest change Google have made and it is here to stay. SEO or digital marketing is no longer about where you rank, but how many different search terms you can be found for and their conversion in to paying customers.

Website Content

A few years ago (and only 2 or 3 years ago) Google suggested to professional SEO Agencies that 300 words on a page was sufficient content. Last year they stated the MINIMUM should be at least 500 words.

Every day I am asked to review a website by a potential customer – and most of them have between 150 to 250 words on a page. This is common practice. There are two ways to look at this. Either Google has to change it’s expectations as most websites do not meet their grade or another way to look at this is as an easy way to jump the competition by simply adding content to your website. Do you think Google will lower it’s expectations or expect websites to improve to their standard? Google released the ‘mobile friendly’ update knowing that somewhere around 80% of websites would need to be upgraded – and they did it anyway as it benefitted over 50% of there users. Quality content effects 100% of their users.

I recommend to our customer about 800 words per page. This is enough content to be ‘semantic search’ friendly, provide relevant content and not be too word heavy.

Good practice is to have:

  1. Page Title – say what the page is about (‘Big’ Keyword if you must)
  2. Headline – asking a question
  3. First paragraph explains briefly explains the content / solution
  4. Image / or video
  5. Longer description of the solution

Take our Emergency Plumber in Bristol, as an example:

    1. Page Title: Emergency Plumber Bristol
    1. Headline: Are you looking for the best emergency plumber near you in Bristol?
    1. First Paragraph: Smith Plumbing offer a 24 hour emergency plumbing service in Bristol. We do not charge a call out fee and can be with you in 20 minutes. That is why our customer reviews and feedback say we are the best emergency plumbing service in your area. Call now on…
    1. Image of the van or the Plumber looking professional
  1. Longer description: What they can fix, common problems they resolve, some of the quotes from their customers etc.

This has a number of benefits.

Firstly, those people who just want a Plumber will read the first paragraph, see the image of the van (build authority and professionalism) and call the Plumber. Other people will want more information which they can find further down the page. Is this cheating at SEO? Absolutely NOT. You are providing relevant information to the user and Google will love you for it. How content is structured and written on a page is the “new” SEO.

The second benefit is that your website will start to be found for a combination of the words on the page – semantic search – in the example above the Plumber could be found by customers and potential customers looking for “Smith Plumbing”,”emergency Plumber near me”, “Emergency Plumber in Bristol”, “Best24 hour emergency plumbing service in Bristol”, “emergency plumber Bristol reviews” and dozens more search terms. If you were a Plumber would you rather be found for one big keyword or multiple relevant customer converting keywords? I thought so, and so does Google.

Old practices were to create website content for the search engines. Now you must create content to provide value for customers. This is an easier process than you might think.

What were the last 5 customer inquiries to your business? What was the problem they were trying to resolve? Write about the problem and your solution.

Link Building

The historic way of ‘link building’ was to get as many links from as many places as possible. This year we has a very large company contact us about their SEO and they were horrified when we suggested that they needed to remove their 1.4 MILLION links back to their website as they had spent a fortune over the years buying the links. Irrelevant links, and the more you have the more detrimental it is, highlights to Google the irrelevance of your website – regardless of how relevant it might be.

Today, a few, relevant links is far better than a Million links back to your website. Today, links have to be built through engaging relationships. Taking our Plumber once more, a link back from the ‘Gas Safe register’, a local plumbing centre or bathroom showroom, and a few local websites that like his information would be enough.

Social Media

Even though we still get a some companies like this now, a few years ago when we suggested businesses should be on Facebook I was normally told “Facebook – that is for teenagers isn’t it? That is not our market”. If done well, Facebook can drive more traffic and paying customers to your door than your website. Facebook’s largest user group is 25 to 34 year olds, second largest is the 35 to 44 years old age group. The 45 to 54 year olds are using Facebook more than teenagers, and as nearly as much as 18 to 24 year old.

Facebook Users UK age – courtesy of statista

Facebook allows a business to build a brand, engage customers, get customer reviews and instant customer feedback. Unlike reviews on your website which potential customer may see if they visit your website, a review on Facebook is seen immediately by all of the users friends and if their friend ‘likes’ the comment – all of their friends, friends. More and more of our customers are getting leads from Facebook. People are asking their friends for suggestions on businesses to use and getting dozens of suggestions back – if you are on Facebook you are more likely to get a direct link to your contact information.

What is next for ‘Social Media’? Live streaming! Twitter has purchased a company called ‘Periscope’ which allows you to live stream video from your phone. “So what?” I hear our ’emergency plumber’ asking. If I were a Plumber I would be live streaming my work as I fix a problem, with the video going out live to all of my followers and their friends – my own television channel that is free-to-air across the whole world. Next time your business conducts a ‘brain storming session’ – periscope it – your customer will tell you what the solutions are.

Video Marketing

There are no ‘old’ SEO practices for video as it just didn’t exist and when YouTube started out it was for showing funny videos of cats and the like.

Today that has all changed. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and is owned by Google. YouTube has over 1 BILLION users worldwide and every minute, 300 hours of videos are uploaded. It would take you about 2 years to watch all of the videos that will be uploaded in the next hour. It would take you the rest of your life to watch all the videos uploaded today. Google’s own statistics say that by 2018 73% of searches put into a search engine will result in the person watching a video. Think of it another way, in a couple of years when 10 people search the internet for your product or service – 7 of them will watch a video, 2 will visit a website. That is why I create videos for our customers as part of our ‘digital marketing service’.

SEO Company Bristol offers a full digital and internet marketing service, including search engine optimization or SEO.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9126300

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/what-is-seo-and-how-how-has-it-changed-over-the-years/feed/ 8 The Advantages of a SSL Certificates https://featuredhosts.com/the-advantages-of-a-ssl-certificates-for-a-small-business-website/ https://featuredhosts.com/the-advantages-of-a-ssl-certificates-for-a-small-business-website/#respond Thu, 27 Feb 2020 12:07:38 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=631

With increasing Internet penetration and the explosion of social media, small businesses are no longer at a disadvantage. They are able to sell their products and services to customers from all over the globe, target audiences in any segment and region and position themselves for growth. While on-ground infrastructure needs to match to achieve success, the Internet has ensured that small businesses have a new avenue of reliable and affordable marketing. They are able to explain their offerings and are assured of an upward trajectory, provided their strategies are right.

However, the lynchpin for the entire operations is a website and all factors revolve around the same. When visitors come to the website of a small business, they should be able to get an intuitive feel and easily obtain what they are looking for. Further, visitors are looking more from a perspective of data security whenever they engage with any one on the Internet. Hence, the security of a website is a very important factor and visitors must be assured of the same, to retain trust and build a bond.

This is where the role of SSL certificates comes in. The term SSL is expanded to Secured Socket Layer and this certificate is a small data file that digitally binds a cryptographic key to the details of the organization. Organizations need an SSL certificate, in order to initiate a secure session with browsers. After installation, the application protocol changes from HTTP to HTTPS and depending on the browser a padlock or a green bar is displayed.

The key advantages for a small business are

1) SSL is important to drive home business credibility

By proactively installing an SSL certificate, businesses indicate that they care about data security. Installation of an SSL certificate is not an off-the shelf operation. A governing authority performs several checks to authenticate a business before the certificate is issued.

2) Data Integrity

With SSL certification, there is encryption of data, files are prevented from being corrupted when they are being transferred and there is protection from malicious attacks. It is thus assured that information only reaches the intended recipients and that it is not intercepted by any third party.

3) Google supports SSL

SSL certification is one of the parameters considered for Google SEO. About close to 40% of organic listings on the first page of Google are HTTPS. HTTPS is also a signal in Google’s algorithm since 2014.

All of the above will mean increased customer confidence and conversions, which is the sole aim of a business having a website. It is thus a no-brainer that SSL certificates are vital for any small business website.

Nikitha (www.niktha.in) is a leading web development, online marketing and website auditing company in Chennai offering cutting edge services. With deep experience, a passionate team and technology strength, they deliver powerfully transformative solutions and add tangible value to any business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10065800

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/the-advantages-of-a-ssl-certificates-for-a-small-business-website/feed/ 0 How to Choose the Right Domain Name https://featuredhosts.com/starting-an-online-business-choosing-the-right-domain-name/ https://featuredhosts.com/starting-an-online-business-choosing-the-right-domain-name/#comments Thu, 27 Feb 2020 11:58:34 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=627

Choosing A Domain Name

In the business of building a large number of Niche sites, domain names are going to likely be your single largest cost, or at least near the top if you are outsourcing most of your work. Domain names are important for many reasons, not the least of which is that you don’t want to be wasting money on poor choice domain names. In this tutorial, I’m going to provide you with the information you need to ensure you are choosing the most appropriate domain name for your sites.

First, for those who don’t know what a domain name is, it’s simply the web address of your site – espn.com is a domain name, for example. A domain name is an key step in getting set up and online. It’s the first thing your customers will see. You need to make a great first impression. Your potential customers will see your name in many different places:

  1. Natural Search results such as on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft search
  2. Video Marketing
  3. Pay Per Click Advertisements that you run
  4. Ezines / Newsletters that you publish or run ads in
  5. Email and Forum Signatures
  6. Off line advertising such as newspapers, direct mail, business cards or magazines.

There are a number of things to consider when purchasing a domain name(s). Here are the key considerations you’ll want to run through prior to making your purchase:

Top Domain Name Don’ts:

  1. Don’t use excessive dashes in the domain name.
  2. Don’t use unrelated phrases in the domain name.
  3. Don’t use too many keywords in the domain name.
  4. Don’t repeat the primary keyword in the domain name.

Top Domain Dos:

  1. Do use the primary keyword phrase in your domain name.
  2. Be as specific as possible for your keyword phrase (long tail keyword phrases)
  3. Place the primary keyword phrase at the beginning of the domain name.
  4. Include commonly used related phrases in the name like “news”, “tips”, etc
  5. Use action keywords like “cheap”, “discount”, “buy”, “deals”, “get”, etc.
  6. Use top level domains like.com,.net,.info,, or.org,

Some additional tips:

1. Use a specific keyword – or better yet, a long tail keyword phrase – in your domain name. I don’t recommend using multiple keywords and definitely DO NOT repeat the same keyword in the domain name.

2. Put your primary keyword at the beginning of the domain name. Let’s use an example to illustrate: Suppose you are selling garden tools. Not just any garden tools; you sell low-cost, high-quality garden tools. The name of your company is Garden Tool World. Using the tips above, you will purchase the domain names for your company. But what about your product?

The key here is to look for names for your product domain that people will be searching for. When a potential customer goes to a search engine, will he or she look for “low-cost high-quality garden tools”? Or the customer look for “Cheap Garden Tools”? From our earlier research, you can find out what people are looking for. So if people are looking for “Cheap Garden Tools,” then your domain name might be cheapgardentools dot com.

Choosing a domain name is an important part of the overall marketing process and should not be taken lightly. Make sure your domain name represents your company, product, and image, and you’ll be setting a great foundation for future sales.

3. If you run into difficulty in getting the domain name that you want,, try using action words at the end of your domain name. Examples of this would include for sale, discount, on eBay, deals, etc. You could also use tips, blog or info., for example. If you had a site using videos to train roofers, you could go with roofervideos.com. Another idea would be to put a number behind your keyword. For example, cheapgardentools442.com would work just as well as cheapgardentools.com because your keyword phrase is at the beginning of the domain name.

4. Don’t be afraid to use keywords that reach out and grab attention. Words like warning, alert, cure and warning are all such terms.

5. By all means, DO NOT use words in your domain name that have nothing to do with what it is your site is about.

6. Use only well known top level domains such as.com,.net,.info,.org &.us. Stay away from domains like.tv and.biz. Credibility is key – sticking with top level domain names will help you in that department. Of course, if you can get.com, that’s the way to go, but if the name you want isn’t available in.com, one of the other top level names will be just fine.

If you find you are having trouble coming up with a domain name for your venture, you can visit Nameboy.com. That site will generate plenty of domain name suggestions for you based on the keywords you enter. Another site I like to use is Instant Domain Search. This particular site “helps you find a domain name as fast as you can type.”

7. Stay away from domain names with hyphens in them. While this used to be a good idea, it no longer is. Using domain names with hyphens in them can have an adverse impact on your ability to rank highly in the search engines.

8. Keep it as short as possible. Although some places allow you to register a name with up to 63 characters, you have to keep in mind that people need to be able to remember it and easily type it into their browser. Try to register the shortest name that your customers and other site visitors will associate with your web site. The general rule of thumb is, keep it under seven characters if possible (not including the suffix). While the vast majority of your potential customers will be clicking on a link, there are those who will type in your domain name.

9. Go with.com when at all possible.

Dot what? There are many suffixes available now. For businesses, we recommend a.com suffix. It is the first extension that most people try when searching for a web site. Also, since it is one of the oldest extensions,.com shows that your business has been around for a while and that you have a well-established presence on the Web.

10. Register your domain now. Domain names are being snatched up faster than candy at the St. Patrick’s Day parade. You must register soon unless you want to get stuck with “the-domain-name-that-no-one-wanted.net.” You do not have to have a webmaster or an e-commerce department or a web design consultant or…. Heck, you don’t even need a web page. Just get out there and register before you lose the opportunity to get the name you really want.

11. Ask around. When you have settled on several available name choices, see what your friends and clients have to say. A name that may make perfect sense to you may be too hard for other people to remember. Is your domain easy to say? Is it hard to spell? Do you have to explain why you chose the name?

12. Don’t spend lots of money. At one time, companies were able to get away with charging reservation fees plus a “mandatory” $70 InterNIC fee. A number of years ago, it was decided that other companies should be able to compete to sell domain names. This has lowered prices dramatically. At the time I’m writing this, you can get a private.com domain at 1&1 for as little as $6.99 which is the best price on the market by far. 1&1 is the only top registrar that provides private registrations at no additional cost.

13. An important aspect of your domain name: You must check to see if your domain has ever been used by someone else. If your brand new domain name was used for spam or unethical internet practices, it will be extremely difficult to get it indexed in the major search engines. This is not an issue you want to deal with. Check out your potential domain name at http://www.archive.org and see if it has ever been owned. If it has been owned, take a look at the archives to see if someone was breaking any rules with this domain. Trust me; you will thank me if you find out that it has been abused in the past. There is no reason to make search engine optimization harder on us if we can avoid it!

If you think that if you have found the right domain name and have checked out any previous use, but you’re not quite sure if it’s the one… register it anyway before someone else does!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3398552

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/starting-an-online-business-choosing-the-right-domain-name/feed/ 1 What is Shared Hosting? https://featuredhosts.com/what-is-shared-hosting/ https://featuredhosts.com/what-is-shared-hosting/#respond Thu, 27 Feb 2020 11:22:43 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=624

Shared hosting is an ideal, economical solution for companies who want to run multiple websites. The advantages and disadvantages of sharing a server depend on a variety of factors, including the hosting company, number of websites involved, and the amount of traffic the sites receive.

A systems administrator manages the server and the websites to ensure that they are running securely. The owner of each site won’t have individual access to all of the root files. Since small sized businesses and webmasters of personal sites don’t use all of the features and resources available to them, shared hosting is a great choice.

How is the space measured?

In shared hosting, space is offered in the form of gigabytes. The more bytes a company has, the more files it can host. Websites with a lot of traffic will require more bandwidth, which means they’ll receive the majority of the shared space. A simple blog will require less bandwidth than a music or video streaming website, therefore the former will be given less space to share.

What are the benefits of shared hosting?

Cost-efficiency and simplicity are the two main benefits. Sharing server space can be fairly cheap. Since the providers don’t have to spend a lot of money on resources, they are able to offer hosting at discounted price. The free add-ons, such as templates and website builders, also save the webmaster money.

The host manages the resources and maintains the server, which makes things a lot easier on the site owners. For the technically challenged, this is the best solution, since no knowledge of programming, designing, or hosting is required.

What should be considered when choosing a shared web hosting company?

An ideal shared hosting company is one that provides its members with a good plan that is suitable for all levels of experience. Everyone from beginner webmasters to experienced professionals should be able to utilize the tools and access the control panel without any problems. A good shared hosting will provide all users with free site builders and programming language support.

It’s also important to choose a company that offers excellent customer service. Quality service is a sign that the company is genuinely interested in the success of its users. The server must be maintained securely and appropriately for optimal performance. Webmasters should be able to receive technical support whenever they need it.

The other websites involved in the host sharing is something else to consider. If other sites receive the most traffic and require a lot of bandwidth, those few that don’t will experience some downtime. There should be plenty of resources available for ALL users, and not just a select few. Every website should receive a fair amount of bandwidth.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4267397

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/what-is-shared-hosting/feed/ 0 Types of Web Hosting Services https://featuredhosts.com/types-of-web-hosting-services/ https://featuredhosts.com/types-of-web-hosting-services/#respond Wed, 26 Feb 2020 20:56:33 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=596

Before selecting a web host it is paramount that you understand the various types of hosting options you have. Every website has different needs and meeting your site’s needs will help produce a satisfying end result. Hosting services available to you will likely fall into one of the following categories:

Free Web Hosting

Free web hosting is definitely the cheapest option available, however as we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch and this holds true with so called “free” hosting services as well. Free web hosts will often be advertisement supported and have very limited features, storage space, and bandwidth. Generally this is not a good option for any website which supports a business or needs to offer users a stable and efficient environment. Free hosting services are best for small web sites which are not intended to do much more than share a bit of info with a small group of friends.

Shared Web Hosting

With shared web hosting a single computer referred to as a box or a server will generally hold a large number of websites. The number will depend on the company, the cost, and the hardware that makes up the machine. Shared hosting is often a reliable hosting option for most websites including both small business and personal use. The overall quality, speed, and cost will fluctuate significantly from host to host so it is important to do your homework before selecting a shared hosting center. Often websites which abuse or use more resources including CPU time or bandwidth will be shut down. If your website requires heavy resource allotment you will likely need to look into another hosting option.

Reseller Web Hosting

This is a less common form of hosting but it allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Common examples of this would be web design firms who host their clients’ websites. In truth, the only difference between reseller web hosting and shared hosting is generally the size of the hosting company. The larger hosting companies such as Bluehost and HostMonster are just much larger versions of reseller web hosting.

Virtual Dedicated Server

Virtual dedicated servers are very similar to shared hosting except in how the allotment of resources is handled. Whereas with shared hosting all clients share the same CPU and bandwidth resources with virtual dedicated servers each client is guaranteed a set amount of CPU power and bandwidth. Virtual dedicated servers also offer their clients what is often referred to as “root” access to their virtual machine. This offers them more hands on control with how the machine runs including the ability to tinker with the operating system.

Dedicated Hosting Service

With dedicated hosting services the user has full control over the server and is the only client who uses the server. There are normally two types of dedicated hosting options which are managed and unmanaged. With managed hosting the client will have various support-personal or plans in place to assist them with managing the server and ensuring that things such as its security policies are up to date. Unmanaged will leave all the responsibility in the hands of the client which can be less expensive in some cases. In both cases having a dedicated server offers you much more control over what options are available on your server from mail programs to FTP services and so on. Naturally dedicated servers are much more expensive and therefore many webmasters opt for the cheaper shared or virtual private server options. With both types of dedicated hosting the servers are owned by the hosting company.

Colocation Web Hosting Service

Colocation is similar to dedicating hosting services, but in this case the user fully owns the server and the hosting center simply provides a physical space, power, and a connection to the internet for the client. In many cases there is little or no further support for the client beyond ensuring that there is power and the negotiated bandwidth available to the server. With this option in most cases the owner of the server will have an administrator who must visit to the facility or have another form of remote access to the machine.

Clustered Hosting

In some cases it is not enough to have one server handling the needs of a website. For these cases clustered hosting becomes a viable solution. With clustered hosting multiple servers host the same information allowing a much larger base of users to access the information at one time.

Grid Hosting

Grid hosting is a form of distributed hosting where a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Home Server

In some cases webmasters elect to manage their own web servers at home or at their place of business. This can be done on both a consumer-grade broadband connection or in some cases on something more capable. Home servers are much like colocation except for the loss of the expensive facilities which generally have backup power sources, industrial grade cooling systems, and various other benefits. Some ISPs do not allow their users to host their own websites so it is best to investigate this before attempting to setup your own web server.

Which Hosting Option Should I Choose?

If you’re reading this article you probably should be choosing shared hosting, or either virtual or fully dedicated hosting. For most small to medium sized websites these are perfectly adequate and viable options. If your web hosting needs are larger than this you will likely have an IT specialist who is part of your team who would be better equipped to assess your web hosting needs.

Hopefully by now you have a better idea about what type of hosting you need. Now it’s time for the real fun, choosing the best webhost!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1704048

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/types-of-web-hosting-services/feed/ 0 Web Hosting Guide For Beginners https://featuredhosts.com/web-hosting-a-guide-for-beginners/ https://featuredhosts.com/web-hosting-a-guide-for-beginners/#comments Wed, 26 Feb 2020 19:42:03 +0000 https://featuredhosts.com/?p=588 So you’re looking to learn about web hosting and what it has to offer or you may not know much about web hosting? There is no shame in not knowing this information. Everyone has to start at the beginning at some point. On that note, lets begin learning about web hosting.

First off, what is web hosting and how does it work?

Web hosting is the business practice of providing space and bandwidth on a high-powered computer server that is connected to the Internet at very high speeds. Hosting companies maintain large networks of high-powered web server computers in a physical location known as a data center. These computer servers are connected to a very fast, and generally redundant, Internet connection. The data centers have primary and backup power, a fast connection to the Internet, and a security monitoring staff.

The web hosting companies provide a share of disk space and available bandwidth to a customer for a monthly fee. Once the customer is signed up, they can upload files to their personal space on the web server and the information is then viewable to anyone interested on the Internet. The monthly fee the web hosting company charges is much less than what it would cost to run a server out of your own home or data center. This is the reason these companies exist. They take care of all the hardware, software, and other technical needs for you.

Types of web hosting

There are many different types of web hosting offers, but the main three are shared, reseller, and dedicated. Each type of hosting is for a different purpose.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting is the most popular form of hosting. Shared hosting is a portion of disk space and bandwidth provided to you by the web hosting company on a high-powered server. There are many other web sites hosted on this server, and the hosting company is likely to have quite a few of these servers in a large data center. The resources of the server are shared by as many other websites as are allocated to that computer.

Shared web hosting is the best form of web hosting if you are looking for a great price and don’t have more than a couple thousand daily visitors to your site.

Reseller Web Hosting

Reseller web hosting is a popular, low-cost solution to starting your own web hosting business. There are two types of reseller hosting, private-label and a reseller of services.

The private-label is the best type of reseller plan because it allows you to retain full control over your customer’s websites. A private-label plan allows the reseller to keep the full monthly payment of the web-hosting customer, but the reseller must pay a monthly fee to the larger hosting company for the reseller space. The more hosting accounts a private-label reseller can sell, the higher the profit for them. Private-label hosting allows you to host many more websites than if you were using shared hosting for each. This is a great solution for someone who has many sites they need to host in one location to save money.

The reseller of services plans resell the regular web hosting plans of a larger web hosting company, but you get a discounted price for providing the customer and earn a monthly fee for as long as they remain a customer. This plan does not allow control over customer web sites and you only keep a portion of the potentially monthly revenue.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated web hosting is the most powerful and cost effective solution of hosting a busy web site without resorting to buying your own equipment and paying hundreds of dollars per month for a fast Internet connection. Dedicated hosting consists of single server with no one else hosting on that computer. This allows for the greatest of configuration options. Anyone who has a busy website will find dedicated hosting is the necessary choice.

Web Hosting Considerations

Wondering about all the other information listed in web hosting plans? In this section, I will explain the most important considerations in choosing a good web host.

Price

The price of web hosting services is one of the most important. There are many hosting companies out there with cheap hosting packages, but they may be lacking in other areas. Don’t let the price of a hosting package fool you. There are some hosting companies out there who have great prices and the other features are just as good. Price may be one of the most important decisions of a web hosting plan, but there is much more to consider in choosing a quality web host.

Disk Space / Storage Space

Disk space is the amount of physical storage space a web host gives to you to store your web files. Hosting companies these days have plans with disk space being measured mostly in terms of gigabytes, but some are still offering plans in the megabytes for storage space. Depending on your needs for file storage space, you may need more or less. Generally the more disk space offered, the better.

Bandwidth / Data Transfer

The amount of bandwidth available can make a big difference in choosing a quality hosting plan. In general, the more bandwidth a hosting company makes available to you, the better. This means you can support more traffic to your web site as your business grows. Be wary of web hosting companies that offer unlimited or unmetered bandwidth. While many of these are legitimate offers, there are some out there who are overselling their bandwidth in hopes the average user won’t use much.

Customer Support

In any business, it is very important to provide exception customer service. Web hosting is no exception to this. Many of the hosting companies are available all day and night in case you have a problem with your web site, but there are some who are just available specific hours of the day. If your web site goes down in the middle of the night when they’re not available, this means lost revenue for a business. You should make sure the web host you select is always available for support.

Money Back Guarantee

Most web hosting companies will provide a thirty-day money back guarantee. Some will provide one even long, but be wary of the ones who offer no money back guarantee. I would not purchase web hosting services from a company who does not offer at least a 30 day money back guarantee, unless they have proven themselves to be a leader in the industry and have an excellent reputation.

Operating System

An operating system is a piece of software that controls the interaction between the computer user and the physical hardware of the machine. A vast majority of all web sites on the Internet run on the Linux operation system. Linux is generally much more stable than Windows. Stability is critical in running a web site. For this reason, I prefer to host my web sites on the Linux operating system. Some sites have specific requirements that only the Windows operating system can satisfy, but there are always alternatives to those requirements.

Backup

A good web hosting company will have a regular schedule to backup the data on all the web servers. The more often the data is backed up, the better. At the very least, a web hosting company should backup web site files daily.

Control Panel

The control panel is the point of contact the web site administrator will have between the host server and their own machine connected via the Internet. It is essential to have a well organized and easy to use control panel interface. My favorite control panel is cPanel, which is one of the leading web hosting control panels out there today. Plesk is another good one, and many companies will create their own control panel for you to use. Most web hosting companies will provide a link to a demo of the control panel they use with their hosting plans. The control panel used is a matter of preference, but it should be user friendly.

Email

Email is essential part of communication on the Internet. Most web hosting companies out there will give you more email addresses and more space to hold email messages than you will ever need. What you need to watch out for is the companies that have decided to be a little strict on their email accounts and only offer a small number or a small amount of message space.

Uptime

Uptime is a term used to describe how often the average web site hosted by a company is available online. No company should be expected to provide an exact 100% uptime. This is impossible due to things such as hardware, software, and power failures. A vast majority of the companies are very good with uptime, and they guarantee it. It is still a good idea to be conscious of the uptimes posted by the company. If it is not at least 99.5%, it is probably not worth hosting with that company.

Statistics

As a webmaster, it is nice to know how many visitors you’ve had, where they came from, how long they stay on your site, and how much bandwidth they’ve used. This information is collected by the web server and is placed in a log file. A statistics software package can read this data and provide meaningful information to the webmaster. The information gathered from these logs can be very valuable in improved services to the viewers of the web site.

FTP

FTP stands for file transfer protocol. It is a way of quickly uploading or downloading many files to and from a web server. Most web hosting companies will allow their customers access to their web hosting accounts via FTP. FTP is very useful and is a great feature to have when paying for a web hosting account.

Scripting

Since the World Wide Web began, many scripting languages have been created and have evolved into the dynamic and interactive environment we enjoy today. A scripting language is a way of adding functionality to a web site, whether it be to calculate numbers or to load information from an external database. Scripting languages have made electronic commerce possible. Some of these languages include PHP, ASP, JSP, Coldfusion, VBscript, Javascript, and Perl. I won’t go into the details of these in this article for the sake of complexity. If you know how to use these languages, you should know what to look for in a web server for them.

Databases

A database is a place to store data that can be used in a large variety of ways. Databases are used on the Internet for applications such as shopping carts, message boards, and product catalogues. The more databases the web hosting provider allows you to create, the most applications you can deploy on your web server. Databases are used by the more advanced web master, but information is freely available online should you be interested.

Conclusions

Web hosting can be a very difficult decision with the many thousands of hosting companies out there. It is critical to find a plan that fits your needs and to have a good hosting company. I hope this article was useful in making your decision about which company to host with. Happy Hosting!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/143004

]]> https://featuredhosts.com/web-hosting-a-guide-for-beginners/feed/ 140