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Choosing the Right Web Host
So you've decided about your website design and now you are ready to have your website hosted! When choosing the right web host, they are several factors to consider: I. How often is the web server up? ----------------------------------------------------------------- I - How often is the web server up? Once you've signed up with a web host provider, you don't want your website to be down or taking forever to load. This can have a serious dent in traffic as it could turn off potential returning visitors. Search engines also do not rank web pages that are always down well, so you should expect next to nothing traffic from Search Engines if your website is down most of the time or takes forever to load. A good way to find out if a web server is up usually is to check out reviews by different persons who have already used the web host. I've included a link to a web host review website at the end of this article in Appendix A. II - Does the Server provide SSL? If your website is a hobby website, and you won't be doing any transactions on your website, SSL protection is not needed. However, if you plan to do any transactions in the future; its important that you choose a webhost which provides SSL protection upfront. SSL is an encryption method which helps to encrypt any sensitive information like credit card info, names, etc If you signed up with a web host who does not offer SSL protection; it's usually more costly if you then decide to get it installed than if you signed up with a web host provider who already provides SSL protection for transactions. Examples of web host providers who provide Automatic SSL do this are www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com III - Does the server provide for server side scripting? (e.g PHP, ASP?) Most web host providers provide for server side scripting but it's still important to make sure that they do. Server side scripting allows the webmaster to create pages which change in realtime. For example, if you are running a business, and you have all of your products stored in a database, a server side script will generate the pages that the customer sees according to which category/product the customer chooses. If a web host provide does n provide functionality for server side scripting, it's dated and you should stay far away from it :) www.powweb.com, www.ipowerweb.com and www.lunarpages.com all provide functionality for Server Side Scripting. IV - Free? Paid? Which one? Another important factor to consider is whether you want to sign up with for Free or Paid web hosting. Companies such as www.geocities.com, www.tripod.com, www.freeservers.com offer free hosting. The main disadvantage with free hosting is that the hosters usually run ads on your home page; some like in this example http://www.pac-dodger.tripod.com (see near the top) I suggest a free hosting website if you budget is very tight and you don't mind ads running on your website. The paid option for website usually offers better customer support that free web hosting. Some packages are next to nothing. I've found www.powweb.com to be exceptionally reasonable($7.77 a month last time I checked). Both www.ipowerweb.com and www.lunarpages.com are also top web host providers at great prices. Lunarpages has a reputation of reliability and great customer service. Powweb has the reputation of being the largest and offering the best of every (most web space, most bandwith, etc). Ipowerweb is generally good. V - What is the upload/bandwith limit? What is the file limit? Upload and bandwidth limits are important if you are going to be hosting large image files or if you want to provide downloads to your users. If you are just making a simple hobby or business website, www.powweb.com, www.ipowerweb.com, and www.lunarpages.com can all handle your bandwidth requirements. If you are looking for more space; I suggest www.powweb.com. VI - Customer Support Customer support is very important when signing up for a web host provider. I'm an experienced webmaster, and on signing up with a web host provider I usually still have questions which need to be addressed. Some web host providers even provide forums where customers like yourself can log in and post questions to other customers and web host staff. I find this very valuable; the only place I've found this so far was www.powweb.com VII - Suggestions There are thousands of options to choose from but my top three are below: I would suggest www.lunarpages.com if you are looking for great customer support. If you need lots of webspace; consider www.powweb.com If you want general all around good service, sign up with www.ipowerweb.com Other GREAT solutions are: Apollo hosting - www.apollohosting.com Appendix A Great website for web host reviews. Reviews all web host providers listed in the article above http://www.thehostplanet.com/reviews/reviews.html Kevin Allman is a webmaster with over ten years Internet experience. He runs a Search Engine Optimization website at http://www.pzeta.org/seo_global/ which contains many articles on how to optimize your website.
MORE RESOURCES:  Yahoo! News Search Results for URL Yahoo! News Search Results for URL • AdWords URL Longer Than 35 Characters Need Exception (Search Engine Roundtable) We discussed the Google AdWords policy on a max URL character space of 35 in the past. They recently started enforcing this rule back in June of this year. A new Google Groups thread has an issue where on advertiser needs to have a display URL that is longer than 35 characters. So what can he/she do? AdWordsPro Sarah says that you can submit an exception. In short, make your display ... • YouTube videos go HD with a simple hack (CNET) Want to host high-definition videos on YouTube? No problem. Just get your copy-and-paste skills ready because all it requires is changing the video's URL! • High-definition videos sneaking onto YouTube (Ars Technica) YouTube is experimenting with high-definition videos on its site, and you can access the capability using a handy URL trick. If YouTube manages to score enough movie and TV content from its owners, then it might eventually give Hulu some competition. Read More... • The Sound of Personal Branding (Fast Company Magazine) Some websites need to be arrested for audial assault. You know the ones I mean. No sooner do you click on a URL but the site blasts out some atrocious music that has absolutely nothing to do with the brand. If marketer and music extraordinaire ... • Sorry: The requested page could not be found (Kerrville Daily Times) You may have received this message in error. Please try loading the page you were trying to access again. If you got here by typing a URL, or web address, please make sure the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are correct. • Why Firefox Rocks: Great Firefox Tricks, Part IV (LinuxPlanet) Today I have a useful tip that used to be enabled only on Linux, but now is available for everyone. Have you ever had somebody send you a URL to a web site, only it's so long that the mail system has broken it into several lines? • Mobispine making Telia MMS app for iPhone? (MacNN) The identity of TeliaSonera's MMS application for the iPhone may have already been revealed, an announcement hints. Mobispine has announced the creation of what it calls the "world's first true MMS for the iPhone;" critically, the software relies on the actual MMS protocol instead of a substitute, such as a text message with an embedded URL. The company is also based in Sweden like Telia, and ... • Site of the Day (AskMen) Don't be fooled by the URL, this isn't just a blog for rail-thin fashionites. • CORRECTING and REPLACING China Energy Recovery Board Member, Roger Ballentine... SHANGHAI, China----URL in second graph, second sentence of release should read: www.eenews.net/tv/ • Giz Explains: Every Video Format You Need to Know [Giz Explains] (Gizmodo) digg_skin = 'compact'; digg_bgcolor = '#f1f8fa'; digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/Giz_Explains_Every_Video_Format_You_Need_to_Know'; Once upon time, video codecs and formats were really only... |
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