Website Hosting Reviews

There is a saying in the web hosting industry: There is no perfect web host, just the best web host for you. So how do you go about finding the best web site host to meet your website needs?

First off, figure out what you want to do with your website and what functionality is most important to you. Web hosting has gotten to be a bit of a commodity product with high competition amongst web hosting companies. Each company is trying to find ways to differentiate their product and brand from the pack. The hosting companies hope this will help them stand out and acquire customers without having to compete on price alone.

One way companies differentiate is by going above and beyond to meet a web hosting need for a particular niche of customers. One example is InMotion Hosting, which has spent considerable time and effort to build and market their fast mySQL databases. This helps InMotion Hosting stand out and be what they hope will be an obvious choice for ecommerce customers needing shopping cart solutions (most shopping carts use MySQL dB’s).

Another example is Register.com, who pride themselves on offering the best toll free phone customer support. Register knows there’s a big niche of hosting prospects who want good service over the phone, and they’re doing all they can to appeal to those prospects.

Rather than list all the different web hosting functionality of service niches in this blog, I invite you to visit the Top 10 list at http://website-hosting-reviews.net. The areas where each host stands out are articulated in the table as well as within the host reviews. Figure out what is most important to you and your website, and go with the hosting company that can best meet your need.

Author: This Article was written by a web hosting expert at http://www.website-hosting-reviews.net. Website-Hosting-Reviews review website hosting providers to help you find the best host to meet your website needs.

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You have a great new idea for a website, and can’t wait to get started. I know the feeling – it’s exciting isn’t it! As with anything else, a little bit of planning and foresight at the beginning of a project can help save you considerable stress down the road. Use the 9 steps within this blog post as your guide to building a successful website.

1. Define the purpose and goals of the website

You have that great website idea. Take a moment and clarify that idea a little bit more. Who is target person you want to visit your site? What content is needed to attract your target to your website? Are you going to sell products, or is it just an informational website? What are the goals for the website and how will you deem the website a success once you have it built? What functionality is needed to make those goals a reality?

2. Do your research. Learn from other websites

Now that you’ve defined your website purpose and goals, find good websites to review. For example, if you’re selling something on your website, visit the top ecommerce sites online. Go to Amazon.com, or Buy.com. What makes these best in class websites good? What can you learn from their process and purchase path? Another example – say you are a lawyer in Utah that needs a website. Go to Google and search for websites from lawyers in other markets. Make notes about the things you like and dislike. Try to figure out what elements appeal to you about the sites that you’ve seen.

3. Map out your user experience

Now that you’ve done your research, put together a simple map on paper of your future website. Sketch out the different pages. What content or pictures will be on each page? How will your visitors navigate the site and find other information? What functionality is needed to make this map a reality and meet your goals?

4. Find the best website hosting provider

There is a saying in the web hosting industry: There is no perfect web host, just the best web host for you. Now that you’ve defined your needs, you can find that best website hosting provider. Don’t make the mistake of using a free web host. If you’re tempted to do this, make sure you read blog post How to Choose the Right Website Hosting. But most importantly, read the website hosting reviews at http://website-hosting-reviews.net and you’ll be on the right track to finding a great web host worthy of your new website.

5. Choose and register a great domain

A domain name is simply the web address for your website. For example, website-hosting-reviews.net is the domain name for this site. Choosing a great domain name is important for the success of your website. Read the blog entry How to Choose a Great Domain Name with Google’s Help, which will put you on the path to choosing that great domain name.

Make sure the domain is registered in your name. This is important. Some dodgy web hosting providers will register your domain in their name, which means they have legal rights over your web address (hosting providers reviewed in http://website-hosting-reviews.net don’t follow this practice). This traps you into continuing to use that web host in the future as you can’t transfer the domain name away. To leave the shady web host you’d have to get a new domain to use for your site. If you’ve invested time and money in marketing your website this can be disastrous.

On a similar note, if you choose to use a 3rd party to build your website you should personally buy the hosting package. The majority of hosting packages come with a free domain now days. If you have the person who is building your website buy your hosting, they may put the domain in their name. The web designer may not have negative intent when they do this. Some web hosting purchase paths will register the domain under the person’s credit card billing information. So if the web designer buys the hosting and then invoices you for it, the domain may be registered in their name. This may cause problems down the road if you ever have issues with the person who built your website as they will have legal rights to your domain name.

6. Make a project plan

Building a website can take longer than originally anticipated. However, if you take the time to map out all the steps in the project chances are you‘ll get it launched faster than you would have otherwise. A project plan can help you realize dependencies between tasks. It also helps you figure out what tasks should be started first as they’ll take the longest and may need to be completed before other tasks can be started.

7. Build your dream website

Now get started and build that dream website! Just to caution you – there’s going to be a point when you run into a roadblock you didn’t anticipate. Don’t worry. Every web development project has issues. Just don’t give up. The web has some great information on any seemingly arcane issue. Use Google search to help you find solutions. Also, leverage your web host’s online FAQ’s and forums. If you signed up for a web host with excellent phone service give them a call. A big issue to you may be no big deal to them as they’ve solved similar problems numerous times in the past.

Remember you don’t have to build it all at once. Build what is needed to give your visitors a good customer experience. You can add more functionality later. A great example is my brother’s business website http://stgeorgevacationrentals.com. His first website had a phone number where his customers could call to make reservations. After a couple of years he added the ability to book a condo online, which was a sizeable project. Rather than waiting to launch his website with all the functionality, he got his website up with a good, but minimal customer experience and continually improved from there. This is a good website practice. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do everything at once.

8. Learn web analytics. Test & learn

If you’re ready to implement web analytics tools, that means your site is up and running. Congratulations! Google has excellent tools to figure out how much traffic you’re getting, where it’s coming from, and how long they’re staying on your site among other KPI’s (key performance indicators). Plus, the Google tools are free and easy to implement. Click on “Business Solutions” on Google’s main page, and then click on “Analytics”.

You should also figure out how to use your host’s traffic analytic tools. Some hosting companies have good traffic tools with tons of information. In general I think Google’s tools are easier to use and more intuitive. Use the traffic information to test & learn your way to a more effective website. What copy helps increase conversions? Are your visitors able to find your call to action? Etc., etc.

9. Market your website

Sorry Kevin Costner, “If you build it they will come” is not applicable to websites. Don’t underestimate the effort it takes to market you website. People just aren’t going to show up once you’ve launched your site. I plan to do a full blog on marketing your website in the future. For now, here are some easy ideas:

• Include your web address on your business card
• Use an email address with your domain (i.e., This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
• Sign your business website up in free local search (see http://getlisted.org)
•Learn all about search engine optimization
• Start a blog at your website
• Pay for advertising using Google Adwords

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.  Free web hosting is no exception.  Sure it doesn’t directly cost you any money, but you’ll pay through the nose in time and opportunity cost.

If you build a website, you want people to visit the site.  Seems obvious right?  Free website hosting handcuffs your ability to drive traffic to your website.  Search engines such as Google are one of the best and most efficient ways to drive people to your web pages.  Search engines want to display the most credible and relevant sources of information to fulfill their customer’s search query.  Unfortunately, search engines have been burned in the past by spam or fraudulent sites hosted on free hosting.  To combat this problem, it appears as if search engines have altered their algorithm that decides what websites to display.  Free hosted sites are penalized.  In addition, it’s rumored some search engines won’t even spider, or place a website in their databases, if it’s hosted with a free hosting provider.  Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com also “blacklist” IP addresses where fraud has taken place in the past.  As fraudsters love free hosting, chances are high your shared free hosting IP address will be on a search engine blacklist.  When was the last time you remember seeing a web page hosted by a free web host that had a high search engine ranking?  Can’t recall one?  Now you know why.  Don’t make the same mistake with your website.  A website that no one visits is worthless.

The URL for your website on a free host is usually a sub domain.  Something like, “www.FreeHostingCompany.com/xxx/xxxxxx/yourwebsitename.”  Be honest – your customers or friends aren’t going to remember that URL.  If they can’t recall your web address they won’t visit your site.  Also, you may want to have an email address with the name of website ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).  With a free web host you can’t do this as you don’t own the domain name.

Many free hosting offers rely on advertising to make money.  That’s right; free web hosts can litter your website with intrusive banners, text ads, and annoying pop-ups.  And, the free host will keep the revenue from the advertising - not you.  There should only be room for one message or advertising strategy on your website – yours!

Free website hosting can be frustrating during the site development process as well.  Free hosting has limited capabilities, and limited space.  Little disk space, data transfer, file types supported, site building capabilities, etc are all constrained on a free host. The capabilities available will limit your site development to something fairly rudimentary.  You won’t have the opportunity to make your site as robust and functional as you’d like.

If you go over the strict system resource quotas a free hosted site will be taken offline in most cases without contacting you.  Free website hosting is also known to be unreliable with high down times.  Plus, a free host could go out of business.  If your free web host disappears, what happens to your website and all its files?  It disappears too.  And don’t even get me started on customer service, which basically doesn’t exist with a free host.  Be prepared to try to resolve any issues by reading FAQs.

Another consideration - you want to own your website content, right?  Most folks don’t really know what they’ve signed up for when using free hosting to get their site on the web. The free hosting company can own your content. Yep, that's right.  If you’ve put it on their  free servers, it’s in their possession. The only way it’s ever otherwise is if the terms say they don't own your content - but don't count on it.

The cost of reliable, quality web hosting has dropped precipitously in the last few years.  So much so, it’s amazing to me that free web hosting still exists.  Trust me; leave the free hosting to spammers, fraudsters, and internet newbies.  Buck up the few dollars a month it takes to host your website the right way.  Your time, effort, and credibility are worth it.

Author:   This Article was written by a hosting expert at http://www.website-hosting-reviews.net.Website-Hosting-Reviews.net reviews website hosting providers to help you find the best host to meet your website needs. 

Choosing a great domain name for your web address will help in marketing your website.  If you buy the right website name, people will find your site with increased ease.  More traffic gives your website a higher potential of meeting the goals you’ve set for your site whether they be revenue, lead generation, or awareness goals.  Some considerations to help you choose a great domain name are followed by clues to how you can leverage Google to pick your web address:

Get the .com -

A domain that ends in .com is preferable as it’s the most intuitive.  In fact, some people even call domain names “.com addresses”.  Most Web users automatically type in .com when they're not sure of a domain extension. This makes sense as around half of the roughly 125 million domain names that have been registered are .com extensions.  So, if your domain name is yournewbusiness.net, users might remember "yournewbusiness" but may type in .com at the end rather than .net.

Exceptions to the .com rule can include non profits or other non-commercial enterprises.  An .org extension, short for organization, can work in this instance.  Another exception is country codes.  In some countries, especially in Europe, the use of the country code is more predominant than .com.  If this is the case in your country and your target customers also resides within your country then definitely target acquiring a domain with your country code rather than a .com extension.

Absolutely do not use a .info domain.  Multiple domain registrars have had .99 cent or even one year free .info offers. Unfortunately spammers registered a significant number of .info domains and build fraudulent websites.  It appears Google has subsequently scrubbed all .info domains out of their natural search results to facilitate their "no evil" policy.

Put your innovative marketing hat on -

It’s a fact:  All the one word and most of the two word domain names are already owned.  Also, all three and four letter domains are also already registered.  URLs such as Rent.com or Hotels.com are really cool and marketable, but they were registered soon after the internet was invented.  You can buy “premium domains”, or domains that someone else has registered. But this can be expensive.

If the domain you want is taken, try adding a common ending to the name you’d like.  Try adding a generic company description such as:  Partners; Team; Group; Agency; or Inc.  Also try adding your city or state.  Geo-targeted domain names are great for local search purposes.  For example, the domain name DUIattorney.com is taken.  However, DUIattorneyAlaska.com was available for purchase when this blog was written.  You may also have luck with adding an industry description term to your desired URL like:  Dentist; Medical; Media; or IT; etc.  

You can also go a step further and create a truly unique domain name.  Try a memorable phrase that’s related to your business.  A crab restaurant has the domain name ILoveCrabs.com as an example.  You could also just make up a name.  Yahoo.com really didn’t mean anything until the search engine and web portal branded and marketed the domain name.  Be careful here as branding a brand new name can be more expensive than you planned for.

Avoid numbers -

Domains that contain numbers may cause problems for folks as well.  People may remember your website name that contains a number, but they may not recall if the number is spelled out of not.  For example, say your website name was “high5.com”. Some folks will remember your name, but type it in the browser address bar as “highfive.com” and be taken somewhere else besides your website.  Therefore, in general a domain that includes numbers should be avoided.

Avoid incorrect spelling -

Don't fool around when it comes to spelling! Some people try to play games in this area, but domains like Starzz.net just won't cut it - they'll only confuse people.  Don't try to spell something phonetically (the way it sounds when spoken). And whatever you do, don't substitute the number zero for the letter “o” -- for instance y0urname.com – as they look similar and it'll only hurt the chances that your site will be found.  Using correctly spelled words in your domain name will make it easier to find your web site.  Spell it right and move on.

Shorter is better -

Let Google help you find your best web address -

A recent study found that over 50% of web surfers will at times bypass search engines and directly type in the keywords they’re looking for right into their browsers.  So what does this have to do with finding a great domain name?  Well, if you can purchase the main keywords a customer would use to find a business like yours as a domain, you will be able to score free traffic.

Here’s how Google can help you find a great domain name for your website.  Go to Google’s free keyword tool.  Type in a search term, or keyword, you believe a customer would use when trying to find a site like yours.  Now look at the number of searches for that term as well as other similar search terms that Google has suggested.  What terms have the highest search results that are relevant to your business?  Take those keywords to your favorite domain registrar and search to see if they’re available as a .com.  If they are, buy ‘em.  The term with the highest number of searches should be considered as a contender for your website name.  The balance of terms will still be useful.  You can redirect the other keyword domains to your main site.  The worth of the traffic they generate should be higher than the small cost to register them per year.  Another benefit to keyword terms is it may help in natural search rankings.  No one is 100% for sure (except for Google’s code writers), but it appears Google rankings favor websites with search terms within their domain.

Domain names are cheap.  If you’re not sure what name works best, then buy your top contenders and test them.  It’s easier than it sounds.  Build your site using one domain name.  Point the other domains to the domain your site is build on so when you type in the domain name it redirects to your main site.  Redirection happens so fast a person won’t be able to tell it was redirected based on load time.  Now, advertise your website with Google’s adwords (pay per click advertising).  Set up a search ad copy test using the exact same copy, but have the website address different on each ad.  Let it run a couple of days, or enough time to gain a statistically significant result.  Which domain had the highest click through rate?  If you’ve got a clear winner, you’ve let the market tell you what domain name it prefers rather than you guessing! 

Congratulations, by following these tips and letting Google help you, you’ve found your great website address.

Author: This Article was written by a web hosting expert at http://www.website-hosting-reviews.net.Website-Hosting-Reviews.net reviews website hosting providers to help you find the best host to meet your website needs.