Marketing Tool Store

Web Hosting 101

If there is one thing that you learn if it hasn't been drummed into you by your peers is Web Hosting must have a minimum guarantee of 99% online time. When signing up for web hosting it is essential to check the "uptime" of your web hosting server. If there is no guarantee given by the web hosting server then run to the nearest exit!

From personal experience we had one website that was hosted on a different web hosting site than my normal sites. It took us weeks to design and prepare the site making sure that the SEO was 100% ready for launch. Pre launch; we started advertising, doing press releases, article marketing and after spending 18 hour days finally thinking that our site was up and running. About one week later we went to our Google analytics account to check the statistics and document the anticipated surge of traffic to the website over the past week, only one problem... the site hadn't had a visitor all day. We asked ourselves "Why?" It wasn't because we didn't do everything right... it was because the web hosting server was down! We contacted the webhost, only to hear that one of the technicians had decided to move everything from one server to another. But that wasn't the worst of it, 24 hours went by and there was still no sign of our website. Contacting the webhost again, only this time to be told that during the switch something technical went wrong with the new server and they were working franticly to correct it. Well, if it were us, we would have worked through the night to fix it, but they weren't business owners, as employees they worked 9-5. The whole process took over a week to be sorted out, in that week our website lost all momentum of the efforts made with press releases, article writing and advertising, not only had we wasted a lot of time and money on the project but the success of our business and it took a long time to recover, in fact it was almost six months before the site was back to where it should have been in the first weeks.

We hope that this personal experience has shed some light on the necessity of Good Web Hosting .... Marketing Tool Store is a Go Daddy reseller under the name MTS Web Hosting. (We believe that competition always helps to keep the pricing structure within your web hosting budget)

So much has been said about Go Daddy, both negative and positive. Marketing Tool Store can only endorse them, with some of the trials and tribulations of starting a internet business the support they have given us has been second to none. When we started we found the control panel was a little hard to get around, in fact that would be the only negative thing we have heard about Go Daddy, but what you must realize; is that when you are new to something, it takes time to learn but once you have learned the new skill you often wonder what the fuss was about.

Value For Money
Reliability
Customer Service
Technical Support
Features
Storage Space
Bandwidth
Tech Response Time
Easy of use

What is a Web Host?

A Web Host is simply a company that provides you with server space for your website. This includes all of your web pages, graphics, scripts and files.

When your web address is typed into a browser, your web host is being contacted to locate and display the requested page.

Free Vs. Professional Web Hosts

All Web Hosts are not created equally. There are a number of free hosting services available on the Internet. However, if you're designing a website for business purposes, you should NEVER host your website with a free host.

In order to establish credibility, you must be willing to invest in your own domain name and professional web hosting. Websites hosted on free servers are not taken seriously and will suffer a serious loss of business.

Your visitors may feel that if you don't have your own domain, you may not be a credible company. They'll simply take their business elsewhere.

Not only is professional credibility a great reason not to host with a free service, but many Search Engines won't even index a site hosted on a free server.

In addition, free hosting services don't need to have a reason to shut your site down. You may get up one morning, try to access your site and instead of your site loading, you may receive an error message. There goes all your hard work, your website, your traffic, your Search Engine positioning, your customers -- all gone.

Free hosting services aren't interested in your business or how hard you've worked to design your website

and create a steady stream of traffic. Their main concern is their business. That's why they're doing it. They display banner ads on every site they host.

If you're serious about your business and you have a sincere desire to succeed, having your own domain name is a must. It's not a luxury, it's a necessity. Businesses using the free services are not taken seriously. Having your own domain name is just as important as a professional looking web site. They go hand-in-hand.

The cost to register your Domain name ranges from $12 - $35 per year. Very reasonable and well worth every dime.

Selecting a Domain Name

When trying to select a good domain name, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Try to select a domain name that contains your most important keywords, as some Search Engines place relevancy on them.

Although there are many new domain extensions available, dot.com or dot.net is still the best choice.

Example:

yourdomain.com
yourdomain.net

Keep in mind, it's usually best to select a web host prior to registering your domain name. Most quality web hosting companies will register your domain name for you.

Guidelines:

   • Try to select a domain name that contains your most important keyword.
   • Try to select a domain name that will be easily remembered.
   • Try to avoid using abbreviations or anything that will be difficult for your visitors to remember.
   • Try to keep your domain name as short as possible.

Take your time and select a quality Domain name that will grow with your business.