Information degradation also happens because most mobile web browsers will always try to access and display content from your site whether they are mobile friendly websites or not. Most search engines have an option of choosing results to show only mobile websites when using a mobile browser. The result would be ranked according to their being mobile friendly websites which come first . Being among mobile friendly websites would improve your chances to be on the results when search is done either on the computer or a mobile device. Most websites which offer money transfer services and the bigger players in the internet businesses are on the forefront of advocating the use of mobile friendly websites. This is seen by their use of mobile friendly website in addition to computer friendly website.

While most mobile developers may argue that creating an app may be easier for a mobile device, it should be noted that the apps cannot be used on two different platforms unless the developer creates two different apps. Mobile friendly websites may solve this problem especially for businesses that do require minimal functionality on their websites. The mobile friendly websites can be used on any device that has a web browser. With the current internet speed available on mobile devices especially on smart phones it enables mobile users to view a great variety of content from their mobile phones. This include live music and video streaming therefore advertising campaigns can be carried out from your mobile friendly website which can have audio and visual content. While it may seem complicated to make your website mobile friendly its easy and can be done by a professional mobile website designer or by you. This is due to the large number of tools available on the internet for converting websites to mobile friendly websites. These tools include WPtouch, MoFuse, Mipping Mobilizer, Mobify, Wirenode, Wptap, mobiSiteGalore, WordPress Mobile Pack, Zinadoo, Winksite, MobilePress just to mention a few. These tools can be found online, some for free and some at a small fee.

With this in mind and the large number of smart phones being sold the world over businesses should consider having mobile friendly websites. This applies to both large and small businesses which want to cover a wider market and have a large advertising platform. For more information on mobile friendly websites why not visit the link in this article.

So what exactly should you be looking for in reliable web hosting? Well the following should be considered:

Loading Speed – Your visitors will want your pages to load as fast as possible. If they are slow visitors may give up and look elsewhere, or if they do wait they are less likely to return in the future. As far as ranking on Google is concerned slow loading is a negative factor because they want their users to be happy.

This should not be a problem with the major hosting companies but with very cheap or free services it is more likely, as overloading a server is a way of keeping costs down.

It is also worth considering the location of the web server and the location of your target audience. Ideally they should be geographically close, as pages will load a bit slower for users on the other side of the world from the server.

Uptime – No host will guarantee 100% uptime (at least not on an entry level package) but downtime should be limited. If people try to find your site and get an error message they will probably not try again. You should look for an uptime guarantee in excess of 99.9% with some financial penalty if this is not met. Clearly with free hosting this is not possible.

Resources Available – Some packages have a fixed limit on resources like disk space and bandwidth and others are sold on an “unlimited” basis. You do not want your URL to display a message saying that the site is unavailable because you have exceeded your bandwidth allowance. This should not be a problem if dealing directly with any of the major hosting companies, as limits are set they are well above those a new site is likely to need. However, if dealing with a reseller, be careful about bandwidth limits.

Support – Most users of hosting require help at some point. If the problem is urgent you want assistance immediately, particularly if the problem relates to the availability of your site. The major hosting companies will have 24/7 technical support by phone, chat or email but resellers and free services usually offer much more limited support.

Some hosting companies are now partnered with CloudFlare which makes it easy to serve you site via their network. This speeds up loading for users distant from the server, improves security and takes a load off the web server. For full information on this see “Use CloudFlare To Significantly Improve Site Security and Page Speed”.

If you are new to hosting I would definitely recommend that you sign-up with one of the major hosting companies which will provide the reliability and support that you need.

Our current recommendation is HostGator.

So how are hosting and SEO linked? Simple really, Google want their users to get what they want quickly so that they continue to use the search engine. Google therefore do not look kindly on sites that provide a poor user experience. This is can be caused by:

Slow Loading Speed

Nobody wants to have to wait more than a few seconds for a page to load. If a site is very slow to load the user may give up, and go back to Google to select another site, or wait to see what comes up and then go back to Google. The user is unlikely to request another page, assuming that will also be slow, or return to the site in the future. The result is an unhappy visitor and a black mark from Google.

High Bounce Rate

One of the factors that is becoming increasing important for SEO is bounce rate. A user “bounces” if they go straight back to Google after seeing the page that comes up. This implies that the content was not particularly relevant to the search term or was poor quality. Either way it is a negative factor in terms of ranking for the search term.

As mentioned above a user may also bounce because the site is slow, regardless of the quality of the content. So a slow site can have a double negative effect.

Too Much Downtime

If a user finds your site on the search engine and clicks it only to receive an error message, that is a poor user experience. No site can be available 100% of the time but excessive downtime will count against it.

These problems can be experienced due to:

Overloading Servers

Entry level hosting packages are based on shared hosting where many user’s sites are hosted on one server. If the server is overloaded the performance level will suffer. This is a particular risk with free hosting where there is no contractual service level.

Lack of, or Poor Management/Support

It is important that the hosting company monitors the servers to ensure that users do not do anything that uses an unfair share of the server resources and also do not do anything unethical such as spamming. The former will impact the performance of the other users of that server and, in the worse case, the latter could get the server IP address blocked affecting all users.

Once again the risks are greatest with free hosting, particularly as the absence of any payment makes it easy to sign up anonymously.

Another key point relates to support. Unless you really know what you are doing you are likely to need help at some point. Providing quality support is costly so with free hosting it is likely to be via email during business hours (so if your site goes down on Friday evening it is hard luck). Even with paid hosting, where you expect 24/7 support, the quality varies.

Location of Web Server

It is inevitable that a site will take slightly longer to load when the user is on the other side of the world from the web server.  See post Location of Website Hosting Company – Does It Matter? for more information.

Actually there is a solution to this geographic issue which also reduces the load on your web server and this is to use a Content Delivery Network. See post Use CloudFlare To Significantly Improve Site Security and Page Speed for more information on that.

Overall it is clear that there is a strong relationship between hosting and SEO and you will be well advised to pay for a good hosting package. Our recommendation is HostGator whose service is the best we have had personal experience of and they are partnered with CloudFlare which makes using that Content Delivery Network easy.

• Disk Space – The space needed to store the website(s) and associated media.
• Bandwidth – The bandwidth used by visitors to the website(s).
• Domains Hosted – The number of separate domain names that can be used in one hosting account.
• Sub-Domains – The number of sub-domains that can be created.
• Email Accounts – The number of email accounts that can be set-up.
• FTP Accounts – The number of FTP accounts that can be created within the package.
• Databases – the number of databases that can be maintained (each WordPress site requires its own database).

Hosts will often restrict one aspect in their basic packages (such as number of domains allowed or databases you can create) so that there is step up to a more expensive package.

These packages are based on shared hosting where multiple users are hosted on a physical web server and share the resources of that server. The good hosts will carefully monitor activity to ensure that one user does not use too much of the resources available, to the detriment of the other users of that server. If this does happen they will suggest to that user that they upgrade to their own server.

It is therefore clear that in this case “Unlimited” does not mean infinite. It effectively means that there is no set limit but both parties have to be reasonable about usage.

Working this way does have advantages for both parties:

• For users it keeps things simple and avoids any worries about, for example, how much bandwidth might be needed.
• For hosts it sounds good from a sales point of view not to set any arbitrary limits and they know from experience that where limits are set most users get nowhere near them.

So what are the limitations. Well most Terms Of Use are a bit vague on this. You will not be allowed to use the unlimited disk space to store files unconnected with your web site and there may be limits on the number of files you can store, the size of databases etc.. However, in general you are reliant on the host being reasonable bearing in mind that these services are intended for personal users and small business web sites.

Unlimited Web Hosting is a marketing term which cannot be taken literally, however that is not to say that there is anything wrong with these packages. For most users they offer a simple way to get a site online and the chances are they you will not experience any problems and will be happy with the service. You just need to be aware that if your site gets busy you may have to upgrade.

You might also be interested in our article on CloudFlare which offers a means of reducing the load on your web server whilst also improving the service for users in other parts of the world.

I am talking about the service provided by CloudFlare. This is a CDN (Content Delivery Network) and distributed DNS (Domain Name Server) service offering both free and paid services. The paid service is aimed more at the corporate user and the free service will be fine for most users.

So what does it do? Well basically it acts as a proxy server standing between your visitors and your hosting service. You change the DNS servers associated with your domain name to the CloudFlare name servers and all requests for your pages are routed to them. CloudFlare cache your static content so minimizing the need for calls to your host.

This gives you the following benefits:

• Improved Page Speed of Loading: CloudFlare has servers located throughout the world so your cached pages are delivered from the nearest server. The caching results in increased page speed and for visitors who are some way from your host’s servers the increase can be very significant. It is well known that web site visitors are not patient and many will not wait for a slow site to load. Using CloudFlare your site can be fast throughout the world (CloudFlare claim that on average sites load twice as fast).
• Protection Against Peaks: If your site gets a sudden surge of traffic (e.g. you get a post featured on the front page of a site like Digg or Stumbleupon) this will easily be handled by the CloudFlare network without affecting your host.
• Protection Against Downtime: CloudFlare can continue to serve the cached pages even if your host takes their server down for maintenance.
• Cheaper Hosting: As CloudFlare takes much of the load you can manage with a cheaper hosting service than you might otherwise need.
• Improved Site Security: CloudFlare uses its own, and third party, data to identify threats and stop them getting to your site.
• Spam Reduction: CloudFlare uses third party data to reduce the number of spam comments made on sites on its network.
• Spots Infected Computers Trying To Access Your Site: CloudFlare alerts visitors that have they have an infected computer which requires action by them. They must enter a CAPTCHA to continue to your site.
• Additional Statistics: You can now find out more about search engine bots visiting your site and threats to your site that have been averted.

So are there any disadvantages? Only minor ones:

• As CloudFlare reduces the calls to your host this means that the statistics taken from your web server will not be very meaningful. However, web based statistical programs are not affected. CloudFlare actually is very easy to configure for Google Analytics.
• Because CloudFlare caches static content any changes you make to this will not be seen by your visitors straightaway, although you can put CloudFlare into development mode to avoid this.
• CloudFlare’s basic mode cannot handle SSL certificates. If your site uses these then that part of the site will need to be on a separate sub-domain which is served directly from your host.

Does CloudFlare Work With Any Host?
It should work with any host but CloudFlare is partnered with HostGator and is an option within the HostGator Control Panel. This makes the setup easier.

What If I Am Using WordPress?
CloudFlare has a plugin for WordPress which ensures that everything works smoothly and simplifies the set-up for WordPress sites.

Conclusion
The CloudFlare service is good and we are happy to recommend it. It improves site security, increases page speed and doesn’t cost anything – what is there to dislike?

If you are using HostGator and WordPress you will find it very easy to set-up.

Registering a new domain name vs buying an existing one

Generally, registering a new domain name will be cheaper and you have a lot more scope to get exactly what you want but an existing domain will be easier and quicker to get ranked. If buying an existing domain make sure it is indexed (i.e. already appearing on the search results).

GoDaddy are one of the top domain registrars where you can obtain both types of domain names.

The best suffix to use
If you are aiming at a worldwide audience you are still best using a .com domain. If this is not possible the normal advice has been to use .net or .org but people have reported good results with others such as .biz and .info. So if you can’t get a .com go for whatever allows you to register the best domain name.

If you are aiming at a geographically limited market you are best to use a local suffix such as .au or .co.uk as these are preferred in the local search engines such as Google UK.

If you are going to have a separate mobile version of your site you might think about registering a .mobi domain as well. There is a debate as to whether it is better to do this or put your mobile site on a sub domain of your main domain e.g. m.yourdomain.com. At present it is best to see how others in your market have done it and do the same.

Content and format of Domain name
Ideally a domain name should be:

• As short as possible – preferably no more than 20 characters.
• Have no hyphens or underscores – If you are having trouble getting the name you want it is preferable to add a prefix (e.g tips, key, secrets, top, hot, fast, etc) or suffix (now, today, review, info, advice, guide, tool, etc). Although the search engines won’t mind a couple of hyphens, they will cause confusion for human visitors.
• Indicate what the site is about – When your site is listed on the search results it is helpful for the searcher (and they are more likely to click) if your domain name indicates that the site is relevant to their query.
• Include a primary keyword – For a small tightly focused site it will probably be quicker to rank if the domain name includes a keyword. If you do include a keyword it is better to have it at the beginning of the domain name.

It should not:

• Include any trade marks – It is not advisable to include anyone else’s name or trademark in your domain name without their permission. If you are forced to change it later you will have wasted all your efforts to promote your site.
• Be open to misinterpretation – If it can be read more than one way then this is a case when a hyphen is justified.

Once you have completed your domain names search you will then need hosting and our present recommended hosting supplier is HostGator

Before signing up with such a service you might just consider if a free blog on one of the big blogging sites like Google’s Blogger or WordPress.com would meet your needs. These allow you to quickly create a blog but you do not have the flexibility that comes with hosting your own.

The first thing to consider is the domain name. You will need this when you sign-up with a hosting service and will need to decide whether to register if via the hosting company or with a third party registrar. In terms of the operation of your site it does not make any difference but having it registered with a third party will probably make it easier to change hosting companies later, if you need to do so. If you use the hosting company make sure that you own the domain and be aware that even if it is free (i.e. part of the package) you will have to pay for it if you cancel the hosting, even during any money back guarantee period.

There are a number of platforms you can use for a blog but WordPress is the most popular. There are a great number of plugins available which means you can get your site to behave as you wish. There are also numerous themes available which means you can get the appearance and layout of your blog as you require. If you have any problems or want something different you will find lots of help available online.

You might consider using one of the free web hosting sites but if you are new to blog hosting I would advise against this. The most of big hosting companies support WordPress and offer “One Click”, or at least very easy, installs which means that you can have your blog up and running in just a few minutes. If you have any problems they will provide support.  With free hosting you will have to learn how to install WordPress manually and if you get stuck you can only expect limited support by email (as this is expensive to provide).

I have tried a number of hosting companies for blog hosting and my present recommendation is HostGator, I have found that the service includes everything I need and the support is good.

So What is a Webhosting Service?
A Webhosting service means the provision of a web server with a high speed internet connection on to which you can load your site. To do this you connect to the web server via an FTP client and transfer files as necessary. The hosting provider deals with all maintenance of the server and its connectivity so you don’t have to worry about anything other than maintaining your site.

Most hosts offer tools to help you build a site easily but you need to aware that these often lock you in because you cannot easily transfer the site to another host. Most also offer easy installation and set-up of third party tools like WordPress (if you are setting up your first website you are recommended to use WordPress).

Some hosts only offer Linux hosting but others offer a choice of Linux or Windows. This is the operating system running on the web server and is not related in any way to the operating system used by your computer. Often Windows hosting costs more than Linux and the package may be more limited. Actually Linux powers the majority of the internet and you should sign-up for Linux hosting unless you have a particular reason for needing Windows (perhaps because your site has been built for you using Microsoft tools and it requires Windows hosting).

Types of Web Hosting Available

Shared Hosting – This is the basic service that is used by most people. Here the webhosting provider hosts many customers on a single server. This does have its drawbacks but it has the great advantage that the service can be offered at a remarkably cheap price. Shared webhosting is often sold with “unlimited” resources (no limit on things like bandwidth, disk space, domains, databases and email accounts). This keeps it simple as when limits are set most users get nowhere near them.  However, “Unlimited” cannot be taken literally as the server has finite resources and the host cannot allow one user to adversely impact other users. Therefore the Terms Of Use will contain some restriction and if your site were to become very busy you would be asked to upgrade.

VPS Hosting – VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting is a step up from shared hosting (and costs considerably more) but you might consider using it from the outset if you are running an eCommerce site and security is important to you. Here software creates virtual servers on a physical server. The users see their virtual server much the same as they would a physical server in that it has its own resources and much greater flexibility and security than shared hosting provides. You can specify the resources you require and upgrade if necessary.

Dedicated Webhosting – Here the user does actually rent a physical server just for their use. As well as providing more resources this means that they can have total control of the server as no-one else can be impacted. Alternatively many hosts offer a managed service where they perform some of the support and maintenance functions.

Cloud Hosting – This is the most recent type of web hosting in which a site is hosted in the “cloud” instead of on any particular physical server. Resources can be specified at the outset and can easily be increased or decreased as required. As the site is not tied to any physical server reliability should be better and this type of hosting is ideal for big sites which may have periods of high activity. The disadvantage compared to dedicated webhosting is that the user cannot have total control so there will always be third party staff who can see the data.

Reseller Hosting – A lot of the web hosts advertising are simply reselling the services of one of the big hosting companies. Normally the hosting service is provided by the large company but the reseller is responsible for things like billing and support. Resellers can offer cheap prices but often can’t provide the sort of 24/7 support that you get from a big hosting company (for people new to hosting that support is important).

e-Commerce Hosting – Sites that are selling something need additional features such as a shopping cart, payment system and the necessary security. Some hosts offer specific packages for this.

SEO Hosting – Where a user has multiple sites and wants to link them together for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) purposes normal hosting is no good because if the sites have the same IP address, the links between them will be ignored by the search engines. SEO hosting enables the sites to be hosted with different IP addresses to avoid this problem.

Once you have decided on the type of hosting you want you need to chose from the numerous hosting companies which offer the service.

Web Hosting companies vary in the services they offer. Some such as Bluehost offer just one shared linux package. Offers such as HostGator offer a range of services which provides an upgrade path if your site becomes busy.

When choosing web hosting don’t forget to look at the host’s reputation for support, this often is the critical factor for users.

For more information on how to choose the best web hosting service for you click this link Website Hosting Services For New Users.

Alternatively you can go for our present webhosting recommendation which is HostGator.

If you use applications or store data in the cloud the big benefit is that you can assess them from anywhere, on any device, provided you have an internet connection. Hosting is rather different, here the key benefits are flexibility and resilience.

With the traditional forms of hosting your site is maintained on a physical server which in the case of shared hosting also hosts many other user’s sites or in the case of dedicated server hosting hosts just your sites. In the case of the latter you pay for the whole server whether you fully utilize it or not. If that server requires maintenance or has a problem your site will be offline until the problem is fixed.

With cloud hosting you are not limited to a physical server, you just use some of the cloud resources. The resources required for maintaining your website are spread across more than one web server, and are supplied as needed.

A major benefit of cloud hosting is that it is very quick and easy to add resources (bandwidth, disk space etc.) if you are expecting an increase in traffic, and then release them when no-longer needed. You therefore do not need to maintain spare capacity just in case it is needed. In most cases you pay for resources used, (rather like you pay for electricity) so it is a very cost effective way of operating.

The other big advantage is that the chance of any downtime is greatly reduced because you are not dependent on one server.  If one server were to go down the others would take the load without users noticing.

So why isn’t everybody using cloud hosting? Well the major factor is cost. No cloud hosting package is anywhere near as cheap as a standard shared hosting package so it does not make sense for a personal user or the small business user.

When it comes to business users cloud hosting is used by many medium and large companies but hasn’t replaced dedicated server hosting. The latter has the advantage that the user has full control over the server and who can access it. Despite the advantages of cloud computing some companies worry about security. In the cloud they have no control over where their data is physically held or who can see it (need to trust the cloud administrators).

However, cloud hosting does seem to be the future and as costs come down we will see more people using it.

If you are going to use WordPress then you should make sure that your host makes the installation easy and provides support if you have any issues. Most of the major hosting companies do this, but not all. Read the rest of this entry »