Ensuring that your Host offers decent Technical Support

One of the factors that add to the reputation of a good web hosting company is the kind of technical support that it provides to its users. The company is responsible for providing the right hardware and software concerns. Providing professional technical solution is a part of primary objectives of a good company.

Usually, good companies have a customer support centre, or a technical support center where their complaints and concerns are handled. A good and responsible hosting company should set a support staff that takes care of retaining the existing customers. This will enable the owner to focus on generating business by adding new customers.

Another point that you should note is the dependability and reliability of technical support staff of your host. If the technical team is not equipped to answer your calls, or provides wrong information, you can suffer huge loss. You should report to the owner if a technical engineer provides you with any incorrect information.

Ask the technical engineer if the hosting company has an automated problem tracking system. Note how the problems are tracked, how the record of clients is maintained, and how well the technical staff is equipped to handle customer concerns.

Most of the hosting companies boast 24/7 technical support. But it is true only for a few of those. You should ensure that your host has the technical staff that has the right knowledge of web technology, networking issues, and operating system platforms.

Document the issues that you face frequently so that you are not calling the technical team for the same concern repeatedly. Also, note down the availability hours and non-availability hours of technical team. Remember that you have to trust your host to deliver timely, correct, and useful support on issues and concerns that can affect your business.

Does Your Website Need an Overhaul?

While updating the site, any change in its design can be a tricky situation to be in. You should think twice before redesigning a site as how it can impact your business. You may fear that the regular visitors may feel confused and it may ultimately lead to reduced business.

Large companies do not often redesign their sites. The original site reflects, in a way the brand, an image of your company. It makes your presence felt. However, there may be some genuine situations when your site requires an overhaul. In such cases, you should use the overhaul as an opportunity as to how to improve the design. Do the analysis of what points were missing in the original design and how you can improve the design to boost your sales.

Some of the genuine reasons that may prompt you think to redesign your site are listed below.

1. Outdated look and layout
You designed your site about ten years back. The banner, the color scheme, and the text style – all have become old-fashioned. It doesn’t look fresh and may not excite the user. The graphics have become obsolete, and the labeling of graphics looks really bad. There is no animation, even where required.
In such situations, a complete redesign adds appeal to your site. Since it is updated, it is easier to update it for minor points in future. You can use a Content Management System that makes the simple maintenance tasks much easier.

2. The content or graphics were updated a long time back
Have you forgotten when you last updated your content or graphics? Is the number of visitors to your site decreasingly constantly? If yes, it’s time to plan and implement the site redesigning process. The users may feel comfortable visiting the same site, but they will appreciate if the content is updated, the graphics are displayed using the latest trends, and the information is up to date. Not updating a site for years gives the impression as if the owner might no more be in business.

3. Your complaint box is full
Getting user feedback is an important part of any site. If the feedback is more about complaints regarding missing or broken links, or out of date content, it is time to use the feedback to your advantage. The real purpose of feedback is to turn an unsatisfied customer into a satisfied one.

Conserving Disk Space on Your Server

If you want to upgrade your site which requires larger disk space, and your server has run out of disk space; you can conserve the disk space using a few techniques. These techniques are discussed as below.

1. Reduce the file size of your files by compression
One of the options is that you compress the images used in web pages. You can use some image editing tools to squeeze your images graphically and automatically. Try medium quality image settings for JPEG files, rather than those of highest quality. It reduces the file size. The quality of image will be degraded a little, but by a small margin, which doesn’t make any difference to the user.

2. The number of images should be reasonable
Even if your site purpose and design specification includes lots of images in web pages, try displaying the content using text as far as possible. For example, you can use a single color page banner, rather than a multi color banner. Similarly, avoid labeling of images and the convention of writing text on images. Use colors that are less colorful and less flashy. A careful review of entire site and making such changes can reduce the total size considerably.

3. Host your images at a free image hosting service
Free image hosting service is a good option that is gaining popularity among web hosts. Upload your images to a free image hosting service, and give links to the image stored at this free service to the web page where these will be displayed. Some hosting companies allow its clients to view the images hosted at some other server. Ensure before signing the contract that you can host the image at some other server.

4. Delete unwanted content
It is important that while updating your site, you delete the unwanted content from the data. Keep this point as a checklist and make sure that every time you update the site, you delete the content which is not required. Delete the images which are no more a part of your web pages. Ensure to save a copy of all unwanted content (including images to your local system) before deleting it. It means that you have at least one copy of previous version of your site.

All these factors help a great deal in providing the required disk space for your site.

Common Complaints against Web Hosts

Web hosting service providers can do wonders with your website, of course, if they provide you with fitting web hosting services. Consistency in speed, minimal server hassles, right bandwidth, short monitoring intervals, and 24/7 customer support are some of the key features that you look for in a web hosting package.

However, if there are any niggles in any of these services, your website can be in trouble. Therefore, you must ensure that the web hosting service provider you choose has the expertise and resources to give you the best hosting services.

But, ensuring that you get the best web hosting services does not mean that there would not be any problems whatsoever. The problems are bound to occur. However, you must acquaint yourself with the kind of problems you might have to face. This will enable you to be better prepared to tackle any nagging situations.

Furthermore, it is important for you to know the key web hosting complaints that clients usually have against their web hosting service providers. This will enable you to understand what kind of complaints you would usually have against your web hosting service provider.

One of the most common complaints against web hosts is tardy server response. It really irks you when it takes two minutes for a web page to appear on screen. When this happens, you start doubting the reliability of your web hosting service provider. Another usual complaint against most of the web hosting service providers is that they don’t provide the customer support that is up to scratch. It is so pestering when you face a problem, and your web hosting service provider takes ages to sort that out.

Some of the other common complaints against web hosting service providers include inconsistencies in services, non-availability of the add-on features promised at the time of the deal, long monitoring intervals, and cramped bandwidth.

What you need to check while Choosing a Lifetime Web Host?

Have you decided to opt for lifetime web hosting? If yes, just make sure that you choose the right lifetime web hosting service provider. You must weigh up all the pros and cons of a lifetime web hosting deal. Besides, you should be clear about the features and services you want for your website.

Here are a few things that you need to check while choosing a lifetime web hosting service provider.

Resources
The lifetime web hosting service provider that you are planning to zero in on should have the right resources (that includes server, software, hardware, and other equipment). A web host that does not have the right equipment will jeopardize your website.

Expertise
Your web hosting service provider should have expertise in providing the right web hosting solutions to your kind of business. You must remember that different businesses have different web hosting requirements. If your web hosting service provider knows the various aspects of your business, only then will it be able to provide you with the right services.

Location
Location of the web host is really important. And when it comes to lifetime web hosting, location becomes even more important. Therefore, it is imperative for you to check the location of your web hosting service provider. Ideally, you should choose a web host that is closer to the place you live in.

Customer Support
You should confirm the quality of 24/7 customer support a web host offers. Opt for a lifetime web hosting service provider that offers customer support via different mediums such as live chat, email, telephone, and discussion forum.

Datacenter
Datacenter refers to the place where web servers are placed. Your web pages are made accessible to you from this place. You must check whether or not the web hosting service provider you are planning to choose owns its data center.

3 Most Important Lifetime Web Hosting Questions

“Pay once and get your website hosted forever!” “Get Lifetime hosting by paying just once!” “Lifetime hosting will do it all for you!” You might have come across such ad-lines while looking for a web hosting service provider. In fact, scads of web hosting service providers offer lifetime web hosting. The option looks quite enticing from outside, but you must check it inside out before giving a nod.

To ensure that you get your money’s worth, you should weigh up all the pros and cons. So, before you start looking for a lifetime web hosting option, look for the right answers to all the questions with regard to lifetime web hosting.

Here are the three most important lifetime web hosting questions.

What is the actual time period for lifetime web hosting?
Lifetime needs to be defined precisely by your web hosting service provider. You must know the exact period for which your account for a particular website will continue to exist with a web hosting service provider. Commonly, the web hosting service providers calculate the time period on the basis of the average time (in months or years) their clients usually stay with them.

How is the price calculated?
As mentioned above, web hosting service providers calculate the time period on the basis of the average time (in months or years) their clients usually stay with them. They then multiply this number by their monthly costs (including the profits) for a web hosting account. This figure helps them determine the exact price they charge as lifetime web hosting fee.

To get the right deal, it is advisable that you go for a longer period of time rather than just a year or so. If you opt for just a year, you might have to pay a premium for your web hosting account.

Will the web host be able to react to changes?
With time, as your business grows, your website needs will also change. There can be huge increase in the amount of traffic your website gets, or you might be adding lots of information and data to your database. Therefore, you have to confirm the scalability and reliability factor with the web hosting service provider you have zeroed in on.

Besides, you should check the customer support and the refund policy as well. Also, check the company’s credentials via clients’ feedback and market reputation. One more important point, get everything documented in the deal.

Why is Linux Hosting getting more Popular than Windows Hosting?

Web hosting has become such a common practice that you come across thousands of service providers to choose from. At the same time, web designing has considerably evolved from being simple and static HTML pages, to full blown user interactive sites that are virtual business houses. You can visit a site, interact with the web site owner, and even purchase goods and services, all over the internet.
The wide range of technologies for designing and hosting sites – for example, ASP, PHP, and advanced scripting based files usage have opened a variety of options for web hosting. These days, an HTML based site works equally well on both Linux and Windows platforms, without any technical issues. However, of late, Linux hosting is getting more popularity that Windows hosting.
    Linux platform is more powerful, cost-effective, and secure and therefore, a little complex to use as compared to Windows. It is a better option than Windows if security is the main consideration for a hosting service provider.
    Since cost is a major factor for you to decide a web hosting company, getting your site on a Linux server is an excellent option since PHP and MySQL are distributed free of cost.
    Moreover, Linux hosted sites are less prone to viruses, spam, and hacking, because Linux structure is more secure and robust.
    Other factors as to why Linux is gaining popularity are very high uptime, free availability of software that support Linux server, easier web hosting process, and support for a wide range of file extensions.
    It is always easier to host a Linux hosted site to a Windows based server; however, the reverse may not be true.
    The control panel that Linux server supports, for example – Plesk offers more advanced features. You can create e-mail addresses and mailboxes, view the detailed statistics of your web site traffic, set permissions on your web pages, PHP pages, and MySQL as well.

How to Decide On a Domain Name for your Website?

Domain name refers to the name of your website that you type in the browser window to open and view your website. Since there are millions of sites today, you have to be really careful in selecting a domain name for your site.

Domain names are like fingerprints – unique for every site. No two sites can have same domain name. You get your name registered with a hosting company so that the site can be hosted using the registered domain name.

Usually, the domain name is either the name of your company or your own name, if it is a personal site. In some cases, the URL reflects the purpose of your site as well, as in case of voluntary organizations.

You must keep the following points in mind while selecting a domain name.

•    Your domain name should be easy to remember
•    Your domain name should be easy to type in a browser. It should be simple so that there aren’t any possibilities of spelling errors.
•    It should be short enough to fit into your business cards, documentation, and other media of advertisement.
•    Your domain name should reflect your business, or your organization, or the purpose of your organization.
•    Do not include numbers in the domain name. These are difficult to remember and explain during verbal communication. Do not use hyphen (-) for the same reason.
•    A web site address can have a maximum of 67 characters.

If you want a domain name with your own name, but it is already registered with somebody else, try using some options with your full name, or having period in between two parts of name. Do research on what are the available options that are similar to the desired domain name. It requires a little bit of creativity as well, but you must be able to find a reasonable domain name.

Cobranded Hosting can Allow You to Provide More

Some web hosting service providers offer you cobranded web hosting, where some other domain name offers to host your site free of cost. It includes using their web hosting services, hardware, and software.

The most well-known cobranded web hosting services that are quite popular in the market are OCatch, Community Architect, Portland, and Wigloo/Megagiga. A few other cobranded web hosting services that have closed their operations over the last few years include Muttle, Excelland, and Homestead.

OCatch or ZeroCatch Partners is a cobranded web hosting service. This web service does not provide technical support or hardware support for its users. OCatch Partners earn by charging fifty percent of banner ads in member pages and twenty five percent of the entire paid upgrade subscriptions after ten paid signups. Partners are given banner-free web space to host the domain name.

You can not design web pages; however, you can customize them. You can email all users as well as edit and delete user accounts. OCatch provides valuable statistics for banner totals, the number of user signups, and the bandwidth usage. You are required to pay $14.95 per month to become a partner of OCatch.

If you decide for a cobranded web hosting service, take the backup by having your site hosted at two different services providers. It can be an advantage if one of those service providers run into some problem and quits the market.

For example, when Excelland decided to close its operations a few years back, a number of co-hosts had no option but to close their business. In such a scenario, you could still have your site running at some other service provider without disrupting your business.

How Quicker Load Time is Important for your Site?

The design of a site is important to meet the ultimate objective of your business, to meet the requirements of users, and to buff up its looks. However, another important reason for why the design is very important for your site is the Load Time. Load time refers to the time taken by the web pages of your site to load and be available to the user.

No matter how well a site has been designed, if the user waits to view the content or graphics for more than 10 seconds, your design fails to serve the purpose. And your efforts are more or less wasted.

othing irritates a user more than waiting to see an image appear on screen. There are certain points that you can take care of (particularly regarding graphics) to keep your load time to minimum acceptable level.
•    Be very clear on what you are trying to show while using pictures. For example, if you want to show a particular part of body having an injury, crop and polish only the relevant part, and not the entire body. This reduces the size of image and keeps the load time low. Moreover, it saves space on web page and bandwidth as well. The user requires accuracy and ease of use rather than being lost in unnecessary information.
•    The file type that you use for images is another important factor. For example, a .bmp file is much heavier than a .jpg file, and hence takes more time to load on web page. Do not compromise on quality by selecting the smallest sized images, but maintain a fine balance between quality and size.
•    Define the attributes – width, height, etc. for images, frames, or tables. This enables the browser to know in advance the space required for these components, and hence does not take time to display these components on web page.
•    For lengthy web page, try using multiple tables rather than having a single table. Since the content specified in a table will be displayed till it reaches the closing tag of a table, a lengthy table increases the load time. Dividing the content over a couple of smaller tables will help the browser read quickly and the content is displayed fast resulting in low Load Time.
•    Ensure that your coding is well designed. An erroneous HTML in terms of spacing or alignment or even unwarranted complexity makes the browser take more time to display the page, and it leads to increased load time.