Cheap Domain Hosting

Finding cheap domain hosting is easy, but finding the best hosting for your particular needs can be a little more difficult. You see, with the wide variety of cheap domain hosts out there, it can actually be pretty hard to figure out what meets your need best. Some people think that the most important thing is to save money. To that end, they find a domain that fits their minimum bandwidth requirements at the lowest rate.

This approach, however, can backfire. As your business continues to expand, your cheap domain hosting might be outpaced by the rate of growth. When you suddenly find yourself not having the bandwidth to handle all of your clients, you will wish that you had spent a few more dollars on your cheap domain hosting. After all, the goal is not to keep up with the demands of Internet traffic, but to stay ahead of them.

Of course, it depends a lot on the kind of business you are running. If your web needs are minimal and restricted to a handful of web pages, it makes a lot of sense for you to go all out and get the best cheap domain hosting you can. If, on the other hand, you are running thousands, or even tens of thousands of web pages, a couple bucks extra here and a couple bucks extra there can quickly add up to a lot of money!

In reality, the most important thing with cheap domain hosting is to stay informed about your own business. Always keep track of your Web traffic and pay attention to when it increases or decreases. A lot of cheap domain hosts have plans that are adaptable for people with flexible needs. On these hosts, it is easy to upgrade or download downgrade your account as you develop more or less traffic. Sometimes, the flexibility costs a little bit more money, but in the long run it is always worth it.

Then again, one thing people seldom consider until it is too late is the quality of service provided. Having generous bandwidth matters little if your host is down half the time! The problem is that it can be difficult to research the reputations of different inexpensive domain hosting companies. Usually, there is no central site where people compare their domain name host experiences, so you may have to spend quite a bit of time on Google to find out.

What to Look for in Web Hosting Companies

With thousands of web hosting companies in the market it can be difficult if not impossible to know which web site hosting companies truly provide an excellent hosting solution at an excellent price. When you have an established domain name with a good web hosting company, you can get reports on your traffic and which of your pages your customers are visiting most often, as well as many other statistics.

Your web host will charge you a fee for monthly service that ranges from $5 or $20 to the more expensive $50.00 per month. Plan to pay between $300 and $500 per year to your web host.

Always avoid free or very inexpensive web hosting services, because you may experience bouts of server downtimes and you are likely to have significant limitations in storage, number of email addresses, FTP upload etc.

Be sure your web host can accommodate e-commerce and storefronts, wireless capability, bogs, forums, chats, online interactive helps and anything else you want to add onto your site.

Estimate what your growth needs are and ensure that this web host can serve you as you grow. The last thing you want to do is change host mid way unless you absolutely have to do so.

Check your bandwidth capability to be sure that, if your website traffic grows rapidly, your customers will not have to wait to download or view information. Three things to look for in a web hosting company are:

• Excellent Customer Support: Your hosting provider should be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem. Ask them how long it takes for them to typically respond to your problem. A good test is to call them in the mid night to check if you get to a live, level 3 support.
• A Sound Infrastructure: Check whether they offer a multi-homed network powered by multiple bandwidth providers to ensure redundancy. Some offer a 100% guarantee on its network availability or network uptime.
• Financial Stability: If you’re running very critical operations, you can’t afford to be with a hosting company that may not be in business in a few months.

How to Choose Domain Names and Web Hosting Services

Choosing an appropriate domain name is very important. First and foremost, when it comes to domain names, try to stay away from the silly, stupid, ridiculous or clever. Keep your domain name simple and make it something your customers can remember if they lose the link to your business website.

Take note that, while your domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go, it may also get you dropped from certain search engines. Some search engines ignore domain addresses that reside on these ‘free servers’ or on the ‘cheap’ servers.

Even if your site is recognized and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.

Purchasing domain names are not that expensive which cost about $100 and there are many companies that can register the name for you, provided it is available and has not already been used by another company.

Using one of your keywords in your domain name can increase your score on some search engines. For example, solderingirons.com could be more effective as Electric-soldering-irons.com, if that domain name was available.

You might also choose to establish more than one domain name using keywords and then link your ‘doorway’ domain sites to your primary site. But you will have to pay for each of the domain name and also the monthly hosting fees. It all depends on the type and size of your business and your competition.

Keep in mind that some search engines disregard ‘doorway’ sites. So put at least a page of content on the doorway site with some useful information and then link it to your primary site. But don’t design it as an empty page. The other reason being, you can have one, three, five, or even more email addresses that all contain your business name, and give your business a professional feel. When customers get emails from dominicstone@solderingirons.com they feel as if they are dealing with a stable, professional business operation.

No need for customers to understand how you manage all your email boxes on your domain. They just need to feel your business is dependable and reputable.