Web Hosting Checklist
Web hosting is a unique kind of activity that is both like and unlike hosting a gala: unlike throwing a week-long (or life-long) party, web hosting requires a balancing of quite a few more maneuvers—from architecture to design to constant and vigilant re-thinking to collecting the rewards rather than the empty dishes. But like hosting a grand affair, you make preparations, make your visitors happy enough to stay awhile, and make minor adjustments only when needed. Of course, the first thing you do when you decide to entertain (or in this case, possibly educate and encourage) is draft a checklist: Deciding What Kind of Web Hosting You Want to do Get out the note pad and start jotting: what kind of guests do you want to attract? How will you attract them? How big a to-do can you afford? The invitation will be at least 100 pages, say the web hosting pros, so what will you offer—in the way of text? Hint: offer something the visitors will benefit from—how-to’s, blogging tales, reviews…. Web Hosting and Naming What will the theme of your site be? Name it accordingly. That is, come up with a domain name that relates to the products, services, or information you offer. A web presence depends largely on “branding”, so if you use a symbolic name, just be prepared to work a little harder. But why not go with a definitive domain name from the start? Classy Grasses will be more distinctive and memorable for a gardening supply shop than Mac’s Place, for example. Web Hosting and Designing the Site It is imperative that a site be well-organized if it is to be what is considered “user-friendly”. Good web hosting will include cross links (links within your site and outbound links) that are clearly labeled, the same menu in the same place on every page, and functioning tools (no broken links! No high-end java or flash that the common user might not yet have capability of accessing!). More important is that the menu: it must be readable, consistent, and working. Ranking is all the Rage in Web hosting You’ve likely read or heard that search-engine ranking is the make-or-break of the web hosting world. The more the spiders crawl your site, the more frequently your site appears as relevant to keyword searches. And the more frequently your site appears, the higher up the ranking file you go. Using keyword-rich pages, cross-linking your pages, and linking to high-ranking outbound sites are three strategies to adopt and adapt. Legal and Ethical Practices are a Must in Web hosting There are ways to get your web site flagged, banned, exiled to the nether regions of web hell. Creating shadow sites--twin sites that have no content other than a list of keywords and links to each other, spam-stacked