Is Your Host Weather Proof? Than Neither Is Your Business

"What do you mean tech support is at a basketball game?

Anybody with a credit card can buy hosting services at wholesale and resell them at retail. heck, all you need is a server and router in the bedroom closet and your a web host. But, if you go with one of these low-ball, rickity services to save a few bucks each month, you may end up losing your business.

Could be a flood. A Lightening storm, hurricaine or it could be your host jst unplugged the server and walked away with your website and your database. When you get a 404 error message logging on to your own web site, you got a fistful of problems.

Weather shouldn’t be one of them. You want a bunker mentality, back-up generators and off-site back-up for you $9.95 shared hosting account. That’s why it’s worth asking a few questions before you sign that 24-month contract with “Skippy’s Web Hosting, Skippy speaking.”

Quality web hosts deliver more than their clients expect. More in the way of services, client care, education, performance and security. If these business don’t deliver higher levels of customer care, they aren’t going to remain in business when stacked up against competitor hosting companies.

Now, one of the biggest concerns site owners have is security. Most of those commercial site owners have invaluable data that simply can’t be compromised. So, good web server providers use hardwired firewalls and multiple layers of server side security. All well and good. All to be expected from a good web hosting company in a highly competitive vertical market.

What a lot of consumers don’t consider is the safety of the physical plant – the place where their servers sit. The servers could be in India or Indiana. Many of these web hosts buy disk space in bulk and resell at retail. They don’t even know where the servers are!

So, since this is your business, it just makes sense to ask a few questions about how safe your server is. If the operation is run out of a yurt and one of those infamous dessert dust storms blows through, it could take weeks for the technician (they only have one) to get the grit out of the gear.

So what’s the weather like where your server resides?

Rainy Days
Rain isn’t a problem most of the time, unless it comes down in buckets for a week. Then, you run the risk of flooding and a wet server is a dead server. Oh, and by the way, there goes your business.

However, what if the servers are elevated? What if they’re up on racks? Even if Noah’s Ark plows through the front door your server is high and dry. Not all web hosts think about the worst case scenario. Your’s should. It may not have flooded for 100 years where your server sits connecting you to the W3. But it only takes one torrential downpour to create a catastrophe. It’s nice to know your host is prepared for the next deluge.

Howling Winds
When the winds come racing “down the plains,” you know it. You feel it. And lately, it seems we’ve been feeling it more – seeing more tornadoes and other high winds. Global warming? El Niño? Who knows, but winters seem colder, blizzards more common and power outages routine. In some cases, power outages that take weeks to repair.

A good web host has its own back-up generators to handle these disasters. Remember, when you’re off-line so’s your business. You want to stay on line, even if the power is out in your server’s home city – wherever in the world that may be.

Quality hosts have built systems that automatically trip the in-house generators so there’s barely a blip on the visitors’ monitors. Your site stays on line even if the web hosting company is the only lit building in the whole city.

Off Site Backup
You don’t see this with most web hosts. Off site backup.

Most reputable hosts provide backup protection in case a server goes ka-blooey (a technical term). Unfortunately, these hosts’ backup to servers in the same office, server room or bedroom closet (Yep, some web hosts resell disk space and run a couple of servers out of the spare room.) Anybody see the flaw in this logic?

If a web hosting company gets flattened by a tornado (knock wood), the building may be leveled and servers may be six miles away, carried by tornadic winds of 180 miles per hour.

But you know what? If your web host cares about maintaining your business, your site is safe, even from a tornado that takes direct aim at server rack 12A. In this case, run, duck and cover. All clients’ sites, databases, everything – should be backed up off site. Way off site.

So, whether we’re talking rain, sleet, snow, raging winds, torrential downpours, tornadoes, earthquakes or being struck by an asteroid, it’s the web host’s job to keep your site online.

And it’s a job any web host should take seriously so you don’t have to worry. When talking to reps of hosting companies, ask about protection from natural and unnatural disasters. It’s your job to ask the right questions.

It’s the web host’s job to provide the right level of protection against any potential disaster.

Need help finding the right web host for your new on-line venture? Go to webwordslinger.com and get in touch. Let’s get you started on the right foot. Webwordslinger: On-Line Marketing.

Five Negative Search Engine Ranking Factors: BAM!

 

ARE YOUR CLIENT SITES GETTING THROUGH TO SEARCH ENGINES?

Webmaster and hosting blogs are jam-packed with hunches, guesses and opinions on Google’s ranking factors. The most powerful search engine in the world has been dissected, desiccated and analyzed by hundreds of experts and still controversy reigns.

 

Some of the more contentious issues include: server accessibility (get a good web host), quality of site content, domain extensions of sites linking in and outbound links to lower ranking sites. The experts can’t seem to agree on what counts in these areas.

SEOmoz is a great site for information from the ecommerce digi-sphere. Here, you’ll find some of the best information written by some of the most knowledgeable SEO professionals. Sure, there’s bound to be bias and debate, controversy and even the occasional name calling, but it’s all good.

In compiling its lists of positive, controversial and “known” negative ranking factors within the Google search algorithm, SEOmoz.org queried 31 well-known experts on their opinions and one thing is certain: no one individual has it all figured out. The ranking factors employed by the Googlistas change as Google’s math geeks and coders build ever-more sophisticated algos designed to provide more raw data and more pertinent data from spiders.

The Top Five Negative Ranking Factors
So what do the cyber-pros identify as the most negative ranking factors within Google’s current algorithm? They’re listed below but note, take these Google negatives with a grain of salt.

It could all change tonight while you sleep.

Negative Ranking Factor #1: Googlebots can’t access your server.
If the site is down for more than 48 hours, which is often the case with low-rent web hosts located half-way around the world, a site’s Google ranking drops like a stone.

If your host server is down a lot, search engines don’t want to recommend the site to visitors who will see a 404 error message that the site is unavailable and can’t be accessed.

The solution? Find a host that delivers not only a 99.9% uptime but also has local tech support, backup emergency generators and multiple layers of server side security. You’ll spend about $7.00 a month for quality shared hosting. Double that amount for quality dedicated service if cross-server attacks are a concern. Don’t let a few bucks a month keep your site from higher rankings. It’s just not cost effective.

Note: Server availability as a ranking factor is one of the most contended topics among SEO professionals who spend much of their time trying to out-think Googlebots, so even the experts can’t agree on this one.

Negative Ranking Factor #2: Duplicate or Similar Content.
Most experts do agree on this one.

Repetitious content is a stone-cold killer. Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t pick up a useful piece of syndicated content of interest to your readers. The warning, here, has to do with site text. A programmer can always upload a syndicated article. However, body text should change from page to page, providing a more useful visitor experience.

Of course, duplicate content can be tagged with a designation, but too many of these “do not enter” signs is also a negative ranking factor. Bots want to be able to crawl pages and when you keep them off of critical content pages, it’ll have a negative impact on your SERPs ranking on Google.

Negative Ranking Factor #3: Links to low-quality sites.
SEO survey contributor, Lucas Ng, sums it up nicely: “Linking out to a low quality neighborhood flags you as a resident of the same neighborhood.”

It’s not just about links and plenty of them. It’s more about the quality of the links on a site. So, link up to sites in nice neighborhoods. On the web, Googlebots know you by the company you keep.

Negative Ranking Factor #4: Links Schemes and Links Selling.
Google’s algorithm employs probability modeling in determining bought-and-paid-for links, which doesn’t always equate to an accurate view of a site’s actual linking activity. Even so, Googlebots make assumptions programmed into the algorithm.

A site with a broad menu of links to diverse sites won’t fare well come spidering time. These links farms are easy for bots to spot. The key to avoiding being mis-indexed by Googlebots is to avoid too many links, try to link to higher-quality-more-visited sites and never buy or sell links. It could mean another web site fatality.

Negative Ranking Factor #5: Duplicate Title/Meta Tags.
Search engine algorithms employ numerous filters to identify everything from questionable links to duplicate content that appears on numerous site pages. The same thing is true of a site’s HTML code. Too many duplicate title tags and duplicate meta data can hurt you.

Survey participant, Aaron Wall, stated, “If a site does not have much content and has excessive duplication, it not only suppresses rankings, but it may also get many pages thrown in the supplemental results.”

Bots read code and if the same title tags show up on page after page, if title tags don’t match page text, or if meta data is cut and pasted into every site page, these crawlers take offense according to some experts.

However, there’s another whole school of thought, here. Many SEO pros and site designers believe just the opposite is true – that title tags on each page create numerous entry points to a site, and because each page is indexed separately, the site maintains a larger presence on SERPs.

The key appears to be in the duplication of inserting repetitive title and meta tags. If the content doesn’t change on a particular page, that page doesn’t call for yet another title tag. However, when topics and functions do change from page to page within a site, title tags do help spiders identify the page’s purpose and do provide greater site access to potential visitors.

What NOT To Do With This Information
The wheels are spinning, aren’t they?

You and a million other site owners are weighing negative ranking factors and the impact these factors have on their SERPs position on Google.

Forget it. Let it go. The time you spend trying to reverse engineer your site to appeal to the perceptions of a collection of 31 SEO professionals would be better spent on search engine marketing – promoting to humans.

Oh, sure, you can migrate your site to a host with a much improved uptime and, in this case, you should regardless of what Googlebots like and dislike. You should migrate, not because bots will like you better, but because your customers will like you better when you’re there when they need you.

Same with cheesy links. Disconnect from garbage sites, links farms and any site that ranks lower than your site in page rank (PR). That’ll take five minutes of your time and it’s something you should do, again, forget the bots, do it for your site visitors seeking to further their web searches through links on your site. Help out site visitors because it’s just good business.

But, if you’ve got duplicate content on site, perhaps as RSS feeds, content syndication or hosted content, it seems counter-productive to remove this useful information from the site. Bots recognize these ephemeral links and their time-saving value to visitors by providing good content all in one place, even if it does appear on a few other sites.

There are a couple of lessons to be learned here. Lesson #1: Even really smart people who study the activities of Googlebots under controlled conditions can not agree, ultimately, what negative ranking factors are programmed into that passing Googlebot.

Lesson #2: (And the most important lesson du jour) Don’t try to outwit a Googlebot. Don’t rebuild your site to mitigate negative ranking factors. Take the obvious steps by going with a reliable host, cutting links to unattractive sites and so on, but don’t spend time reverse engineering your site based on the opinions of SEO pros.

Spend your time promoting your site to humans. Do it ethically. And over time, your site will receive an improved rank on Google’s SERPs – guaranteed.

Guaranteed? You betcha. “Length of time a site has been up” is one of the positive ranking factors. The longer you remain hooked into the web, the higher your Google ranking.

It’s just a matter of time.

 

Need some juice for your site? Squeeze me at my website and let’s get some traffic on your website. It’s always a Webwordslinger gig.

Domain Parking: Just Park It

 

www.perfectdomainname.com

 

 

 

 

Once you’ve come up with the perfect domain name for your online business, the next step is to register the name through a registrar – in many cases the hosting service you’ve chosen. Once registered, you’re still not hooked up to the I-net, i.e. you lack any presence on the w3.

To show up at all, you have to park your domain. Parking simply means your domain is registered and has a route to and from the web. People can find you by typing in www.whateveryoursitesnameis.com. The point of parking a domain name? Several.

Search Engine Recognition

When you park your domain on a web host server, it is there. It exists. It’s real, even though there’s no website behind it. Just a few bytes for a single page. However, the simple step of parking a domain will make your domain recognizable to search engines. That’s a good thing. Even though there’s no content, the SE spiders will know your site is there. And being discovered by SE spiders can take time so park it ASAP and get the recognition process underway.

Generate Traffic

You won’t get any traffic through the natural results of search engine indexing because there’s no content or anything useful to the search engine user – yet. But you can tell all your friends and family to visit your site and start generating some traffic before your website is even started. In the world of ecommerce, every little bit helps – especially when you’re just starting out.

Domain For Sale

A registered domain name is a commodity. Domains are bought, sold and traded everyday – thousands of them. In fact, there are many domain brokers who will list your site and even put the name up for auction. A lot of people register domain names just to park them and put out the ‘For Sale’ sign.

If you’re interested in domain ‘homesteading’ – registering domains for fun and profit – use the services of a low-cost domain registration service, often associated with low-cost hosting companies. Many of these web hosts will register domains in bulk for as little as $2.95 per.

Do the math. Register 100 exceedingly clever domain names at $2.95 per and your registration costs are under $300. Your potential return, which of course depends on buyers’ interest, is significantly higher than your outlay. Good domain names are hard to find with more and more being registered daily so businesses are willing to pay big bucks for a good one.

Here’s an example. In 1996 a Denver-based publishing company registered the domain name Caboodle.com for the release of a new publication. When the publisher finished with the promotion, he kept the domain name on the off chance that someone might want to buy it.

Offers trickled in at first, usually in the $50 to $100 range. At last check, the publisher had been offered $2,000 for Caboodle.com. And he’s holding out for more. The fact is, he’ll get it because it’s a good name for a number of online businesses.

Free Parking

Obviously, the homesteading model falls to pieces if you have to pay monthly hosting fees – even really, really low hosting fees. Those 100 domain names you registered in bulk could easily end up costing you $600 to $700 a month if you have to pay for server space.

Make sure you get free parking for all domains registered through the host/registrar. Good hosts will let you park them for free so shop around and don’t pay anything for the tiny bit of server space your parked domain takes up.

Provide Contact Information

In the case of a ‘For Sale’ domain, parked on a host server, it’s helpful to provide at least a short form that potential buyers can complete. Good web hosts provide free tools and applications to create a simple, secure online form. Again, never pay for parking or site apps.

At the very least, include an email link so any potential buyer can contact you with an offer.

Under Construction

The most common use of domain parking is for sites under construction. If your site is simple and straightforward, you can be up and running in a few hours. No need for a “Coming Soon” sign.

On the other hand, if you’re creating a complex, deep site with lots of product offerings and a detailed back office, it could take several weeks to get everything just right before you launch. But that doesn’t mean you have to remain invisible to the public or to search engines. Go public with your site even as you’re building it.

This is a good idea because you can actually generate “type-in” traffic, SE acknowledgement and public curiosity. You may not get 10,000 hits a day while your site is in development, but you’ll get some. More importantly, you’ll be picked up by search engine spiders faster – before you launch.

Remember, look for a host that registers domain names in bulk at a low per registration price. Shop around. You’ll find registrars who will register a domain for one year for as little as $2.95. Some even offer FREE domain registration when you sign up for hosting services for 12 months. It saves a few bucks.

Your web host should also provide free parking for your domains registered through that host. If the host you’re considering charges a parking fee, keep looking. You can get it free.

If you’re domain homesteading, provide contact information on each of your parked sites so buyers can reach you to discuss terms. Find a host that gives you free tools and applications to create a contact information page for each site on the block.

And look for other hosting services and features. You want security to protect your digital realty, 24/7 tech support and lots of freebies. The hosting industry is hard-edged competitive so companies have to offer more for less all of the time.

So, take your time to find the right host, even if you’re just parking.

Site Owners: Ready To Move Up To A Dedicated Server?

If your on-line biz is bouncing, you need a dedicated server.

Chances are, if you’re like most website owners, you started with a shared hosting program with a web host. In this case, you rent a given amount of disk space and share use of resources, like bandwidth and CPU access, with other shared hosting account holders. In the case of shared hosting, a web host can cram over 1,000 sites on a single box (server). If some of your neighbors are bandwidth hogs, it could mean longer download times and slower response times from your site when interacting with customers.

And customers aren’t a patient bunch. In this day of DSL and cable modems, web users want speed. They expect it, and if you aren’t delivering content fast, some site visitors are going to grow tired of watching that blue line slowly crawl to the right. They’ll click off and go somewhere else to purchase products or services.

Dedicated Servers
Just as the name states. Dedicated service consists of one box, one business. This provides unlimited access to all the server’s assets. No competition for CPU access. When you subscribe to a dedicated hosting program you rent the whole server.

In addition, the host provides an operating system (usually Linux, Windows or some variant), ecommerce software bundles that include site building software, a secure checkout, a database and other site enhancement tools, like blog modules that you can plug in with a couple of clicks on the administrator’s console and, if the host is good, you’ll also get access to 24/7 tech support on a toll-free line. Lesser-quality hosts (that still may charge high monthly hosting fees) provide email-only access to tech support. You, the webmaster, prepare a trouble ticket that’s emailed to tech support (somewhere on this planet, but that’s an assumption) and wait for a response and a fix. When your server is down, your business is down. How long can you afford to be offline?

Who Needs Dedicated Hosting?
Not everyone. That’s why shared hosting is the best option for start-ups. The hosting costs are low, usually less than $7.00 a month, and until your business concept and execution have been proven, don’t spend extra for dedicated hosting services. It’s like driving a thumbtack with a sledgehammer. Overkill.

However, if your site has been up for a while, it’s no doubt changed with the times, with a menu of new features and increased interactivity with visitors. For example, a blog takes up disk space and bandwidth as you and your site community interact. RSS feeds, a fully-customizable content management system and other front store and behind-the curtain features all take up disk space.

And, if you’ve enjoyed retail success online, chances are your product offerings have expanded over time. You’ve added pages to your site, pushing your shared hosting space to the max. Well, a good host will sell you disk space a la carte (by the gigabyte). That’s one way to expand. Or you can take the plunge and sign on for a dedicated server.

Multiple Sites
For many site owners, once they get “the bug” and see that there’s money to be made on the W3, building additional websites takes on greater appeal. If the site owner is clearing $500 a month with one site, 10 sites should deliver a $5,000 return each month. At least in theory.

If you manage multiple sites, all of which are deep in features (you manage 12 blogs, for instance), it’s time to move to a dedicated server. You can run a number of different domains from one server, expanding your web presence. In fact, if you plan on building more than one website (and why not, it doesn’t cost any more each month), a dedicated server is a must. A simple administrator console will quickly provide access to site data and activity from many different sites.

Site Functionality
Some sites contain 20 or 30 pages of static text and a simple opt-in form. However, for enterprise-grade businesses and web retailers, a dedicated server is a must-have. Many business sites contain hundreds of pages and are employed for a variety of purposes such as email and other inter-department communications.

Remember, you can customize your dedicated server any way you want to best suit your business needs. So, you’ll get much more functionality from a dedicated server – especially important when you’re running a virtual office with employees spread out across the globe, or a company with several brick-and-mortar outlets all delivering data simultaneously.

Data Security
If your database is loaded with sensitive, personal information like customers’ names, addresses and credit card numbers, you’ve taken on the responsibility of keeping that data secure from hackers.

Using a dedicated server, you can install your own security software and hardware – multiple layers of security on top of the security the web host provides as part of its service to you.

Managed or Unmanaged Hosting?
Dedicated hosting is offered in two formats: managed and unmanaged.

With unmanaged, dedicated hosting you’re responsible for the whole shebang. So, you and your team are responsible for everything – from the installation of your customized database to the creation of customer service responders. You do it all.

The advantage of unmanaged dedicated hosting is cost savings. Since the web host doesn’t do any hand holding (except for routine trouble-shooting) you’ll pay less for an unmanaged, dedicated server. However, either you’ll have to study up on site construction and connectivity to an ever-growing web, or pay some design guru to build the site to meet your company’s needs.

Also, with unmanaged hosting you’re responsible for your server security. It’s your anti-virus software, your hard-wired firewall, your everything.

Managed dedicated hosting puts you in partnership with the web host. You work with the host techs to come up with business solutions. If you’re employing your dedicated server in a variety of ways, services have to be synced up. Storage space has to be configured and managed so inter-office emails remain secure in transit. Hackers love dedicated servers because they know that these online businesses house hacker gold – personal information and lots of it.

Managed dedicated hosting also delivers managed database services for the most popular database platforms, i.e. Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft, etc. With managed services, you’ll also receive customized, configured security that syncs up with the box’s server-side software.

Managed dedicated hosting is also necessary to create multiple, “virtual servers” for different business functions that may or may not include interaction with clients and customers. Working in tandem with the host’s on-site team of networking professionals, you’ll create the superstructure of your online business – communications, data collection and collation, accounts management, inventory management and all of the other functions of a busy and growing company.

Shopping for a Dedicated Web Host
If you opt for unmanaged dedicated hosting, you will save money. However, you should compare disk space allotted, CPU speed and other apples-to-apples comparisons to get the most for your hosting costs. It’s a simple calculation of: features + cost = value.

However, if you envision an expanding business that relies more and more on the web and the Internet ( they’re two different things) to conduct daily operations, you will pay more for managed service but the price you pay for that extra attention will deliver a site that functions as you envision.

Before you sign an agreement with any web host, contact the business solutions professionals on staff. Discuss your current needs and needs going forward and get a feel for how the team adapts to your thinking.

As in any business, including the web hosting business, the client or customer is always right. So look for input from professionals and follow good advice when you get it, but make sure the managed services team at a prospective host is prepared to solve your online business needs – from site migration to multi-purpose server apps – to your specifications.

Once you find the right team, with the right attitude and the understanding that their success is dependent on your site’s ability to meet all of your business objectives, you’re not just getting a dedicated server, you’re getting experience and peace of mind that your site will be right, right out of the gate.