Paula G. Web Design

If you have an existing website up and running for any length of time and it has any level of real functionality, migrating your site has all the appeal of a trip to the dentist for a root canal. Yet, if you’re finding your current service unacceptable in terms of reliability, uptime, functionality, or customer service, it is often better to take the plunge and endure short term pain for long term gain.

Before you set the wheels in motion on your migration you need to determine what your current website makeup includes. The following list should get you started:

• Basic website (static web pages)
• Blog
• Shopping Cart
• Mailing List/Newsletter
• Autoresponders
• Databases
• Other Dynamic web content (message boards, database interaction, scripts)

The good news is that usually your shopping cart and newsletters are services provided by someone other than your website host. However, in some cases you may have been hosting your site somewhere that provided this all in one package at which time the migration is an even bigger project because you need to change everything at once. The good news in the end is that you will no longer be relying on one provider for everything (no more all your eggs in one basket) and you’ll have more flexibility and often better service. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently learned of GoDaddy’s new feature of adding Google’s Webmaster Tools to the built in features you get with your hosting account. This is just another reason why I love to recommend them — they are always adding new features to benefit all their hosting plans.

What this new addition gives you is the chance to have all your sites hosted with GoDaddy automatically connected into the suite of webmaster tools that Google offers. So now from directly within your control panel you can tap into information about how Google sees your site. That is:

•  Is your site in the Google Database?
•  Are there any site issues where Google is concerned?
•  What do the crawl statistics look like?
•  What does your site’s visibility look like in Google’s search results?

Using a combination of the Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics (separate from the webmaster tools) you can get a LOT of information about your account for free.

If you don’t host with GoDaddy, you can still tap into the full set of Google Webmaster Tools at their website. Same great stuff just an additional step you need to take separate from your hosting account.

Everyone who wants to have a presence on the web (and if you’re in business, that means YOU) needs to host their site somewhere. I explained why that is so in a recent Web 101 article on hosting. So, you know you need one, but how do you go about choosing one? After all, you see ads for web hosting all over the Internet with prices ranging from a few dollars a month and up (and up). Which one is right for you?

First of all there are really only 3 main categories of web hosting: dedicated hosting, virtual dedicated hosting, and shared hosting. Dedicated hosting means that your site and your site alone is the only one that resides on a single physical server. The benefits are that you often get to configure the server in a more custom way and the only activity and traffic that affects your site is your own. That being said, dedicated hosting is very expensive (usually $80/month and UP) and not something the typical small or solo business owner needs. Virtual dedicated hosting gives you the administrative power of dedicated hosting without being the sole site on a given server. Pricing for virtual dedicated servers are in the midrange ($30/mo and up). Shared hosting, on the other hand, is just what it says — multiple sites are hosted on a single physical server. This is the hosting most people use because it is very cost effective and can start as low as $4/month for a small, basic package. The only conceivable downside to shared hosting is that what one site on a server does (traffic, etc.) can affect others. However, it has been my experience that for most small to medium size sites it is sufficient assuming you choose a good hosting company.

What makes a hosting company good? In my opinion there are key services you need from your host in order to effectively and reliably house your business’ Internet presence.

Reliability and Monitoring

If your site is not up and available you are not in business on the web. Therefore, your host should have a very high uptime statistic (like 99% or above). Any scheduled outages should be well communicated, short, and at off-peak times (think middle of the night US time). Unscheduled problems should be resolved quickly and efficiently. In addition, ensure that the hosting company monitors its servers 24X7. In this day and age of pagers, automatic performance monitoring, and alert systems, you shouldn’t be the one having to call them and inform them of a problem. They should know the minute it happens (or before) and be handling it ASAP. Let’s face it things can and do happen, you just want to make sure it is a very rare exception and is handled promptly and appropriately. Read the rest of this entry »

What is web hosting?

I’ll talk about how to actually choose a web host in a future post, but first - what is a web host and why do you need one?

In a previous post I talked about domain names and URLs.  To further the analogy of a house started there …

If a domain name is your actual name/name of your business and the URL is the actual address (123 Main St.), the host is the actual physical house.  That is, where you actually have your stuff (in this case the files that make up your website).

The reason you need a web host to house your files versus just having them on your computer is that in order for other people to find your website (your house) it needs to be part of the world wide system of addressing and finding sites which is known as the Domain Name System (DNS).  The DNS is actually the big ole phone book of the Internet.  It associates the domain names with actual IP Addresses (which is a unique street address for a given computer on the Internet).
Read the rest of this entry »