Dedicated Server – Can improved ROI & SEO Ranking
October 8, 2010
Dedicated Server – better return on investment and SEO boost
The argument for a shared web hosting when setting up a website for a small business or an individual is compelling:
- Extremely low cost
- Instant set-up
- No need to worry about server security
- Easy to put a site online and take it down
- No long term contract
- Easy to switch between hosting companies
And the list goes on and on in favour of going for a shared web hosting space instead of a dedicated server.
The flip side of the share web hosting space coin can outweigh the advantages for an ambitious small company because hosting your website on a shared web server instead of having your dedicated server could potentially slow down the growth of your business.
Some well know downside to share hosting includes the fact that you will be sharing your website IP address with a host of other websites, some of them may not be the kind of website you want your business link to remotely but the fact that your hosting company hosts your site on the same IP address may potentially make some bot associate your business website with this undesirable sites.
Recently some of the leading search engines on the net has made the speed of a website part of the ranking algorithm, some hosting companies are notorious for hosting too many sites on one server, this could potentially stop your website ranking as highly as it could if hosted on your own dedicated server. There are many more downside to hosting your site on a shared web hosting platform, if you will like to know more, comment on this post and you will be provided additional reasons.
Dedicated Servers – Not as expensive as you may expect
The two most popular reasons small businesses gives for not taking on their own dedicated server are the fact that its expensive and they lack the technical know how to look after a dedicated server.
These were valid reasons a few year ago. Because of the fact that the dedicated server market is now extremely competitive, with special deals on dedicated servers being offered by many providers including Woo Servers, the cost argument is not a valid reason any more, as a matter of fact if you carefully research the source of your dedicated server, you may find some providers whose cost is a marginally higher than the cost of a shared web hosting.
Dedicated web hosting provider have now recognised the fact that most small businesses do not posses the know how to manage a dedicated server on their own so managed dedicated servers are now a common option.
For ambitious small businesses seeking to free their business website from all the shackles share web hosting can saddle a website with, a dedicated server or a managed dedicated server is the wise choice.
Why Dedicated Server is better than Shared Web Hosting?
April 10, 2010
Dedicated and Shared, two opposite words that are the most important in the Web Hosting industry. You might be familiar with these words. Many of us always look at Shared Hosting packages to host the websites. Has anyone of us ever tried to know the disadvantage of being hosted on Shared Hosting package? In other words, why is having a Dedicated Server better than a Shared Hosting plan? If not, let us discuss the differences. Beforehanf though, let me define these two words quickly. In layman’s term, shared hosting is type of hosting where the resources of the main or physical server are shared between all the websites hosted on it, whereas, the dedicated server is fully owned by you, i.e., there is no other user sharing the resources with you. You have full access to all the resources available on your server. Now, let’s get back to the topic. So, why is the Dedicated Server better than Shared Hosting? Here is the answer.
A question to readers: Have you ever experienced or seen anyone sharing a room with any other roommates? Yes, you have! What do you think about their comfort? The answer would be, they live an uncomfortable life. They have to adjust in every part of their life. Similarly, it is with shared hosting. There are many issues that a shared hosting user might face, such as reliability, uptime, performance, use of shared IP address, unavailability of root/remote access, no capability of installing applications etc.
So what exactly are you sharing?
Reliability, Uptime, Performance: Your website uses the resources of same server that other websites use. If the any website on main server uses more resources, then this might slow down your website. If the resource usage of other websites are too much, then the server might not respond to requests for your website in a timely manner, thus you potentially losing a visitor or increasing your bounce rate. You might not get the promised uptime for your website. This might take the reliability of the hosting services in question. The recommendation here is to search for a reliable hosting provider that can handle such issues.
Shared IP address Usage: Unlike VPS or Dedicated Server, your website shares the same IP address as the other users on the server. For example if any of the users sharing your hosting are blacklisted by some search engines due to spam or phishing or any unwanted activity, then your website might also get included in the blacklist as it was hosted on the same IP address.
Unavailability of root/remote access: It is one more disadvantage of shared hosting that you do not get the root or remote access to your hosting account. You have to be dependent on the hosting provider for any changes that you on the account like rebooting the server etc.
No capability of installing applications: You cannot install any third party applications on your shared hosting account. Even if you ask the support of your hosting provider to get an application installed for you, they won’t assist you. Hence, if the website needs an application to be run then shared hosting is not for you.
Regular Server Crash: You may find server getting crashed frequently if any loading script like CGI is run on the server from any of the shared hosting user’s account. So, even if your hosting account or website is running without any loads on the server, it might be affected due to the performance of any other user on the server.
So to conclude, if you want better uptime, performance, reliability and want to feel a dedicated environment on the server without any lack of service on the network, select a Dedicated Server.
1&1.CO.UK – Best web hosting company in UK?
February 17, 2010
1&1.co.uk
Brief Introduction
This company claims to be one of the fastest growing companies in the field of web hosting and that is evidenced by their customer base of over 9million and the fact that they are adding almost 2500 clients every day. These figures have been corroborated by independent studies conducted by Netcraft and are sure to give customers the confidence that this company is going to be in existence for a long time and are financially very stable.
They were one of the early starters more than a decade back to offer customers online state of art technological and telecommunication solutions. Customers even then could chat online and enjoy other interactive services.
The company went public in 1998 and has been rewarding its shareholders with decent returns.
Services offered
a) Web hosting
The company has categorised its offering into 5 categories such as Beginners, Home, Business, Business Pro and Professional. They are currently running a very attractive scheme across all categories wherein you can signup and not pay anything for the first three months.
The features offered include web space, domain registration, external domains, usage of the internet and online account management facilities. The extent of bandwidth, space and domains offered obviously differ depending upon the package chosen. It is least for the Beginner package and maximum for the Professional one.
b) Email
IMAP/POP3 accounts with a 2GB capacity and email aliases are provided with this service with the Business, Business 1 and Professional packages getting unlimited email aliases facilities.
c) Website building
Building your own website is now easy without the need for any programming. Moreover you can also blog, get access to RSS feed and even share your photos online when you choose any of the packages barring the Beginner one.
d) Ecommerce
The Easy Setup option allows you to launch your online shop very quickly and you will find it convenient to sell your products or services thanks to the integration with eBay. Moreover, you can also get access to Marketing tools and eShop Management facilities to help you control and review your business in a much better fashion.
e) Marketing tools
Customers keen to receive quick marketing feedback can choose this feature which will enable them to chat live with customers, send them email based marketing material and even get website statistics. This is available for those choosing the Home, Business, Business Pro and Professional packages.
Strengths
* Strong track record
* Customised packages for different categories of customers
* Robust data center and choice of servers to meet any customer requirement
Support Provided
* Email assistance
* Access to technical support 24×7
* Access to product information on phone
* Online account management with single log in
What customers have to say?
Customers feel that this company offers them good value for money and has an attitude that is customer focused. They also feel that they can present them selves very professionally to their clients using the packages provided by 1&1.
How to Grow Your Hosting Company
February 25, 2009
You will need a lot of visitors to come to your website in order to increase the sales of your hosting packages. Getting more customers is the bottomline for any company. In this article we will touch upon few techniques which will help you to increase your website traffic which will positively affect the growth of your webhosting company.
Google as we all know is the most powerful search engine on earth. Wouldn’t it be great if your website shows up on the results page when someone looks for ‘Webhosting Company’? You can easily buy traffic with the help of Google AdWords. This technique will draw a lot of customers to your website which will in turn contribute a lot to the growth of your hosting company.
Apart from Google AdWords there are many other options for increasing your website traffic in order to grow your hosting company. Search engine Optimization is one of the best possible means to get the targeted traffic to your website. Increasing your website ranking on the search engines is an absolutely brilliant strategy to increase your sales.
You can also grow your hosting company by advertising in several forums. Some of the ways to advertise your hosting company in the online forums are as follows.
• Visit the webmaster of the forums and try advertising your services.
• You can also add some valuable posts in the forums which provide valuable content and include the address of your hosting website in your signature. This type of forum marketing is very effective. You can hire a couple of good forum posters to do this job for you.
Once you have the customers for whom you are going to set the hosting, you must provide e-mail, telephonic and Chat support so that they can contact you for any problems and enquiries related to their websites. If you give proper timely solutions for their issues, it will add more value to the reliance and trust of the customers. Therefore, the customer support which you give to your clients will reflect with your company’s growth.
You can also do article marketing to grow your own hosting company. The articles can be on the topics related to “making money online”, “building an efficient website” etc. you can also mention in your articles about the need for web hosting company to create websites. If your articles are good and if the contents are original, you will see your sales increasing in just a matter of time.
You can also provide some advanced control panels for the buyers to manage their accounts efficiently. Good technology will attract more clients and more clients will help you to grow your own hosting company.
You need to adopt excellent security measures to your hosting websites in order to prevent the hackers from destroying your business and your reputation.
The last and the most effective means to grow your own hosting company is by advertising it locally. Having a couple of marketing executives should help you to get more local clients. You can even visit organizations and small business firms and explain the benefits of having a website for their company.
You could also try giving out some freebies like the free web templates to your customers as a value edition service. This will ensure the website renewals with your hosting company resulting in recurring income year after year. You will need to be persistent and patient to grow your own hosting company.
You can discuss this and other web hosting related issues at the web hosting forum section of Webmaster Serve.
