Website Hosting Packages

What is a Web Host?

Just like your cellular phone needs a carrier (AT&T, Cingular, Verison, etc.) your website needs a web host. If you just had the phone and no carrier, then no calls come in or go out.

A web hosting company puts your website on the internet via a web server. This is a powerful computer that has server software installed. They are connected to the internet using very large connections from access providers like AT&T, Bell System and the like.

The way your site gets found on the web server is by your domain name. The ‘www.yourbusiness.com’ is like a telephone number, and actually, it is a series of numbers like 206.123.45.6. You see it as www.yourdomain.com, and it is transferred to the number by computers attached to the internet!

That is the basic concept and from here you can now start to build an internet web hosting foundation.

Free vs. Professional Web Hosts

People are much wiser about the internet and can tell if your site looks like you are either a scam or just doing your business half-heartedly.

Most free hosts require that you keep banner ads on the top of each website page. How great, another flashing casino ad. Is that the image you are looking for? Not to mention the pop-up, -under and other tricks to steal your traffic away.

It is also virtually impossible to get search engine ranking with a website that is hosted for free. The search engines have decided that if the company can’t invest in a domain name and hosting, they aren't serious. And there’s another reason, many times the free sites go down or away.

On the domain name issue, there’s a big difference to a prospective customer between www.yourname.com and www.freeforallsites.com/members/sites/~yourname. How professional is that! Or easy to remember!

The final word on free web hosting is don’t do it if you are running a business. This may work for a family album site or similiar personal sites, but not for your business!

Quick Overview: Free Webspace That Usually Comes With Dial-Up Accounts
Your website address would be something funky like: http://members.aol.com/broth/~yourname http://home.earthlink.net/~broth/yourname.html http://members.tripod.com/broth/index.html Hard For People To Remember The Address Hard To Convey The Address Over The Phone No Website Traffic Statistics No Technical Support		Slow Loading Not Reliable Great For Personal Sites, Not Business Sites Search Engines Rarely Index Sites At Free Hosting Space It’s assumed they are personal sites Some limit the number of pages they will index from any one domain You can’t count on them to remain active

Selecting a Domain Name

For as low as $20 a month, you can have your domain name and website hosting! It’s a small price to pay to have a place to send prospective customers and to find new ones.

In selecting a domain name, our suggestion is to work the most important keyword you want to be found under in the search engines. For example, www.discounttoys.com is perfect because it has the keywords people will type in to find resources on the web.

If you don’t already have a domain name, it is best to let the hosting company reserve it for you. One of the big problems is people forgetting to renew the name and then your site goes off-line. Here at Internet Host Services, we go out of our way to contact you prior to your domain expiring. We’ve seen domain names just down for a few days, get scooped up by other companies.

Quick Overview:
Your Own Domain

It’s Very Affordable

Less than $20/month for name and hosting

Choosing The Domain

Company name
Promote identity
Existing clients will remember
Descriptive name
Can improve search engine ranking
Will improve search engine
click-through ratio
Often recommend both company and descriptive domains
Point both to the same website
Promote only one in the search engines

Almost always get a .com if something
appropriate is available
If you get another extension, like .net make
sure your competitor doesn’t have the .com
Extension doesn’t affect the search engines
in any way

Make Sure The Domain Is Registered
In Your Name
Secure All Versions Of Your Name For
Copyright Protection
Don’t allow .tv, .biz, .cc convince you that
they are the next frontier