A site on the World
Wide Web has two
components. The actual web pages (WEB SITE) and the computer (SERVER) which
makes those pages visible on the Internet. A designer (often referred to as a
Webmaster or Site Designer)
will consult with you about the type of site you need and, locate a server to host your
pages/site for free or a monthly, quarterly or annual fee. The designer will create your pages, add
programming code where required, load your site on a server and make sure all of your
links are working. Then, he or she should register your site with the top ten
search engines. Maintenance involves keeping your pages up to date and making changes
when necessary. Most webmasters or site designers offer design, hosting and maintenance services in a
plan. We go two steps further by adding site optimizing and marketing support for our clients at no
additional charge.
If you are designing
your own site, check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) first.
Typically, they allocate free space
(1-5 MB) on their server for you to use with your dial-up Internet access account.
If they will host domain names, you should take advantage of that space. To keep start-up
costs low, consider using a free server. Below, you will find a list of the most popular
paid and free business website hosting providers - a few of also which
have a free "site builder" built-in
to their services.
FINDING A
SERVER TO HOST YOUR NEW WEB SITE:
To place your new site, you have two options: free hosting
or paid hosting. Free business site hosting offered
otherwise is free because the server owner will post sponsor banner ads on each of your
web pages. Paid hosting ranges in price from under $15 per month to $500 depending upon your
needs. We can host your site (as a subdomain) for one year free of charge. Or, if
you prefer, we will arrange paid hosting. Here is
more information about hiring a designer
and web site design basics.
If you are new to the Internet, it is important to find a
host server with good customer support. In our opinion, the best hosts are those with toll-free
or 24-hour telephone support. The second best choice is one with 24-hour e-mail customer
support. Send a test e-mail (asking a legitimate
question) to see how long it takes to get an answer. Send a brief e-mail message to a few of their customers. Ask if the server is
reliable - or is their service off-line for hours or days at a time? Do they back up
daily? Is customer support prompt and helpful? Call that toll-free number and see how long
it takes to get through. Investigate the
hosting server carefully (by contacting two or more of their
clients) before you give anyone your
hard-earned money.
Please note that several of the
major search engines will not
register a site located on a free server with an address such as
http://www.TheFreeDomain.com/YourSite/ or
http://YourSite.TheFreeDomain.com. Search engines prefer sites
with a domain name or a subdomain of another paid domain host. Example:
http://www.PaidDomain.com/YourSite/ or http://www.YourDomain.com.
Free sites hosted at hypermart, geocities, tripod etc. are frequently
rejected by search engines because spammers often use those host
addresses.
A hosting search on the Internet will take hours of your time and
still may not yield a reliable host. As our client, we will take care of
this for you. If you are doing it yourself, here are a few hosts we have used (*)
and hosts which get
excellent reviews from their customers. If you belong to a
newsgroup, ask them who are the good hosts and who should be
avoided.
PREFERRED HOSTING:
FREE HOSTING:
Hypermart* (business and non-profit hosting)
WebJump (business hosting)
B-City (business and non-profit hosting)
Tripod
(business and free hosting)
GeoCities (business and
non-profit hosting)
EWebCity (free business hosting with no ads)
National list of Free hosting sites
PAID HOSTING:
ChristianWebHost
Globalcon.net
Virtualis
Hypermart (business and non-profit hosting)
FIND A HOSTING PLAN:
C-Net Central Web Services
National
List of hosting ISP's
Series of articles about finding a web site host
COMPARE HOSTING SERVICES:
Web Host Directory
TOP 25 WEB HOSTS:
For all major servers (UNIX, NT etc.)
Next:
E-commerce
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