Posts Tagged ‘Converting Traffic’

Some Words About Web Hosting And Reliability

January 23rd, 2010

Since there are so many web hosts all over the market, you would think picking a decent and reliable provider would be very easy.

However, this is not how it is at all. Being reliable is crucial for any website, especially with ones that handle business transactions or other important functions people rely on.

In fact, it can make the difference in whether people become frequent visitors to your site, or simply make one trip and never come back at all.

Even though the majority of companies will claim 99.9% uptime grantee’s claiming that they are reliable, not everyone of the can actually give you a reliable service.

Reliability is of the utmost importance. So why is it completely essential to invest in a dependable web host? The simple answer is just because you will be able to sleep at night knowing the site is always up and is always running.

Just imagine getting ready to update your website with new content and other additional things and not being able to do that because the site is down. Much more is expected of the webmasters in today’s world, if people cannot access your website they will not be back to sniff around it again after the first time.

Many businesses have crumbled and never really get off the ground because their websites either ran incredibly slow or were not available at all. If you are concerned about people being able to view your website, signing up with a host that can assure its availability is a must.

Aids in Credibility. Reliability is not only essential to your website, but your overall web presence as well. On the hosting marketplace, 99.9% has become the standard for uptime so you should expect and accept nothing less from prospective web hosts.

There are even a few that have infrastructures that are in place that gives them an opportunity to go over this figure. If the web hosting company you are with cannot even give you a decently reliable service, your chances are very low in gaining success on the web.

If your website is running on the slow end or even not at all because of technical problems, will push any visitors you have over to your competitors, which will in turn make you lost a lot of revenue. Your web host should be in many ways a partner to help you and your website be a success rather than help you lose money and potential visitors.

It is hard to actually tell how reliable a web hosting company actually is without being a customer of their service. To be frank, pretty much all web hosts will on the surface look legitimate and reliable.

In any case, there are a few things you might want to try before you go and sign up. For instance, looking at reviews of the web host can be an enlightening source of information telling you about the company.

Along with the prices, they will talk about how reliable they were and what the quality of service was like. A health mix of expert and user reviews can be a great help to you in making your decision on which company you will want hosting your website.

Do you need a dedicated server? Alojate.com is the premier web hosting company in Mexico, offering a range of services for every business needs. Dedicated servers, factura electronica, web hosting & registro de dominios.


Web Hosting Tips – Find A Host With Top-Notch Support

January 14th, 2010

It does not matter whether you lease a dedicated server or a typical web hosting plan, having a solution that comes equipped with excellent support is an absolute must. From basic customer service endeavors to more complex technical issues, you need a host that can come through in the clutch to deliver top-notch support.

Outstanding customer support is critical to your business since your website rests in the hands of your web host. Here are some things to consider when evaluating hosting services and their level of support.

Quick Response Time. When evaluating a support staff, you will look at several things but one of the most important is the response time. When something goes wrong you want help right away. No matter if you contact them by phone, email, or help desk, they should reply in a timely manner to your initial inquiry.

If you can get in touch with the support team directly, evaluate how long it takes to get someone on the phone. Some companies have incredibly long wait times so this is definitely something you want to take into consideration before making a commitment. Depending on the nature of the problem, a support staff that leaves waiting on the phone for ten or twenty minutes could be like having no help at all.

Take The Support Staff On A Test Run. Test the support staff before you sign up with a particular web host. Contact them through the recommended channels whether it is by email, phone, or help desk and see how quickly your questions are answered. You can even ask them basic questions you already know the answers to so you can test their technical knowledge.

Ask them basic questions before closing the sale and that way you can test the effectiveness, competency, and friendliness of the support staff. This will give you an indication of how you will be treated in the future should the need ever arise or if you have problems with your web site. Of course, things can always change but a good first impression can go a long way in helping you select a host for your sites.

Peace of Mind. Just because you sign up with a reliable hosting provider, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will enjoy a flawless service. Whether it is a power outage or a corrupt hard drive, anything can go wrong behind the scenes and for the most part, these problems are out of your hands.

You need peace of mind that when these things happen, you have someone you can contact immediately to fix the problem. A web host that cannot give you quality support in a speedy manner is not one you want to use. Any problems that do arise can be prolonged which costs you money and visitors. Technical issues should always be resolved in a timely manner.

Expect Problems to Arise. When some technical issue do arise with your website, there is no need to panic. After awhile, you will see that problems do happen now and then. They can be tiny subtle problems all the way to a complete downtime for your site. A web host should not suffer with frequent problems, but occasional ones are to be expected.

It is impossible to find a web host that can deliver 100% trouble free service to you, but it should be easy enough to find one that can provide top-notch support and customer service. Web hosts depend upon you to keep their business alive so it only makes sense that they strive to keep you happy. If they do not, then it is time to move on and find a web hosting company that makes quality support its priority.

Alojate.com is the number one web hosting company in Mexico, offering a range of services for all business needs. Dedicated servers, SEO, factura electronica, web hosting & domain registration.


Web Hosting Tips, How To Pay Less For Web Hosting Your Service

January 8th, 2010

If you are wanting to reduce the cost of the web hosting plan you are using, you can do it fairly easily, though it will require some work. In some cases though it’s just a matter of knowing exactly what you need.

Buying webspace is tough. The market is competitive, and each market claims to be the best at what they do. Obviously they cannot all be the best, so sorting through the ones that are telling the truth, and the ones that are exaggerating can be a bit difficult. Nevertheless it is entirely possible to figure out which ones really are the best at what they do.

Shopping around is extremely important. This is not a decision you want to make lightly, so make sure that you know everything that is out there. Saving money isn’t easy!

Look around the internet, but be careful that you do not just go for the first deal you see. Yes, they all look great, and every company claims to be the best, but make sure that you look at the different services, and of course look at the reputation of the company! Make sure that they are reliable and that they are indeed going to save you money.

Make sure that you look for hidden charges. The startup fees will be pretty obvious, but what you really need to look for are those little fees that you may or may not see at first.

One good example are the features that claimed to be ‘part of the package’, and you instead find them on the bill. What on Earth? They said it was free! This is why it is so important that you read the fine print.

If you require additional services and features, look for a host that combines everything you need in a single package. This will definitely help you keep some money in your pocket.

It never hurts to have the setup fee waived. You’ve probably noticed that setup fees are very expensive, and you have to consider that it does take time for a web host to get your site on the server and live. But luckily many web hosts do provide free setup.

If you are looking for a dedicated server, then be careful of the price. Startup fees for such a server can cost more than $100, and usually that is fair. Remember that sometimes it will take a while for the money to regenerate.

Research the company and determine who they are, what they do, and what quality of service they actually offer. Once again, the low price is always best, but make sure that they are reliable. You don’t want to have a cheap website with 49% uptime, that just won’t do!

Even the best deal is a failure if your site is always down. Make sure that you invest in a good company, even if it costs you a bit more money in the long run. Don’t lose your credibility just because the deal is good!

As the founder and actual CEO, Ricardo d’Argence has been in the field for more than twenty years. Alojate.com is now one of the best web hosting providers in Mexico, offering a range of services for all business needs. Dedicated servers, Search Engine Optimization, factura electronica, web hosting & registro de dominios.


Free Web Hosting, Why It Is Not Always The Best Choice.

January 5th, 2010

Like most people, you are probably trying to save money these days. You may be tempted to go with free web hosting to save money on business expenses. It might sound like a great idea, but when you compare free web hosting against paid web hosting, you will quickly see the free version does not stack up and rather than save you money, it might cost you money in the long run.

No control. Another downside to hosting for free is a severe lack of control. Most free hosting companies do not offer a control panel or an ftp access account to allow administration of a web site.

This means you cannot make page changes on the fly or add in programs that may be needed by your business. If you are a retail business, this means no ability to add in a shopping cart or software that helps you control your inventory.

Putting a bit of tracking coding is not an option unless you can have access to the page coding. Even attempting to change the look of your web site can be an issue. Some free hosting sites will give you access to templates and a few will even allow some minor changes made to backgrounds. But, all said, you are very limited to what you can do within your own site.

Free web hosting sites must make money somehow; they can’t afford to let people use their bandwidth for free. Since they do not charge you a hosting fee, they make money by placing ads on your webpages. The revenue from these ads goes to the hosting company, not you. Even worse, you have no control over the type of ads your visitors are subjected to.

The ads might be offensive to your site visitors or unrelated to the topic of your site. What’s even worse, you might have ads on all of your pages that promote a direct competitor of yours. For this reason, free web hosting can wind up costing you money.

You can avoid all of these pitfalls by searching around for budget web hosting that won’t break your bank. It is easy today to find web hosting for around $5 per month that offers enough services to host an average website.

Plus, when you use paid web hosting, you get many added benefits. You get access to a control panel with a wide range of easy to install programs that help you set up your site in no time. This includes things like forums, blogs, and picture galleries.

Free web hosting companies cannot afford to provide in-depth support in case anything goes wrong with your site. You will probably be limited to an online forum where you post your questions and hope someone comes along and answers them. You won’t have access to email support, phone support, or a help desk like you get with paid hosting. So if you site goes down, it could stay down for a long time and cost you money in lost sales.

When you are in business to make money, you can’t afford to mess around with free web hosting. You need speedy technical support and the additional tools provided with paid hosting. It will be much easier to set up and maintain your site and you won’t have to worry about all of the problems associated with free hosting. With a little research, you can find an economical web host that fits within your budget.

Founder and actual CEO, Ricardo d’Argence has been in the field for almost 20 years. Alojate.com is now one of the biggest web hosting providers in Mexico, offering a range of solutions for all business needs. Dedicated servers, SEO, factura electronica, web hosting & registro de dominios. Visit us to readWeb Hosting Articles.


A Fast Guide to Web Hosting Affiliate Programs

December 29th, 2009

The industry of web hosting has seen a boom, and along with that boom has been the creation of a number of sub-markets like affiliate programs. Programs such as these have quickly gained much popularity because of how they help web hosts get more customers. This is very beneficial to the host since it gives them another way to advertise their services.

There is also a lucrative aspect for the affiliate as he or she earns commission when referring someone who ends up purchasing a web hosting package. These commissions are pretty generous as well, typically ranging anywhere from $50 to well over $100 depending on the company.

So how does this actually work? Signing up to be an affiliate will cost you nothing with pretty much any web host in today’s world. As far as making money goes, you should realize just how many ways you can approach this new business of yours.

For instance, you may create a website and or blog intended to promote your affiliate company, or you can just provide some links for people to be directed to their website. Most affiliates will advise you to make a great landing page before you link the visitor to the web host.

When used in conjunction with quality, honest reviews, this method can go a long way in helping you convert your referrals into customers. Whatever route you take, just remember that the objective is to get as many interested people clicking your affiliate links as possible.

With most affiliate programs, commission payments are distributed on a monthly basis, generally giving you the option to receive your funds via check or an online payment service such as PayPal. After being approved, the web host creates an account and provides you with access to your own administrative panel.

You will also find here on the panel links and other tools to help you in promoting your affiliate. Detailed reports will also be made available for you to peruse just how many referrals and visitors you signed up. The web hosting company will give you the needed tools to do the job, but it is you that will have to drive yourself to make your affiliate and you some money.

Is it in you to do this job? Since there is heavy, competition in this market there has been a large explosion of affiliate programs.

Today’s firms are willing to do whatever it takes to gain an edge on their competitor, even if it means giving you a cut of the profit. While almost anyone can sign up and be approved as an affiliate, you should know that making this a successful business requires loads of commitment and patience.

The market for affiliates is growing very fast so a nominal amount of effort should be put into this to make you stand out from all the others. You will need your creativity here since it can really help you out to make both you and the affiliate money. The web host’s reputation is very important as well so make sure you sign on with a respectable and reliable service that you can market easily.

If you need a dedicated server, Alojate.com is the premier web hosting company in Mexico, offering a lot of services for all business needs. Servidores dedicados, factura electronica, web hosting & registro de dominios. Visit us to readWeb Hosting Articles.


How To Choose The Best Web Hosting Solution For Your Blog

December 17th, 2009

Blogging has become a very commonly used way to publish content to the web because it is easy to do and allows people to express themselves in ways that were not available before.

You can use free blogs, but you don’t have to be restricted by them because it is extremely easy to set up a blog with your own web hosting. Before deciding which way you want to go, here are a few things to consider.

You can have your choice of blogging software depending upon your preferences. The most widely used blogging platforms are Blogger, Wordpress, and B2Evolution. You can use whatever you want, but Wordpress wins the popularity contest hands down.

Supported by a large community of developers and users, WordPress is highly customizable through a vast selection themes, widgets and endless plugins. Regardless of the platform, you may want to put an emphasis on ease of use as some blogging applications are more complex than others.

When looking for web hosting for you blog you need to decide if you want to use free web hosting or paid. There are many places online where you can set up a blog for free and many of them do not force ads on you like traditional free web hosts do.

However, when you use free blog hosting, you could run up against many limitations. You won’t have complete control of your blog and some features will be restricted. This may or may not matter to you depending upon what you want to do with your blog.

When you want to make the most of your blog and gain full control of it then you should get a paid web hosting plan that includes free blog support. Since blogging is so popular today, most web hosting companies offer the ability to easily set up and maintain your own blog and do it at an economical price.

Finding a Host. If you decide that paid hosting is the best move for you, the next thing you need to consider is the company that will be hosting your blog site. In the past, finding a good web host was a rather tedious process that often left prospective customers worn and frustrated. Things have changed as more resources are now available to aid in your search.

You can simply log onto a web hosting review site and you will find side-by-side comparisons of various blog hosting services and web hosting companies. You can compare prices, they types of blogs supported, disk space, bandwidth, and any other specifications you are interested in. Hosting review sites are a great source of information as they also provide insight from experts and comments from current and previous customers of the various hosting companies.

Technology is always changing. Blogs are fairly new in the internet world but they are here to stay. It would be hard to imagine the World Wide Web without blogs now. They are likely to continue to improve as technology advances and be used even more than they are now. All you have to do to connect your own blog with the rest of the world is find the best web hosting solution.

Founder and actual CEO, Ricardo d’Argence has been in the field for almost twenty years. Alojate.com is now one of the best web hosting providers in Mexico, offering a range of services for all business needs. Servidores dedicados, SEO, factura electronica, web hosting & domain registration.


Things You Must Know If You Are Going To Change Your Web Hosting Provider

December 7th, 2009

If your website becomes popular and your current host does not meet your needs for more bandwidth, storage, etc., switching from one host to another may be necessary. This is especially true if your website is hosted on a free hosting company.

If you need to move your site, plan the move carefully. Of course, the first thing you must do is choose your new hosting company.

Once you have found a host that can meet all your needs, you need to move your site on to the new server. Before making any moves, be sure to back up your website from the old host.

If your website isn’t well structured and has been growing haphazardly, this is a good time to consider redesigning things. That could simply mean a new page design or it could mean redesigning your database and content storage.

You should use a redirect page on your old website for the first 48 hours after moving to a new web host. This will automatically forward your site’s visitors to the new location and ensure that people will see the new website even if its IP address has not yet propagated.

A new website takes approximately 48 hours to be listed on domain servers throughout the Internet, but everything should be just fine after that. A few more suggestions to ease the transition include:

1. Find out whether your new host is running on Unix or Windows and make sure it will be compatible with everything you’re moving from the old host.

2. Check to see how much storage you need for all your files and content on your current site, and make sure you get enough on the new host to give you room to grow.

3. Find out which services your new host offers, and make sure that all the features you have been using on your current host are available. Some examples include autoresponders and email forwarding.

4. Make sure that your new host supports Frontpage extensions if your website was built using Microsoft Frontpage.

5. Check your new web host’s policy about extra bandwidth. You may need to know this if your website continues to get busier.

6. If the new host’s server is a shared server, check to make sure there are no adult sites hosted on the same system. They can get busy and cause all the other sites on the same server to slow down.

7. Before you sign up, check some review sites and forums for customer feedback about the new host. This will give you a good idea of the level of service you can expect from the new host.

Test your website to ensure that it’s working properly after you upload all your data to the new host. You should be able to preview your website on the new server before you completely switch your domain name over to the new site address.

If you need a dedicated server, Alojate.com is the premier web hosting company in Mexico, offering a range of solutions for all business needs. Servidores dedicados, factura electronica, web hosting & domain registration.

categories: internet,web hosting,web development,webmasters,computers,web design,internet marketing,site promotion,e-commerce,search engine optimization,seo,Converting Traffic,link popularity


Web Hosting, Tips To Choose Between Shared And Dedicated Server

December 6th, 2009

If you have an online business with a sophisticated web site, you are probably deciding what type of server you need for your business. The server is what actually hosts your website online. It provides you space on the internet and routes traffic to your website.

When trying to decide what type of internet host you want for your website, you have two types of servers to chose from. Personal and small business websites tend to favor shared servers. Dedicated Servers are other type of server.

Some of the pros of sharing a server are: Some of them are free. Often, templates are offered in shared web hosting to enable people with little computer expertise to create a website. Shared servers offer a variety of different services. Shared services are have a variety of different plans which are relatively inexpensive.

Shared servers are the best option for small businesses or personal websites on the internet. Some shared servers, especially the free ones, will want to put mandatory ads on your website. This is how they pay for their website. Other services allow you to put your own ads on your website, increasing your revenue.

Larger businesses do not benefit from using shared servers. If you share a server, the bandwidth may have issues connecting to your website if it the hits become very heavy. The bandwidth may not be able to handle the volume, so if you are getting an outstanding number of hits, some potential customers may be left out.

Additionally, space is limited for those using shared servers. It would be best if you had a server used only for internet business purposes. It enlarges your space size, and frees up bandwidth so that all of your customers can get through to the site. This is especially important if your business has forums or shopping carts. These are called databases and tend to take up a lot of space.

Although a dedicated server costs substantially more to get started than a shared server, for the building businesses there really is no choice. If you want your internet business to grow, there is really no option but to choose a dedicated server.

Yes, they are more expensive than shared servers, but dedicated servers offer distinct advantages to justify premium price and can be available for monthly rentals as low as $100. Not only can you incorporate as many ads and affiliates as you like on your website but you”re going to be hosting your website yourself. This can also bring you in extra revenue.

With a server used only for your business, there is no limit to what you do for your business. You can have business connections on your website that are linked with your type of business. There are all sorts of ways to make money online and most of them include advertising of some sort. You can use all the advertisement you want with a dedicated server and earn more profit on the website.

As the founder and actual CEO, Ricardo d”Argence has been in the field for almost 20 years. Alojate.com is now one of the biggest web hosting providers in Mexico, offering a range of solutions for all business needs. Dedicated servers, SEO, factura electronica, hosting & registro de dominios.

categories: internet,web hosting,web development,webmasters,computers,web design,internet marketing,site promotion,e-commerce,search engine optimization,seo,Converting Traffic,link popularity


Another Benefits of Search Engine Marketing

November 21st, 2009

Many times a client only looks at the bottom line when it comes to the performance they are getting for their investment into Search Engine Optimization.

They often only look at the selected keyword phrases that they are paying for, without fully realizing what other residual effects they are receiving.

As a site becomes more optimized, it is being turned into a well devised navigational pattern. This pattern is precisely what the search engine spiders look for. Keep in mind that if your site is easy to index, you’ll get a better ranking in the search engine results.

W3C validation is something that all websites should be working toward, but it won’t help with the rankings. Yahoo engineers have indeed said that the W3C validation will not help with the rankings. It’s content however will determine it’s ranking.

Properly naming page titles and file names is also quite important, and it helps the spider out immensely during the indexing. Google doesn’t place much value on meta tags, at least not like it used to, but they’re still a huge part of the picture. That being the case, don’t exclude them.

When you’ve finished coding the site, and done it right, then Search Engine Marketing finally comes into play. By doing this you are ensuring the traffic to your site will be increased, and there are a number of different ways that you can do this. For instance you could use articles, you could use press releases, blogs, just about anything.

Here is where the collateral benefits of Search Engine Marketing begin to appear. Let’s say that you have been doing a series of press releases where once a week, you talk about a new color of widget. In each press release you also list the other colors of widgets that you have for sale. Even after only the first release gets sent, you’ve already created a valuable In-Bound Link to your site for your Red Widget, but since you included the other colors of the widgets as well, they all pick up IBL’s as well.

An even greater demonstration of a collateral benefit is ranking for keywords and phrases that you aren’t targeting. Keeping to our widget example, if your site copy talks about the different uses of widgets, the available colors that they come in and the best way to preserve your widget, you’ve just created a multitude of various phrases that your site can get ranked on.

Now you’ve seen just a bit of the potential power that your website actually has. Every page will have it’s own rank, and for this reason it’s critical to ensure the optimization of every single page on your website.

Though it might seem rather insignificant, your contact page also needs to be well optimized. If you have a physical business, the search engines will be able to geo target your site so long as your street address is listed. This isn’t something that is being widely done as of yet, but it will be a major factor in the future.

In conclusion, the next time you start checking Google to see where your site ranks for it’s keyword phrases, don’t forget about all of the hidden keywords/phrases that are embedded in your site’s copy. You would be surprised at how many of those forgotten about terms end up at the top of the pile….

If you need a dedicated server, Alojate.com is the best web hosting company in Mexico, offering a range of services for all business needs. Servidores dedicados, factura electronica, web hosting & registro de dominios.


Reasons Why Having a Reliable Web Hosting Is So Important

November 8th, 2009

Reliable web hosts aren’t as easy to find as you might imagine. There is considerable competition out there with an increasing amount of web hosts, and resellers who all claim to give the consumer upwards of 99% uptime. For any website, reliable web hosting is incredibly important. It can mean the difference between a frequently returning visitor and one who doesn’t bother at all.

Pages often returned as not available can also impact your rating with today’s ultra-clever search engines who are also in a race of their own to beat their own competition after all, a customer returns to good service.

What’s the significance of having a web host that is dependable? One reason that comes to mind immediately is your own inner serenity. Unreliable service makes it extremely difficult to built websites, upload content, or make changes. Discriminating consumers expect flawless service and won’t settle for anything less. Entire businesses have been lost due to the same thing, and it is the kind of problem which must be addressed immediately once you become aware that you have it.

When does it become necessary to have one? It’s very important if you want people to view your website. The new methods used by search engines today mean that reports are generated every time a URL is not accessible, and this can result in a drop in search engine rankings after a certain period of time.

If your company includes a significant web presence, you must have a good hosting service. In today’s market you need to have at least 99% uptime, there are some companies that even exceed this.

Say your webhost was current providing you with 20% downtime, this could in effect mean you are losing up to 20% of potential customers, who cannot view your site due to this downtime. This is affecting your earning ability, thus losing you potential revenue. Anyone you employ to help your business, in this case the webhost should not help you lose money!

Is there a way I can check to see if my webhost is the best one for my needs? You don’t, not at first. There are many methods that can be used to find out their reliability. The free tools on the internet that are used to monitor up and downtime are becomming more popular in the search for the top search engine.

Most people today realize the importance of the amount of server untime, this is very valuable to understand if your webhost does not communicate with you. A good webhost will send you an email letting you know of scheduled downtimes and any problems. There is a reason why a lot of webhosts hide information from you, because they know if you found out you would go somewhere else.

If you need a dedicated server, Alojate.com is the number one web hosting company in Mexico, offering a lot of services for every business needs. Servidores dedicados, factura electronica, web hosting … registro de dominios.