atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Web Development New website hosting help!!

I am starting with a blank slate as far as a web site goes and need some answers as to where to begin. The sight will basically be just an informational site about our company, not for selling online. I know it will have about 5-6 pages. It would be nice to have an area for the tech’s to login and get info that not everyone should have access to but that is not a high priority right now.

I am pretty sure that I’m going to design it with Front Page, but I can’t decide where to register the domain name or host the site. I’ve a bunch of reviews and can’t make heads or tails of which to choose.

I guess I’m just looking for some recommendations for a hosting company and what to watch out for!

Todd

Comparing hosting companies can really be an apples and oranges thing. There is a whole spectrum of services they may offer, and the uptime/service offered can also vary. You need to start by figuring out exactly what your needs are. Do you need five 9s dependability, or will the occasional weekend outage not be an issue? How much storage space do you need, and how much data transfer are you looking at per month? Will you need any server side include files? CGI? ASP?

For the design of the site itself, do you have the skills required? There's more to it than just dragging and dropping things in Frontpage. If you want your page to show up at all in the search engines, there is a fair bit of optimization that needs to take place. And when it comes to the actual look of the site, sometimes no website is better than a poorly designed site. Your website will be the first impression some people have of your company, so you want it to be as professional as possible.

Some companies will do the entire package for you...design, hosting, registration, etc.

This company, https://www.spincaster.com/default.htm, was started by one of the techs I used to work with. I think they do great work, and the owner is a great guy that I have a world of respect for. They did some work for our department, and my wife has done some design work for them. Their servers are hosted from a data centre that is managed 24/7 with all sorts of redundancy. I've recommended them to a few people, and I've never had any complaints at all.

My company was referred to a hosting provider through a recommendation from our search engine ranking consultant. When we switched, I found the provider to be so helpful and well run, I switched some personal sites over there too.

There are many providers offering really cheap service. But they may not back it up with tech support. There are providers who still charge outrageous rates, and still don't provide any service.

Do a search for "Web Hosting For Idiots". You won't go wrong with them.

Rob
Your company has a search engine ranking consultant?
I've never heard it call that and SEO yes.
And if ya don't mind me asking how did this consultant do? as far as ranking.

sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread.

What ever you do register your own domian(period)

Make sure you are in control of that situation.

As far as host; there are many and a lot are using some sort of (https://www.cpanel.net/) package, which has pretty much anything you need as specified in your post; regarding email and web publishing.

I would go with godaddy as your registrar, and from experience hostgator.com out of florida with tech support over sees, should you need it, as your hosting company.

I apprieciate the insight. This is all new to me so as far as having the skill to design it, I don't know that I do, but I'm working side by side with someone who does!
I would like to at least give it a shot before I turn it over to someone else to design for 2 reasons:
1. to be able to update the site myself after the initial design.
2. to force me to have a better understanding of what I want out of a website.

We tried one or two services for a year or two... gave us a report on what things needed to be fixed. Did most of them. But in the end didn't help a whole lot. My boss decided these guys weren't helping enough, so he switched solely to a dozen or so pay-per-clicks with google and overture.

One thing was we had 15 domain names using Domain Direct's domain "redirection" hosting plan. Problem being, that they really just proxy your domain through a frame. Google can't see through that kind of frame, so it couldn't see any of our domains.

The ranking report recommended we switch to a real hosting company who could implement a 301 redirect at the http server level, for the other 14 domains. That way our main one, calltrol.com would receive proper recognition in the ranking. They recommended one of their customers, and we've been there since.

My opinion is this; unless you know what you are doing; pay to have it done right. There was a recent article that basically stated how important aesthetics play in website, and most will judge your site in less than 1 second before they either stick around and see what you have to offer or click on to another.

I have seen a lot of companies post half-baked website, poor design, broken links, under construction links for years on end. Investing in a 1 time fee of $2/3k could be one of the best investments to your company. There are many free lancers that post in craiglist.com, which are very reasonable and have great portfolios to showcase.

I think most of people here; I included, who built their own site know this to be true. While it is quite simple to publish with FrontPage or macromedia; it’s quite a challenge to publish something of stature that will stand out from your competition. If you are designing your site as representation, I can not stress this enough.

i was in the same boat as you DayTech, and all above opinions are correct in their place.
i still wanted to design my own website and take control without much pain. And then i tried
www.webpage-maker.com
Download the software and use for 15 days. I loved it. You will want to buy it.

I found a great freelance guy that is going to put one together for me. I'm not sure where I thought that I was going to get the time to do one when I can't get the time to give him all the info he needs to proceed.