According to Joel Mangilit, IT and Web Design professor at the Graduate School of Business of De La Salle University, there are five attributes he condsiders in choosing a Web Host.
- Easy to Use. This refers to the user-friendliness of the control panel. Learning FTP should not be a requirement.
- Speed. Mangilit prefers fast connections where web pages loads fast.
- Reliability. Hight uptimes is a must.
- Tracking. There should be available site statistics.
- Value. This is about price to performance ratio.
The Hosting Chart adheres to the following similar criteria in reviewing web hosts (aside from “General Impressions” which is arbitrary to The Hosting Chart):
- Price Cost and Effectiveness. Again, this is about price to performance and quality ratio.
- Reliability. This regards server uptimes.
- Data Center. The Hosting Chart also looks into a Web Host’s data center.
- Connectivity. Topologies, network providers, network redundancy, are also considered.
- Customer Service. This looks into tech support and the availability of support.
- Control Panel. The control panel must be user-friendly, fast, reliable, easy to operate, and packed with features.
June 2nd, 2005
A fast, template-based frontend for WordPress.
LightPress is a frontend for the popular WordPress blogging platform. A frontend is the code sitting between the db and your blog’s readers, which manages all user interaction and displays the relevant content appropriately formatted.
More here.
June 2nd, 2005
Adrian Hanft of “Be a Design Group” writes writes about 5 tips on good Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
1. Don’t Fake Your Content.
The best way to gain recognition from search engines is to create unique and valuable content. Google can only be fooled so much by spam, fake links, and artificial inflation trickery. If you want the prize, you have to deliver the goods. That means you need to fill the site with relevant and valuable information. You need to corner the market on what you know best. Don’t ever let your client think that spam is a good way to generate business.
2. Avoid Flash
I love Flash and it hurts me to say this, but when it comes to content, Flash just can’t compete with HTML. Information in Flash is invisible to search engines. The information that search engines can see in Flash doesn’t benefit from the structure of an HTML document. Don’t abandon Flash completely, just make sure you have an HTML version of your sites that is packed with content. If your site is Flash only, you will have a hard time avoiding invisibility to the search engines. I think Flash is getting better at content management, so I will default to the experts there. You really have to know what you are doing to effectively use flash.
3. Start a Blog
Most organizations have humans working for them. Humans like to talk. Blogs encourage employees to talk, and talking online builds up a database of content. That’s a scary thought to an organization who is paranoid of leaks of top secret information. Customers don’t like comanies that keep secrets from them. A blog at least gives the impression that you are a customer friendly organization. You should be able to convince them that the risk is worth the reward when the following is considered: Blogs are a great way to increase customer service. In the event of a company mistake, it is great for damage control. It gives an otherwise faceless company a voice in the marketplace. The benefit to search engines is that you are building a library of relevant keywords, and hundreds maybe thousands of pages of industry specific content.
4. Search Engine Optimization Isn’t Magic
Don’t fall for the myth that there is a secret to search engines, and the only way to get good search results is too buy your way to the top of the search results. There is no substitute for quality content. You can pay for links and click-throughs, but wouldn’t it be easier to have quality content on your site? Don’t waste your money. Work hard on your site’s content, and search engines will notice. If you build it, they will come.
5. Link Management
I would stop short of recommending that you pay for links, but it is undeniable that having links to your site on other people’s sites is extremely valuable to search rank. This is where having original and valuable content really pays off. Just as search engines love good content, so do other sites. They will link to your site on their own. If you have a blog, you will start to build a good relationship with other blogs, and links will happen naturally. There are other sites that will give you links for free, but make that secondary to creating great content.
June 2nd, 2005
Got this link from Markku about “getting good customer support“.
I would also like to add the ff.:
- Your hosting provider spent a lot of time, effort and money investing in a Support System to streamline their services and shorten resolution time. It was put in place for a good pupose. Familiarize how it works and make good use of it.
- Troubleshooting an issue involves replicating the error or problem. So, give as many information as possible like your OS, connection type, ISP, etc.
- The Control Panel is your best friend. Most of what you need to know are there as well as the tools to help you fix the issue before hitting the support button.
- There is such a thing as the F.A.Q., Knowledgebase and Forum. A lot of the basic questions are already answered there. Just use the search feature to find where it’s at.
June 2nd, 2005
Whenever we hit a snag or someone claims that something is wrong with their website, one of the first places I visit to check on the problem is DNSReport.com. It’s basically a simple online tool to check if your domain or site is working or not. In short, it will tell you if there is really something wrong with your domain or your hosting. Just type in your domain name and hit the submit button. It will show you a list of information and theDNS analysis (which is either Passed, Warn or Failed). It should give you an almost perfect “Passed” result just like this. If you get a red “Failed” result on at least one, then it’s time to get some support.
Likewise, a more comprehensive one is DNSStuff.com. It has dozens of usefull tools one can use, with the more frequently ones ranging from the WHOIS LookUp, Tracert and Ping to check if your site is accessible from other parts of the world.
Half the time, the cause of problem is just local — slow connections, ISP issues, corporate/school LAN restrictions, firewalls (like ZoneAlarm), and browser problems. With these tools, you can quickly get a second opinion.
June 2nd, 2005
