Jane May Blogs

Preparing Your Site

When creating a web site, the first thing to consider is where to put your site. By that, I mean the web server and the domain name.

Finding A Hosting Company

Although many large companies place their sites on their own servers, most companies don’t have a need for such an elaborate set up. Rather, they place their sites on servers owned by a host company. Although you have to take in consideration many different factors when selecting a hosting company, I focus on the factors that are related to search engine optimization. When looking for a hosting company, make sure that it offers the following features:

• Allows you to upload your own pages. Some companies provide tools to create pages, but do not have an option to create your own custom work. Make sure you read through the details.
• Provides a way for you to track visitors.  AWstats come with many host accounts, but if not Google Analytics and StatCounter are two of the better ones I’ve used.
• Allows you to use your own domain name. Don’t get an account in which you have a subdirectory of the hosting company’s domain name. Blogger is the largest community and I always recommend getting your own domain for branding purposes. It’s only $8.99 to buy a domain with GoDaddy.
• A ton of bandwidth and server space. Depending on your plans for your web site, make sure you find a plan with the appropriate amount of server space.

My job is to make this search easy for you so if you don’t want to do your own research (I know it can be tedious from experience), here are my recommendations:

• If you anticipate under 3000 visitors per day and only want to pay $5.95 per month, I highly recommend HostMonster.
• If you anticipate over 3000 hits per day and want to withstand a Digg frontpage, go with InfinFX owned by my good friend Nate Whitehill.