It will have a minimalist set up with very low traffic (especially to start with but probably in general - max 100 a day I would think).
My web designer wants it to be a Linux or Unix based hosting and I need to register a domain name also (I’ve noticed this is sometimes included).
There would be a booking form - around 32 images (small in size/quality) a booking form and a blog.
It’s really not a big site but I want it to look like a big company so it would not be good to have really slow load time or downtime.
Also since we are talking to experts here - could you give me your top 3 S.E.O. tips for when I’m writing my content.
BTW I’ve looked at these guys all ready - I’ve noticed they sponsor this site but I would appreciate honesty from people who’ve had experience with them.
Oh and my web designer doesn’t want to deal with godaddy - Personally I don’t know why but it’s not worth getting anyone upset over so leave this one out.
Based on the reviews I’ve read recently of 1 & 1 I’d also recommend avoiding them.
Your requirements are very reasonable and honestly any Linux based host (the majority are) will be able to meet your requirements. The main variables between hosts are:
Support - This is a big deal, I recommend contacting some hosts to see how they respond to your support requests
Server speed - This will vary greatly from host to host. Perhaps you could ask for a free trial?
Features - I’d recommend looking for a host that uses cPanel as it’s a very feature rich control panel.
Hi, thanks for the reply - I read the article and although it’s a really crappy thing for them to do, now that I know it seems avoidable. Could you suggest a good CPanel hosting service if you know one though I’d like to look into what you’ve suggested?
I’ve got a SEO question - My company does Tours in Thailand so one of my key words will be Thailand - I’ve been told that google will respect me more if I’m hosted in Thailand — Anyone heard this before? Any thoughts?
I believe your web site is static and do not have huge web application operations. In this way I believe any shared web hosting within your budget limit will be fine for you.
Good luck.
My experience with 1and1 (shared hosting) has not been bad. In fact, they’ve maintained surprising uptime (99.97% over a ~20 months period). But, I never had to cancel service thus far. Most of the trouble I read about them had something to do with cancellation not going as expected, charges for domain name registration for domains that were long transfered to another registrar, and other things of this sort.
I’ve got a SEO question - My company does Tours in Thailand so one of my key words will be Thailand - I’ve been told that google will respect me more if I’m hosted in Thailand — Anyone heard this before? Any thoughts?
In few words, if you don’t use a Thailand specific TLD, the search engine can’t phantom that you want to attract visitors from that country (especially if the site is in another language). However, I have a feeling that while the tours you organize are in Thailand, your ideal visitor is from more developed countries, so hosting the site in Thailand would not be of any real benefit to you.
try to use seperate providers for both hosting and domain , it will keep you safe. I used to register my domains at name.com and hosting from Shopaserver.com pretty good combination to go .
Any shared hosting should suffice your requirements. Also, When you register your domain with a domain registrar, you’ll have more freedom to chose your hosting.
As for your “Which host should I go with” question, you should give semoweb.com a try, their servers are fast and they will help you if you need support.
Could I ask if anyone knows why I should or shouldn’t host my domain with the same company I host my website?
I believe that is possible. But there are were a lot of tricks and scams around that.
Some providers register your domain name for themselves and in the such way tire you to them upon.
Next time you will need to move you will need to pay them a high fee for your own domain name.
There is presales live chat exists so you can use that to specify that and avoid that further.