When you run a web-based business, staying on top (or near the top) of search engine results is absolutely essential to staying successful. If you look at domain name registration statistics, thousands of sites are being bought and created each day; plenty of them will compete with yours.

Cheap domain names and cheap web hosting make it easy for anyone to start a business. (Yours was easy, right? You did a domain name search, picked a name, hired a web host, and create a web site. That means the competition can easy start to chase after you, too.)

But you have an advantage over the new competition. You’ve been online longer. So you do you stay on top when new sites are created every day?

• Don’t get lazy. It took more than just choosing to buy domain name rights and hiring a website for your site to reach its search rankings, right? It’ll take more to stay there. Keep working on your site, even after you’ve reached your goals.
• Stay relevant. The best site is one that is useful to users and always growing. Adding fresh content makes you more appealing for both search engines and users.

buy domain name · domain name search · web-based business

If you have written content to share, e-publishing can be a budget-friendly and environmentally-friendly way of sharing that content with the world. There are several ways to go about publishing content digitally. You can set up your own website to distribute the content yourself (by enlisting UK web hosting and domain name registration services, which are readily available). Or you can use a distribution service for e-readers and other digital content to distribute the work for you (you will be charged fees and/or commission).

The benefits of e-publishing are many:

1. Environmental benefit. Publishing content digitally saves resources on several fronts. Most obviously, digital publishing does not require the use of paper and cardboard for the pages, cover, and binding. It also saves fuel costs that are required for shopping traditional print-copy books and magazines.
2. Budgetary benefit. Because the internet is a pretty affordable place to set up shop, it doesn’t cost much to create a website for your e-book. In fact, many people will find web hosting that includes free domain name registration. And marketing through social media such as Twitter and Facebook is an affordable way to generate buzz without spending any money.
3. Global audience. Because you’re not relying on access to bookstores and magazine stands, e-publishing allows you to reach out to anyone with an internet connection. Your conversion rate doesn’t even need to be that high to make a profit, thanks to digital marketing and e-publishing.

Domain Name · Domain Name Registration · e-publishing · Facebook · Twitter · UK web hosting

If you are starting a website for your home business, the quality and accessibility of that website are essential if it is to help you succeed. Plenty of individual websites are for more personal reasons, such as blogs or photo sites to share thoughts and memories with friends and family.

But when your website is for your business, it’s even more important that the site be the best it can be. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and spend lots and lots of money on your site, but it does mean it should embody two main attributes:

1. It should contain accurate information that is helpful to site visitors and tells them what they wanted to learn from visiting your site.
2. It should be easy to find.

That second point, “findability” if you will, is what we’re going to look deeper at in this particular blog post. What good is it to have a fabulous, informative, and even attractive website if no one ever finds it?

Certainly, you can include your web address (the address you choose to buy when you go through the process of domain name registration) on any local marketing efforts you do. Put it on business cards, flyers, newspaper ads, and other forms of print media.

But many people use the internet to discover businesses, and this is where many entrepreneurs miss a lot of opportunity. There are literally millions of websites out there: how will the people who are looking for a business like yours get to your specific business site with so many others to choose from?

Search engine optimization. And one of the simplest things you can do is also one of the most affordable and easiest: start a blog. When you register a UK domain name, you’ll be buying a domain that you can use as both your main site or your blog; or, you could host a blog externally and link to your website.

But having an on-site blog is especially important, because search engines prize content over almost any other factor. What does that mean for you? Well, once you choose your domain name, get your business web hosting all set up, and have your site created and published, search engines will “crawl” your site, inspecting to see what is there.

The more relevant content they find, the more valuable they determine your website to be, and therefore, the more likely they are to suggest it to searchers who are looking for the type of content found on your site.

Blogs are a cheap, easy, and effective way of increasing the amount of relevant content on your site without altering its layout and appearance.

business web hosting · home business · local marketing · UK domain name · websites

Are you confused about the relationship between (and difference between) domain names and IP addresses? You’re not alone. If you’re familiar with the internet at all, which you likely are since you are reading this blog, you’ve no doubt worked with domain names before. It’s the address at the top of this page, in the URL bar. Between after the prefix (http://www.) of any website, you’ll find the domain name associated with that website, which we’ve acquired for our blog through domain name registration.

In practical application, a domain name is the “address” you use to find the website you’re looking for, but in reality, it has a much more static address, known as the IP address. What does this mean? Well, IP address is a unique combination of numbers that are assigned to every individual entity that’s at all connected to the internet. Your computer has one, and the server on which a website is stored has one, and even mobile phones that connect to the web are assigned one. They’re a way to differentiate who does what online, as well as where everything is located.

How Do Domain Name and IP Address Relate?

Well, it wouldn’t really do to type in a long string of numbers when you want to visit your favorite blogs, read the news, or find out about the weekend weather forecast, so domain names are used as more user-friendly locators of IP addresses where websites are stored.

So, for example, say you have a website. You therefore will find out the IP address for the server where you’re storing your files (or rather, your UK web hosting provider is storing the files). It might be formatted something like this: xxx.xx.xxx.xxx.

No one wants to type that into a URL bar, so you do a domain name search to find the perfect domain name for your site, and get your UK web hosting company to set it up so that when people type in your domain name, they’ll be taken to your site.

The great thing about domain names is that you can have more than one domain name directed at the same IP address. And if you change web hosts, you can build a new site at a new IP address (or move your existing site files to a new IP address), and have the domain name direct to the new address. Your website visitors don’t have to know that you changed servers: to them, they type in your catchy, user-friendly domain name and are directed to your UK website, the same as always.

Domain Name Registration · Domain Names · IP address · UK web hosting · UK website

When you set out to establish a brand new UK website for yourself, one of the first steps you’ll need to pursue is acquiring a domain name. After all, what’s the point of building a website if you don’t know what domain name it will be associated with? You want the two to correspond, so selecting a domain first is always a good idea.

When you start pursuing domain name search, you’ll have a variety of different factors to choose from. Both .com and .co.uk names will be available to you (as well as many others, including .org, .net, .mobi, .biz, and the list goes on and on). You’ll be able to choose from all sorts of different names and titles that are yet unclaimed.

But one choice you may not even be aware of when you’re doing standard domain name search is actually a choice that has a great impact on how search engine-friendly your website ends up being: the age of your domain name.

You might think that domain names don’t really ‘age’—after all, this isn’t a fine wine or cheese. It’s a combination of letters that people use to locate your website. But in reality, domain names don’t really exist until someone registers them for the first time. You could come up with a very unique name that has never been registered before, so when you register it, it then is created.

Or, you could look into buying the rights to domain name registration for an existing domain name. This means that someone already brought it into being, possibly months or (even better) years ago.

What’s The Advantage of Registering Old Domain Names?

Domain name age brings with it one key advantage: search engine weight. Search engines, and Google in particular, calculate many different factors when evaluating the strength and relevance of various UK websites and deciding which are most appropriate to provide to searchers.

Factors for search engine relevance include the content on the site, links directed to the site from external locations, the relevance of the domain name, and the age and reputation of the website itself.

When purchasing domain names, ask your web hosting UK provider to help you find some older domain names to consider. Your webmaster may even own some domain names that will be useful to you, or may have contacts with other webmasters with old domain names they are willing to sell.

Domain Name · Domain Name Registration · Old Domain Names · UK website · web hosting UK

Downtime is the enemy of a successful website. In this day and age, people aren’t as patient with slow-loading web pages as they were in the internet’s younger years. Now, if it takes a page any more time than a second or two to load, they know it’s not the fault of their internet provider: it’s the webpage itself.

Even worse than someone visiting a slow webpage is following a link to your site, or entering your domain name into their browser, and finding that the page is down. What does this communicate to your site visitors? In the best-case scenario, they understand about dealing with unreliable web hosting and understand that the site is probably just undergoing some routine downtime. (That’s the best case, but it’s still not good: they won’t interact with your content, make an appointment, or place any orders if they can’t access that information.)

The worst-case scenario is that they think your website has gone out of business, or that “the plug has been pulled”(as the saying goes) because you haven’t paid your bills. This is a very, very bad impression to present to potential site visitors, whether you run a business site or even just a blog to highlight your expertise.

But neither of these is a desirable scenario. The best thing is to avoid this altogether by choosing reliable web hosting in the UK before you even send your website live for the first time.

Choose a web host that meets the following criteria:

• Up-front disclosure on uptime and downtime commitment.
• Server space: option to upgrade as-needed, with unlimited server space available
• Bandwidth available: unlimited is best.
• Support: A web host or domain name company that offers round-the-clock support (both technical support and customer service) is a much better use of your money.
• Reputation: does the host come recommended by someone you know or do business with? Are they part of a professional network or organization? Have they won awards? Are there positive reviews of their services online?

These elements all give a good indication as to how reliable your web hosting company will be. The more reliable, the better your experience will be as a customer, and the higher performing your website will be. Consider these criteria when assessing whether a web host is a good fit for you and your business. Because after all, spending some time to do your homework before you pay money is the best way to make sure that money is well spent and you don’t have to change web hosts later.

Bandwidth · Domain Name · reliable web hosting · web hosting in the UK

Choosing a domain name is one of the trickiest parts to starting your online web presence. So many different factors go into make a domain name truly helpful, beneficial, and appropriate for your business—it can be hard to know where to start.

If you’ve been doing some research, you’ve no doubt come across some very helpful pointers in helping you narrow down the field of potential domain names into a few that are truly good choices for your business. Here’s a review of the basics:

1. Choose a domain name that fits with your business. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many business owners get distracted by a catchy domain, clever pun, or cool-sounding word in a domain that’s available. Just because it sounds good doesn’t mean it fits with your business; if the domain is vague or unclear, or if it suggests that you have a different kind of business than you actually do, it’s worth your time to move on.
2. Choose a domain name that helps you get found. If you are appealing to a global audience, make sure your main keyword is in the domain address. If you’re appealing to a local audience, make sure your primary geographic term is in the domain address. This helps search engines deliver your site to potential customers who are looking for businesses just like yours.
3. Choose a domain name that’s not to long. This is simple. The shorter your domain, the more memorable your website will be, and the more trustworthy you will appear.

However, these tips aren’t the only ones that will help you buy a domain name that is truly appropriate to your business. There are two elements that people do not often think about that can cause problems down the line. If you’ve decided upon a name that seems ideal based on the criteria above, put it through the following tests before going through with the domain name registration:

1. Is it accidentally inappropriate? Individual words have spaces written in between them when used in a sentence, but domain names don’t have spaces. Write your ideal name out, in all lowercase letters, and see if you’ve inadvertently created any inappropriate words in the middle. Both potential visitors and search engines may avoid your site, so make sure it’s age-appropriate when spelled out as one word.
2. Is it timeless? If you intend for your website to be successful long-term, choose a domain name that is also long-term. Avoid using years or other time-specific words in your address, and avoid trends that will likely go out of style, opting for broader terms that describe all of what you do, not just one product that may be popular right now.

Buy a Domain Name · Choose a domain name · domain address · Domain Name · Domain Name Registration · online web presence · search engines

Owning a small business website can seem like a big jump to business owners who have operated successful brick-and-mortar style companies for years. It can also be a bit daunting for someone who has a good idea and wants to begin a web business, but doesn’t know where to start.

The bottom line is that, if pursued correctly, a business website can be quite profitable, whether your business operates online, offline, or both. However, knowing how to go about it is important to make the investments you make in your site truly worth it.

Here are some steps for how to ensure that your business website is bringing you the most profit possible:

1. Set goals. One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make with their websites is not knowing exactly why they’re creating them. You may think “I need a website, because everyone is supposed to have a website.” But if that’s you’re main reason, you don’t have the whole picture in front of you. Browse through websites that companies similar to yours have created. What sorts of features do they offer? What kinds of information do they provide? Are these effective? What would you do differently? Then determine what your main goals are for your website: is its purpose to inform, to gain new customers at your physical store, or to gain online customers? Also set goals for your website’s growth and features that you’d like to see both immediately and long term.
2. Do your homework. Before you jump in and buy domain name registration and business web hosting from the first company you see, look around to understand what you’re looking for and what you need from a website. Do you need ecommerce capability? The ability to increase your disk space as your website grows? Dedicated customer service and technical support? Help designing the website? Know what you’re looking for so you spend your money well from the start.
3. Stay invested—literally. A successful business website is, in a way, a living thing. You don’t just create it and let it be. Spending a bit of time and a bit of money each month to keep your website fresh and growing will certainly pay off. This may mean updating your blog once or twice a month. It may mean developing more user-friendly features as you go. It may also mean investing in search engine optimization so that people can find the website you put so much effort into. As with any investment, these efforts really do pay off by making your site more accessible and more likely to drive conversions.

With these three major tips, you are ready to get started. Research and find a good domain name registration company, secure affordable business web hosting, and then begin. A good business website is helpful to your customers, and helping your customers helps your company by creating loyalty and gaining exposure to your target market.

affordable business web hosting · business website · customer service · Domain Name Registration · technical support

If you are looking into domain name registration and web hosting for your personal or business website, you may be wondering whether subdomains are necessary or appropriate for the site you are building. What is a subdomain anyway? How is this any different from a subdirectory? Which is right to use for different situations? Here’s a look at these two basic types of domain name organization, and how they each can be applied to the specific needs of your own website.

What is a subdomain?

This is our first question. A subdomain is considered a domain that is part of a larger domain. For example, on the large domain “MyExcellentBusinessWebsite.com” you could create a subdomain of “Sales.MyExcellentBusinessWebsite.com” the “sales.” comes listed in front of the domain name. This means that it is a separate entity from other subdomains within the larger URL: the files are kept separately, email addresses are located separately, and so on.

What is a subdirectory?

A subdirectory, in contrast, is an extension of a domain, such as “MyExcellentBusinessWebsite.com/sales”. All of the information for this directory and other subdirectories is located in the same place (the server owned by the web hosting provider you chose for hosting your website), and emails come from the same domain as well.

So, what is the difference?

Think of it this way: picture a 3-leafed clover. Subdomains are the cloven leaves that make up the cloverleaf shape: they are each a separate leaf, but are part of the larger whole. For a subdirectory, picture a tree with a single trunk and several branches: the subdirectories are branches that extend from the single main trunk.

In practice, there are several differences between subdomains and subdirectories.

• As mentioned, the files and email addresses are stored separately, so from a UK web hosting perspective, make sure that your potential web hosting provider offers this service if you’re considering subdomains. This will allow you to have email addresses from separate subdomains (which make it simpler for clients and customers to keep things straight). It also means that people searching within your website can search within just the subdomain they’re on, so your information is easier to find and access.
• SEO is the other major difference. Because subdomains are treated as individual domain names, search engines will rank them independently. This means you can optimize different subdomains for different terms, or you optimize for the same term and potentially have your website represented more than once within the top search results page.

The bottom line: If you need your website to address several different types of customer or perform several major functions from one site, subdomains are a good way to keep that information separate without creating separate websites. If this is something you’re interested in, then before you sign up for web hosting or pay to register your domain name, check the provider to ensure they have the capacity and support to provide this functionality to your new website.

business website · domain name organization · Domain Name Registration · register a domain name · subdirectory · subdomains · web hosting · website

In the world of internet marketing, web hosting, and all other things website-related, it’s common to hear that something “is king”. For example, SEO professionals are known to declare that “content is king,” while those who register domain name addresses will sometimes say “.com is king” over other extensions such as “.net” or “.org.”

But is that true? Is .com really the best domain extension for every website? Not surprisingly, the answer is more complex than a simple yes or no. The appropriate extension depends largely upon the content and purpose of the website itself, as well as on the target audience that the website’s owners seek to reach.

• .com is the most popular extension on a global level. If your website, especially a business website, is meant to appeal to an audience in more than one country, regardless of geography, then you should put emphasis on .com domains during your domain names search process.
• .co.uk is, of course, popular in the UK, and serves a very different purpose. If your business is relevant to nearby customers (within your town, county, or country), then a “.co.uk” domain extension adds legitimacy by showing that you are nearby.

To provide an example, a company that sells party supplies online would do well to sequester a .com domain name, as their target audience comes from many countries and is more likely to trust a business with a common extension.

However, a company that does roof repair in northern England does not need to worry about global customers. This is a company that provides localized service within the UK to customers in the UK. The more clear it is (to both customers and search engines – we’ll address this further below) that this is a UK company, the better. This means a .co.uk web address extension (often made more affordable when purchased as a package with UK web hosting) is a good idea for that website.

The difference in domain name extension matters beyond customer perception. Search engines take many factors into account when returning search results for peoples’ queries. Extension can be a part of that, especially for local businesses. The more obvious it is that you provide the services searchers are looking for, the more likely you are to show up high in search results. So if someone searches for “UK roof repair” and your roof repair site has the “.co.uk” extension, you’re likely to benefit from that correlation.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it’s something to take into consideration when you’re running a domain name check for a potential new website. If you can find a domain name for sale that includes a keyword relevant to your business, and also has the right extension for your needs, your website gains a layer of legitimacy simply by having a good address.

.co.uk · com · domain extension · Domain Name · domain name extension · search engines · SEO · UK company · web hosting