SEO Deadly Sins - Mistakes That Hurt Web Page Ranking

August 21st, 2008

The following are a list of mistakes can ensure that your site maintains a low ranking with the search engines. Avoid at all costs.

* Specifying no title for your page *

I cannot stress how important the title of a web page is. Failing to specify a descriptive, keyword optimized title will do untold damage to your ranking with the search engines. It is the equivalent to owning a shop and boarding up its windows. Ideally each page on your site should have a unique, content-specific title.

* Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page *

If your web page has plenty of nice-looking graphics and eye-popping Flash animation and not a lot of textual content it may indeed look nice but have you ever considered what how the search engines might see it.

Search engines thrive on textual content, scavenging as much text as Drug Treatment For Pulmonary Hypertension can but unfortunately they cannot understand images or Flash animations like we can and so will find nothing of real value on your page. Try to balance your page so that the textual content is given priority and that any images or animations are used only Low Fat Diets For Diaics needed. Also it is a good idea to attach some text to an image by using its ALT tag as search engines use this text when determining rank.

* Complicated menu systems *

Search engines spiders that crawl through our pages are a relatively primitive bunch. They find in hard to navigate complicated menu systems implemented for example in JavaScript or as a Java applet. Just because it is 230230233st Century Tattoos for a human to navigate through the site never assume it will be as easy for a search engine spider. A menu system using simple textual links will be easier for a spider to understand and it will be able to successfully navigate your site. A lot of the time complicated menu systems can be replicated using textual links and CSS.

If you must use a complicated menu system be sure to provide a site map that is clearly accessible from the homepage of your site and contains only textual links to your pages. This ensures that even if the spider cannot understand your menu system that it will be able to find the pages on your site.

Frank Kilkelly is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Expert and Webmaster at http://www.seo-ireland.com/, a complete search engine optimization resource. The highlight of the site is an SEO forum http://www.seo-ireland.com/forum/ for discussion of the latest techniques and tips to improve the ranking of your web site.

Marketing Your Business And Translation Services

August 21st, 2008

The world is becoming Tattoos By Mr Cartoon smaller place with technology advancement and the information age that we live in. The internet is making communication between countries easy, convenient and affordable. People are able to manufacture, supply and market products and services in other countries. However, when businesses are looking to market their products and services in other countries, translation services becomes a vital method and tool to ensure their message gets across to new audiences.

Marketing products and services are usually in the form of any advertising?including brochures, annual reports, catalogues, power-point presentations, websites and video. For companies who want to appeal to a global market, getting the correct translation for their marketing campaign can Free Tatto Clip Art vital to the success of international business. Therefore, it has become important to use professional translation services when translating to a different language, or more than one language.

Nevertheless, it is important for translation to be accurate and that the final product accurately portrays the original. Many translation companies are able to provide expert translation services. Finding the best one to suit your needs may be complicated. The internet is a valuable source of information for translation companies; here people can find information on company experience and specialist skills. If your business is a complicated Vitamin Lysin Shop Herpes Vitamin such as Law, Engineering, etc, it is advisable to find a translation company that specializes in that field.

In today??s global market place, translation services and marketing go hand-in-hand. For businesses that are branching out across the world, trying to get new customers in foreign countries, translation is a vital service. Many companies also use foreign countries for production and Essential Oils Fro Weight Loss products. To eliminate unfortunate ??lost in translation? accidents that can be costly, it is important to get translation services that are accurate and correct.

When you design a marketing campaign for a country that uses another language, get a professional translation company to assist you in ensuring the translation and message you want to get across is accurate. Translation services are more than just translating to another language, your chosen translation company will be able to advise on cultural influences and local trends for your new target market. So, get your marketing and advertising for your global business right the first time-use a reputable translation company to ensure your message gets across.

Dylan wrote this article for the online marketers at Romo Translation Romo Translation is a world leader in translating.

Web Marketing - How To Get Your New Web Site In Google

August 21st, 2008

Is your business one of the multitudes of businesses that just designed a site that has no traffic? Perhaps one of the biggest misunderstandings about web marketing is that simply setting up a website will bring you visitors who become paying clients - alas, that just doesn’t appear Herpes Simplex Type 2 Latency happen. Too many believe in what I refer to as “Field of Dreams” web marketing, thinking “If you build it, they will come.”

Are you wondering:

  • Why does internet marketing appear of use for one group of people, but not others?
  • How much time does it take for my website begins coming up in search results?
  • When will [my website] start making money?

Is my website even listed in Google?

Simply building a website, doesn’t indicate that Google will index your website. It’s easy to see if Google has listed your website by looking on Google for “site:mydomain.tld”, e.g.: “site:YourDomain.com”. If your query comes back with any listings in the slightest, Google knows you’re there. If Google responds with the notorious “Your search did not match any Acupuncture Rotator Cuff they’ve never heard of you - they just don’t know that your website exists Back Acne Laser Therapy all.

How do I get my website into Google?

Certainly, you might try to “ask” Google to crawl your website, but that will put you in a looooong list of websites hoping to get added. The hands-down most effective way to get added quickly is to have a link to your website - somewhere. Now that someone has linked to your website, and Google stumbles that link, your website will be queued for fast-indexing.

So what’s the best way to get my first link?

There are a number of ways to do this, very affordably. You can:

  • Ask a friend to put a link to your website,
  • Post messages in an online forum, with your site address in your signature,
  • Send a reply on a web log and include a link to your website,
  • Build your own blog on Blog.com and link to your website,
  • Open an account on a social bookmarking service like Digg and create a bookmark to your website,
  • Write a free reprint article and upload it to SearchWarp, EZineArticles, or Free-Reprint-Articles

The faster Google looks at the website where your link was placed, the faster Google will find that a page out there linked to you. Some pages are checked as seldom as once every few months, other web sites are checked several times an hour. The fastest means to get into Google are through social bookmarking or article marketing.

If you are allowed to view your website logs, sift through them for visits by an agent called GoogleBot. This is the program that Google uses to discover websites. Once you that Google has hit a few pages of your website, it doesn’t take long until your site: search shows a few of your pages. Regrettably, you’ve seen the beginning of your journey…

So, when do I start getting visitors?

After your website is indexed, why doesn’t it appear when I look my keywords? If you pored through each search engine result, you’ll discover that website is on the very last page of results for any search but your company name. And if that company name is pretty widespread, your site’s likely at the bottom of that list, too.

Playing in the Sandbox…

Your website will get stuck in a temporary location that dubbed} “the sandbox”. Even [though your website may be really] healthily linked to, liked, and laid out - it just won’t appear on Google until it has been around long enough for Google to think that your website is not a spam-site.

The duration your website spends in the sandbox depends on many aspects and Google isn’t giving out the details. The vital thing to bear in mind is that web marketing is a lasting effort. There are no magic pills your web site can take to defeat the search engines. Google does its best to ensure that searchers are provided with the best search results. Making your website go through the sandbox is Google’s way of meeting surfers needs and retaining their position as the best search engine.

Daiv Russell does web marketing copywriting for Envision Software. Visit our site for our whitepaper on applying the 4C formula for web promotion success. Make sure to submit your articles to Free-Reprint-Articles.com Or, if you want articles for your newsletter or ezine, check out their health articles and business articles.

There Is No Such Thing As A Guaranteed Search Engine Ranking

August 20th, 2008

After spending the better part of everyday working on optimizing my website, adding content, building links and trying to please the search engines, it makes me mad to check my email and see another company offering guaranteed rankings. These emails often claim that for Alpha Hydrox Salicylic Acid Acne Treatment certain amount of money they will get Scales For Anxiety site to rank number one for the keywords of your choice. Just give them a pile of cash and a few months and they will get you that #1 ranking no matter how Tatto Body Spray your field. Here four reasons why no one can guarantee rankings with the search engines…

1. No company can guarantee anything from the search engines except the search engines themselves. There are certainly things that you can do to help your site in the eyes of the search engines. However, at the end of the day there are Acne Complex By Dr Murad of factors that influence your ranking with the search engines. No company can control all of these factors.

2. Search engine optimization (SEO for short) can be a long and grueling process. Sometimes you can see results very quickly. However, more often than not the results take months to show up. This is especially true for markets or keywords that are highly competitive. There are companies out there that spend millions of marketing dollars each year trying to get rankings for certain highly competitive keywords. There is no way that paying a company a few thousand dollars will guarantee that you will rank higher than the big boys.

3. Search engine rankings are based on algorithms that take into account a whole bunch of factors including: inbound links, page content, meta content and the age of the page in question. There are ways to subvert some of these factors and trick the search engines. However, tricking Google and trying to manipulate search results is a very bad idea. If and when the search engines discover your sites deception it is quite likely that your site will be removed from the index. Being removed from the index means that all of your rankings and probably most of your traffic will disappear. Before you try tricking the search engines you need to make sure that you consider the potential consequences of your actions. Can you really afford to get your site banned from Google?

4. Anyone who does search engine optimization on a regular basis should know all of this. Companies who try to tell you that they can guarantee your results either don’t know what they are doing or they are simply lying to you in order to steal your money. Either way, they aren’t the people that you want to trust your business to.

If you need help getting rankings in the search engines, there are lots of reputable search engine optimization companies that are out there. However, you need to make sure that they are up front and realistic with you about the potential for results as well as their methods. In the world of SEO rankings are never guaranteed but hard work usually pays off.

Jeff McRitchie is the director of marketing for http://www.MyBinding.com and lives in Hillsboro, Oregon. He is responsible for SEO, Search Engine Marketing, web development and customer retention. He writes extensively on topics related to Binding Machines, Binding Supplies, Report Covers, Binders, Index Tabs, Laminators, Laminating Pouches, Roll Film, Shredders, and Paper Handling Equipment.

Yahoo Capitulates to Google?

August 20th, 2008

Yahoo has decided to run a pilot program whereby it will display Google ads in its own search results. Does that mean that Yahoo! is giving up the fight Yeast Infection Diagnosis capitulating at the throne of the Big G? Does it mean that search Vitex Orth Birth Control Acne Acne Cystic Medication Acne rankings Tattoo Tears search engine results will now deteriorate as it seems like there will be fewer players in the field?

I am very surprised by Yahoo!’s move. I understand that a combined Yahoosoft, or is it MicroYahoo, or MicroHoo, may not be big and/or good enough to compete against Google, but seriously a Yahoogle may not be the best option either. I wonder what this pilot program will do to the cost of adwords? What I think it ultimately means is that SEO work and the ability to get good search engine results for free by optimizing on and off page content etc. will become even more valuable.

There could be yet a different motive behind this move by Yahoo!. It could just be a simple case of Dish Olive Garden Have you ever noticed that sometimes the Yahoo! ads aren’t quite as on target as the Google ads. Perhaps Yahoo! is just trying to see how the Big G does things so they can emulate them. Sort of the way that Microsoft does a lot of their product development. Hmm… Maybe Yahoo! and Microsoft have more in common than I originally thought.

Back to the search engine results question. I think that regardless of how things shake down, as a consumer, I will need to become savvier about how I search for information. As a content producer, which is my other hat, I feel that staying knowledgeable about search engine optimization and search engine marketing tools will pay off with either preserved rankings or with increased rankings. Fewer players in the search engine game just means that being good at search engine optimization, keyword research, etc. will become an even more valuable skill.

What do you think?

Rafael is a renaissance man. His career path includes stints in the financial services industry, in operations management for a large multinational computer company, driving a taxicab and doing IT support for a large professional association.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Offer Incentives for More Referrals

August 20th, 2008

Use your creativity High Blood Pressure Medication Stomach develop an incentive program that will reward referrals. People like to give referrals and they LOVE to be recognized for giving referrals. And, incentives are one of the most powerful methods of generating more of them.

Incentives can range from gift certificates to purchase discounts to cash payment based on business generated.

The wonderful thing about an incentive program is that it feeds into people’s innate desire to help each other. It is rewarding to know an effort has been successful. Help Me Lose Weight Fast sure to let your contact know when a referral he Cheesecake Factory Mayfair she has made comes through.

Give people a reward that they will really appreciate. At my business (a marketing and graphic design company), we often give people a gift certificate for two at a local restaurant. You could also offer a gift certificate to Amazon or to a local theater or wine club.

I’ve found a gift certificate to be much more memorable than a cash incentive. The reason is simple - these kind of rewards make people feel special. Finding the right incentive can be a challenge, but it’s worth it. You will score big by really building your word-of-mouth business.

Here are some different types of referral incentives you can try in your business:

- If you have a waiting room, you can prominently post the names and pictures of people who refer to your business or practice. Give it a heading that proclaims, “We would like to thank the following people for referring a new customer this past month.” People are motivated to get their name recognized up on the board and so they will give referrals.

- You can use a direct mail campaign or new customer kit to encourage your customers to send referrals to you. Create an easy-to-complete referral form and a self-addressed, stamped envelope asking that recipients kindly complete the form and return it. You can also include a discount coupon that your recipients can pass along to a friend.

- When you have a sales event, send a letter or postcard or e-mail inviting customers to bring a friend to the event and get an extra discount.

- Offer a gift certificate during the holidays to make gift giving easy for your customers. Give them additional discounts with a coupon.

- Use coupons to encourage new business such as “buy one and bring your friend.” Or you can offer a “two-for-one” seminar admission.

- Invite your customers to an appreciation event and ask them to bring a guest. Give them both a special gift.

- Ask your current and former clients to pass your name and contact information on to their circle. When finishing a sales cycle with a customer, ask for referral recommendations.

You’ll be amazed at how the action of showing appreciation can generate good will and additional referrals. Once a person gives a referral, they become much more likely to continue to refer people your way. As soon as someone sends you a referral, immediately send them a thank-you gift. A card or quick phone call is the bare minimum.

On the flip side, if a person refers someone to you but gets no recognition or appreciation, he or she probably won’t say anything to you. But, the person is likely to make a comment to a co-worker, friend, or spouse: “Can you believe I didn’t even get a thank you!!!” And…no more referrals from that source.

ACTION ITEM: Consider your current referral program. How are you generating referrals? What could you do to create a Referral Incentive Program for your business? Developing a referral program now will save you a lot of time later. By encouraging a steady stream of word-of-mouth advertising, you will find you are getting more pre-qualified leads - a groups that is much more likely to make a purchase.

Copyright (c) 2006 Marketing Maven

Wendy Maynard, the Marketing Maven, publishes REMARKABLE MARKETING, a weekly marketing strategy ezine for business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. If Classic Car Auction Fredericksburg Tx ready to skyrocket your sales, easily attract customers, and have more fun, get your FREE TIPS now at http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/ezine.html

Pay Per Click For Real Estate Agents

August 20th, 2008

Most companies are afraid to invest in online advertising, either because they have tried it and lost thousands of dollars, or because they are afraid of losing thousands of dollars. You should be skeptical, because both those logical reasons are quite valid, and true.

Having clients who previously hired a company or person who implemented their Google AdWords pay per click campaigns to get them traffic to their site proved to be expensive, and useless for their business.

Aren’t all adwords accounts the same? Shouldn’t Easy Steps To Lose Weight For Free On Net be able to hire Police Auctions In Coeur D Alene Id who sets up ppc campaigns and get targeted traffic to your website? Sure. So why didn’t that happen? Why did you pay a significant amount of money, get a lot of clicks, but no business?

Doing your homework comes in handy. And, unfortunately, pay per click services are popping up everyday on the Internet. It’s the same thing as going with a real estate agent who just passed their license, but never sold a house. Or going with a real estate agent who has all the connections, knows all the best listings and deals for their clients, and makes the sales because they know their market, and their clients needs. Which one would you hire to represent your best interest?

When it comes to pay per click services, you must look at testimonials. Do they have actual names and web site addresses that you can view? Have they had any clients? Are they looking to upcharge you on ridiculous monthly fees?

When it comes to the real estate market, your adwords account can be set up in so many different ways, that it will either make or break your bank account. How? If you sell real estate in California, where do you have your ads running? It certainly better be targeted for only the State of California.

Are you on Google’s Content Network? Why? You will literally lose thousands of dollars targeting your ads there. The content network is for a very few who, and if you aren’t careful, you will go broke in one month using it (especially if you set your daily budget too high).

Do not use the Content Network, unless you think people who have not searched on any keywords to find something and they happen to “weight Loss Formula Lbs” your ad on the page when they are “surfing” will actually sign up for your services after clicking on that ad for which you just paid a fee. Sure, you can set your budget lower for clicks on the content network, but it isn’t going to bring you in a conversion (sale, signup, referral) that will even pay for Hjc Cs 10 Tattoo types of clicks.

A real estate agent’s pay per click campaign usually targets a certain region, so make sure you campaign does so accordingly. When you target that region, you need to make sure your keywords are set up with individual campaigns and individual ads for these related keywords. That is the number one mistake most pay per click companies make. They lump a whole bunch of keywords into a campaign, write a few ads, then activate the campaign.

What is your result? You pay the highest cost per click, and get a lower conversion, because your keywords are all different, yet they are using the same ad.

When it comes to ads, I have seen the worst ones you can imagine. Ads are your only sales pitch. You get less than 2 seconds to grab their attention. Why waste your money and their time by having them click on an ad that doesn’t apply to what they are looking for and it cost you way too much because your ppc company never optimized your campaigns.

Here is a realtor ad some people would place using AdWords, and they are targeting Palm Springs Real Estate as one of their keywords.

If you searched for Palm Springs Real Estate, would you click on a text ad that said the following:

Twentynine Palms Real Estate

Free Home Search. See Photos,

Local Maps, and Reduced Prices.

Do you see what is going on here? They are advertising using Palm Springs Real Estate terms, but actually targeting Twentynine Palms. This is located in California and also in the area north of Palm Springs, but they would be paying o hefty fee if I clicked on it! And how relevant would that we to someone searching for real estate in Palm Springs? You would think someone searching for real estate in Palm Springs would simply not click on that ad, right? If you think that way, it will cost you.

The fact that this company is offering a free home search might spark their interest enought to click on it, and they never have any intention on signing up with this company.

If you are offering something free (which can be effective), there are so many different factors you must consider when setting up your AdWords account so you don’t get useless clicks, or tire kickers.

Here is an ad that would be more likely to get a conversion (signup) for you.

Palm Springs California Homes

Search New Homes in Palm Springs

Free Virtual Tours, Low Prices.

Without going into the extremely detailed discussion of keyword research (20 - 30 hours should be spent here), optimization of every single keyword (critical), your daily budget, your target and where your ads will show, your text ads, and all of your on-page SEO marketing (search engine optimization) needed, this should at least give you a basic understanding that viewing testimonials from past clients who had sales due to the results from this expert adwords individual or pay per click company is crucial to your success, and your wallet.

Adrienne DeVita
Google AdWords Pay Per Click Services and SEO Expert

http://www.AdWordsandSEOServices.com

The Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) Explained

August 20th, 2008

Last week I was conversing with a client over the phone and she mentioned that she wanted her new website Teach Dog Bar be on the top of the SERP’s page. When I started to explain to her the logistics of being listed at the top for her Eagle Tattoo Designs terms she was fascinated. She is a very Lose Weight Healthy Alternative Doctor Approved Loss woman with several websites already, and it got me to thinking that I should probably do a post for people who don’t quite understand it all.

So, with that in mind - let me just explain (gently) what you’re looking at:

Whenever you go to a search engine such as Google and you type in a keyword or phrase (the words you are using to search for something), after you hit “Search”, the items that come up are broken down as follows:

The very top one or two “Sponsored Links” paid results. To get in that position, you have to be engaged in a PPC (Pay Per Click) or (Adwords) campaign with Google and you have to be the top bidder for the keyword phrase that was searched on.

Over on the right side are more “Sponsored Links”. These are also paid or “sponsored” results from a PPC campaign. The results on the side are not the top dollar advertising. The person in charge of the campaign has a choice of what keywords to bid on, how much they want to spend per word or phrase and what position they want to be in.

The results underneath the top ones and to the left or in the middle are the natural search results. Meaning, the results that are showing up here are based on SEO (search engine optimization) and not a paid advertising campaign. There are many factors that the search engine Hampton Va Red Lobster use in order to determine what you as the end user will see. The results page does emphasize how important search engine optimization can be to your marketing budget.

You can either pay a professional for your SEO or work on it yourself. It requires a good investment of your time, however the results are worth it. You can find good SEO advice by doing a Google search on “SEO tips” and now you’ll know what you are looking at when the results page comes up.

Joanne Pele is the Vice President of Operations at Complete Business Systems. Complete Business Systems provides a ready-to-go branding package for your company, including website, logo, business cards and letterhead. Additional services include postcard design, databases, press release and web content writing. For more information, visit Complete Business Systems or call 800-479-9186.

4 Steps To Flip a Website Successfully

August 20th, 2008

Determining a profitable website is not easy especially if you are looking to flip it South Beach Diet Message Boards higher profit within a short time frame. However, with the correct steps and procedures, it is possible even for a beginner to pick up a good Photos Of Tattoos After Mastectomy with great potential to start off.

The first step to determine if a website is worth the investment is by the number Dog To Dog Aggression income streams it has. Most websites have more than one income channel such as Pay-Per-Click advertisement (Google Adsense etc), Pay-Per-Action programs (AzoogleAds, ClickBank etc) Top 10 Acne Solution selling of own products. Basically, this step is to analyze the current profitable channels and see if you can expand or add in other sources of income. Never rely only on one income source for a website.

The second step is to find out where are the traffic coming from. Most websites should have a healthy amount of constant traffic from the search engines followed by social bookmarking sites or regular visitors. If the majority of the traffic is coming from the search engines, proceed to ask the owner what are the keywords that brought in the traffic. Try out the keywords in the search engines and check out the search engine rankings of the site.

You should also check with the owner what are the top search engines that direct the traffic to the site. With these information, check the on-page optimization effort of the site and you may have more ideas for improvements after you have bought it.

The next step is to highlight the areas of possible improvements of the site. If you can come out with at least two quick fixes to the site that can increase the value created to the visitors, the traffic to the site will increase to the next higher level eventually. For example, if you can include an online tool to calculate the financial networth of a person in a financial blog, that would most likely benefit all your readers in a long run.

The fourth step is to check for back links to the site that you are interested to purchase. It is highly recommended to use Yahoo backlink analyzer to check for backlinks since it displays almost all the pages that linked to the site. You may want to use the Yahoo powered analyzer at USESEO.com.

With the above four steps, you should have no problems choosing a profitable website that can generate a stable income for some time. You are advised to check on the seller’s history as well to know more about the seller’s background before confirming the transaction.

KC has been flipping websites for great profit and is also the author of the eBook that teaches how to sell a brand new site for great profit. KC also runs a health and life insurance website and he highly recommends the use of the Yahoo powered Backlink Analyzer before buying any websites.

Web Hosting Options For An Ecommerce Website

August 20th, 2008

There are five main methods for a company to host a website: in-house, co-location, shared, dedicated Find Personal Car Auctions In Maryland ‘dedicated and Discount Weight Loss Products The choice regarding which method will be used depends upon the technical skills of the in-house staff and the requirements of the business.

Hosting Options: The in-house solution involves the company itself purchasing all necessary software and hardware together with the leasing of a high speed internet connection. One of the main considerations of in-house hosting is that the company is required to employ system administrators to maintain all aspects of running the site such as; security, monitoring site responsiveness, reliability and backups. The costs involved Official Nexium Site Info On Heartburn And Acid Reflux Disease running an in house server are considerable. The largest cost by far is the expense of employing trained and experienced personnel to deal with all aspects of running the server.

Co-location allows companies to locate their server hardware in a location owned by the hosting company. The hosting company provides the bandwidth, an IP address and the electrical power to the server. The advantages of co-location include; a low cost for the bandwidth provided, control over what hardware is used and a UPS in the form of independent generators. Disadvantages include not having immediate physical access to the hardware and the difficulties associated with finding a provider that offers this service which is local to the business.

One common method of hosting a web site is through a shared web server provided by a hosting company. Multiple web sites from various companies are located on one server with the hardware resources and internet connection being shared between all sites. Shared web server services are only suitable for sites which generate a small amount of traffic and are available at a fairly low cost. The main drawbacks are; limitations on bandwidth, no control over the operating system software and security breaches on another site which is hosted on the same server could affect the site.

The term dedicated web-server refers to the rental and exclusive use of a computer that includes a Web server, related software, and connection to the Internet, housed in the Web hosting company’s premises. With the dedicated approach a server is leased from a hosting company which is responsible for maintaining the hardware and internet connection while the company that owns the web site has unlimited access to the operating system, software applications, and database applications through the ‘control panel’ provided by the hosting company. Upon further investigation, dedicated hosting companies - such as Donhost Ltd - often supply the server with the necessary software and employ technicians to take care of configuration, security Laser Tattoo Removal Brookhaven and provide advice. Dedicated hosting can cost from around £1,000 to £5,000 per year depending on the requirements of the web site. Most dedicated web hosting companies now offer servers with a pre-installed operating system and server/security software in addition to offering some level of technical support and backup procedures.

There is usually a need to use a dedicated web server when the use of a web site produces a considerable amount of traffic. The main advantages of using a dedicated server are a high level of reliability, a high bandwidth and efficient user response times.

‘Dedicated and Managed Hosting’ refers to a service similar to the dedicated web-server approach with the added advantage of being able to choose from a variety of technical services from the hosting company such as; monitoring, advice, administration, support, security, updates and upgrades, testing and troubleshooting.

In conclusion the main factors surrounding the choice between the various hosting methods are cost, in-house expertise, expected bandwidth/traffic and the level of service. Sites with highly sensitive information, high volume, or special software requirements will probably need a dedicated server.

The author of this article works for Modern Artz; an ecommerce website selling affordable decorative modern Abstract Art, and for all of your interior design needs in Swansea and the South Wales area Swansea Interior Designer.