| You might well think that the look and feel of your | | | | budget.. But you want things to work don't you? If |
| web design is the single most important aspect of | | | | you want to project anything like a half professional |
| your new website. And indeed it is very important | | | | image you will avoid free hosting like the plague. |
| because that is what your visitors will actually see | | | | You're likely to get advertisements injected into your |
| and use. But it's nowhere near as important as | | | | website, you will have little control over it, and the |
| choosing the right hosting package for your website. | | | | performance of your website will be the lowest of |
| Why? Because if you choose the wrong package | | | | the low. Nobody who's serious about their business |
| nobody will actually be able to see and use your | | | | takes a free hosting package, it defeats the object. |
| website. | | | | If you're based in the UK, you need UK based |
| The obvious result of choosing a poor hosting | | | | hosting. I know they say it doesn't matter where |
| package for your website is that it will be slow to | | | | you are in the world these days, and actually some |
| respond for your visitors, or even unavailable, which | | | | US based hosting packages are good value, but at |
| is the last thing you want. But there's an even bigger | | | | the end of the day your UK visitors still have to do a |
| problem.. It's not just human visitors who will have to | | | | 7,000 mile return trip across the Atlantic and back for |
| wait for your site to appear, the search engine bots | | | | every page they request.. Logistically, and with half a |
| will not hang around waiting for your website to | | | | thought towards what could go wrong, it's not really |
| respond to their requests during a crawl of your | | | | an ideal scenario. |
| website, so at the very least you are risking a poor | | | | The bottom line is this. You can get most things to |
| listing in the search results. | | | | do with websites on the internet for free, but good |
| That's right, search engines (obviously) love websites | | | | web design and appropriate hosting isn't free. The |
| which are fast to respond, so if putting your website | | | | phrase 'you get what you pay for' has never been |
| on a fast hosting platform for your users is not | | | | more deserved, and the one thing you shouldn't |
| enough, consider the adverse effects it would have | | | | skimp on is hosting. |
| on your search engine results by hosting your | | | | Whatever your budget is, you should be thinking |
| website on a poor platform. And there are plenty of | | | | about allocating 40% to web design and |
| poor hosting platforms around. | | | | development, 40% to search engine optimisation, and |
| Just for a moment, let's consider FREE hosting | | | | the remaining 20% to hosting. It will be the best |
| packages. Have you gone mad?! If you are running a | | | | 20% you have ever spent! |
| business then of course you want to do things on a | | | | |