Singapore Web Design Company Blog

Clients have been asking about the features that we offer in the hosting plans. Some told us that there are so many technical stuff, so confusing.

We agree with them. Not many people really understand about web hosting. In fact, more than 90% of my clients do not know what is Cpanel prior to purchasing any plan.

There are many things to look for in a hosting plan. And of course, its not possible for us to list one by one here. Let’s discuss about some of the important features that should be included:

• Server Location and Uptime - This is one of the most important, and it directly affects your transfer speed if you are a webmaster frequently updating your site. Uptime means the time when your server is operational. This is important for your site to be functional for most of the time.
• Hosting Space - For normal sites of about 50 pages, 100Mb will be enough. No, we will not ask you to upgrade to higher plans unnecesarily. When your site becomes popular and really need extra space, upgrade will be easy with no hassle.
• Technical Support and Service - This is one area many clients have overlooked. When you have problems with your site, can you contact your web host within 24 hours? For info, we stay in Singapore and we won’t run away. =). Also, will your web host be able to solve your problems within 24 hours? Be assured that we have the expertise and experience.
• Additonal Tools and Features - There are many other features that should be included in a good hosting plan. There are so many and we can’t list everything here. Common ones will be Cpanel, htaccess, web site statistics tools, Email programs and functions, backup tools etc… B4 you purchase any plan, pls make sure they are present.
• Money Back Guarantee - What if some of your features are not present after you have purchased the plan? Well, we offer a “14 days money back guarantee”. You may not be able to find this important feature in some hosting companies. We had some bad experience prior to establishing ourselves as a web host. =)

Have a strong feeling that Google will update its pagerank very soon, maybe within these 2 weeks. (For info, Google pagerank is Google’s method to determine importance of websites). You can download Google toolbar and check up the pagerank of web sites. New web sites will normally have 0 pagerank. This site has a pagerank of 4 at the moment.

We have used some pagerank prediction tools for Edlinkservices.com. This site may go to pagerank 6 after the next update. I wonder if those tools are really useful.

Google pagerank update happens once every 3 to 4 months. If your site has a good pagerank, other webmasters may think highly of your site. There are some other obvious benefits:

• Directory editors often use Google toolbar to determine the reputation of web sites. Its often their 1st impression of a web site.
• When the pagerank bar is green color, it means your site is not a spam in Google’s eyes. Google will slash your pagerank to 0 if you intend to cheat for higher pagerank. Or if you have been using some sneaky techniques to boost pagerank, you may be in danger too.

Since Google only updates its pagerank every few months, there are things we need to do to prepare for the update. This will be a good time to generate content and resources, build links.

In Yahoo’s search blog, we found that Yahoo! denies that they are satisfied with a 2nd place in the search market.

Currently, Google is the market leader in search, with 47.7% of all search request from the web. Followed by 21.8% from Yahoo!

As an active web publisher, I use the search engines every day. My search queries for 1 day is 10 times more than a normal internet users will search in one week. And I can’t deny the fact that Yahoo! still need to catch up in this race to dominate the search pie.

I believe there are areas Yahoo! need to improve when it comes to web search:

• People Search - I search for my friends, celebrities and people I know. Sometimes I even search into www.friendster.com and other niche engines that I can find useful information about people. Google is very strong here.
• Speed of Indexing Web Pages - This is one area Yahoo! needs to catch up. I have been observing how Googlebot, MsnBot and Inktomi index my sites. One of my sites contain about 80 pages. While Google and MSN have finished indexing all the pages 3 weeks ago, Yahoo! has only indexed 43 pages.
• Ranking of New Web Sites - 1) Google do not allow new web sites to acheive high ranking directly. This is a good way to prevent spam. However, Google gives indirect ranking for new, but good quality sites. Backlinks from reputable sites can help new sites to achieve top 10 in a short while, indirectly. 2) MSN can also spot good quality new sites in a short time. 3) Yahoo! takes much longer, sometimes more than 6 months.

Overall, the 3 engines are able to identify important, and brandname sites. But Google goes down to the details. I believe this is what differentiate the leader from the rest.