WHY choose the UK for web hosting?

Directories - the better ones! Get more backlinks

2007-04-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

Directories - the better ones! Get more backlinks

Marketing a website is a time consuming continual task for any new or existing owner/webmaster. One of the most important marketing tasks is maintaining and improving your PageRank (PR). To do this means gaining relevant (related to your content/subject matter) good quality links back to your website. A good way to gain those links back is by giving something away free, or using viral marketing (publishing a controversial video for example) then you will have many other sites mentioning your website.

For those that do not have something to give away free (or your freebies have all gone), and your marketing tactics caused nothing more than a sniffle then don't despair as there are directories where you should list your website. But this IS VERY TIME consuming as you need to check each directory properly before adding you link. You must at least check the directory is not a banned by Google.

Also you should verify for yourself that the quality is good, the PR is worth your time submitting (if its less 4/10 then it probably will is not worth your time), cost is right, and a relevant section/category exists for your business type.

Below are several directories which I consider to be good and reliable (at least at the time of posting). Feel free to check them out before submitting. I have added the PR=Google PageRank, and BL=back links (correct at date of publishing) to help you evaluate each directory. Those in bold are the best of the best bunch.

(note that details are correct as of April 2007, quality of each site could improve or decrease over time, you should check for yourself before using any of the sites listed below)

Directories - free listings:
http://dmoz.org (free PR8 BL: 3190000)
http://www.joeant.com (free PR6 BL: 8770)
http://www.iozoo.com (free PR6 BL: 12600)

Directories with reciprocal link required:
http://ww.mostpopularsites.net (PR5 BL: 18200)
http://www.haabaa.com (PR6 BL: 148000)
http://www.webmasterschannel.com (PR6 BL: 17300)
http://searchsight.com (PR5 BL: 25900)
http://www.businessplexus.com (PR4 BL: 12300)

Directories - Paid listings: (cost shown is per year, but check each site yourself)
http://www.elib.org (cost 50EUR PR7 BL: 57900)
http://www.greenstalk.com (cost $9pa PR4 BL: 3740)
http://www.wizdirectory.com (cost $10PR4 BL: 408)
http://www.webxperience.org (cost $10 PR6 BL: 14500)
http://www.alivedirectory.com/ (cost $34.95pa PR7 BL: 894000)
http://www.incrawler.com (cost $25 PR6 BL: 16200)
http://sbd.bcentral.com/ (cost $49pa PR6 BL: 1570)
http://www.joeant.com/ (cost $40 PR6 BL: 8770)
http://www.incrawler.com (cost $25 PR6 BL: 16200)
http://www.webotopia.org (cost $10 PR6 BL: 2500)
http://www.abifind.com (cost $10 PR5 BL: 3700)
http://www.elegantdirectory.com (cost $35 PR6 BL: 80300)
http://www.dirarchive.com (cost $25 PR6 BL: 31500)
http://dir.yahoo.com (cost $299 PR8 BL: 85600 - IMO not worth it!)

There are a whole load more here: http://www.123promotion.co.uk/directorymanager/ but you will need to sift through the tosh!

Know any more that are dependable? Post it now...

Google checkout now in the UK - but how good is it?

2007-04-17T04:09:00.000-07:00

Google Checkout is now available in the UK

http://checkout.google.co.uk/
(mentioned as all web hosts need to process online payments and often recommend payment solutions for their clients).

Are you a retailer using it?
Or are you a shopper that has used it?

Let me know your experiences of using Google Checkout...

I am very interested in knowing, as will many others.

I have heard (not tried it myself yet) that you need to have a Google account to buy a product via Google checkout. Is this correct? Wont this put off a potential buyer?

notes before website redesign or moving host

2007-01-31T03:21:00.000-08:00

Points to note before you redesign your website or moving host...

When you re-design your website, or move hosts (read more on moving hosts here), you need to follow certain rules else your visitors could receive 404 errors (page not found) and you really do not want googlebot find this error!

Ensure you:
1. Retain exiting page and folder names (including file extensions)
2. Never ever remove the old site and replace it with:
"This website is currently under redesign, back soon"
STUPID, stupid, never remove your old pages - upload your new pages over-writing the old pages.

If you follow these simple steps your existing pages will retain their page rank and traffic.

If you do need to remove a page then issue a 301 error (page moved permanently) see here how to issue such errors then googlebot and your real visitors will not receive a 404 error.

Hope that helps maintain your website page rankings for the long term

Dave.

Moving web host is stressful!

2007-01-30T01:38:00.000-08:00

But what if you need to move hosts?

If you are not happy with your web host, or you have found your website is not listed within your own country's search results on Google as your host has placed your account on a foreign server. Here is how to check where your host has placed your website!

So you need to move...
You will have to go through some pain! Sorry. But remember this: anything worth doing is never easy.

If you have control of your domain name then it should be a simple task of changing the nameservers (so long as your website is setup on your new host). But if your web host manage your domain for you then you need to contact them to check their procedure for transfer of the domain (costs can be charged). If you are looking to transfer to the UK then try a real UK web host which do not charge to transfer in, or out.

Make it worth the effort, ensure you choose the right host....

Google - Importance of inbound links (links from other sites to yours)

2007-01-29T06:55:00.000-08:00

The more Google trusts your website the more traffic you will get. So you need to increase that trust.

But how do you improve Google's evaluation/trust in your website and pages?

Simple - increase your IBL (inbound links), but ensure each link is of good quality and relevant.

Quality:
Before trading links with a website ensure you check them out. Check their PR and IBL. If its not high enough do not link back to them.
You can check this here:
http://www.microsoft-watch.org/cgi-bin/ranking.htm

Relevance:
You need to get links from relevant websites (with related content, and subject matter), you can only do this by manually checking the website yourself. Take a few minutes to check the content yourself, is it of reasonable quality? And check it is not just a website of links.

Keywords:
Ensure you use the most optimised keywords for your product. This is very important when building your IBL. You should offer your prospective link site something like the following:

Note the keywords are within the anchor text, here the words: WHY choose the UK for web hosting.
Spending a little time here to correctly choose your keywords will pay-off for a long time into the future, so take your time ;-)

Other things to avoid:
- link farms, never add your link to these sites, you could get banned as well as the link farm.
- linking to foreign sites (unless you need international traffic, link to your indigenous neighbours; read details on why you should host in your native country here).

Work on your IBL and you will see your PR rise and in turn your keyword relevance. This will eventually lead to more traffic to your website as Google sees your site as more relevant than others for your chosen keywords.

Hope you found that helpful? If not, or want to add your input then please post your comments below...

HTML and Meta tags - do they help your website?

2006-12-01T01:11:00.000-08:00

HTML and Meta tags - do they help your website?

HTML lang tag
The following can help to inform search engine robots on the language of your content, using the HTML tag like this:
html lang="en-GB"
This can help when indexing your website as per language (and may improve your country specific listing too).
You will find more on this here:
http://tlt.psu.edu/suggestions/international/web/tips/langtag.html
and http://www.w3.org/International/articles/language-tags/Overview.en.php

Meta tags
The robots tag - which some recommend using is the robots tag with the content attribute set to NOODP like this:
META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP"
I would suggest you DO NOT use this as it tells the robot NOT to use any of the Open Directory Project descriptions. Think about this logically, the ODP is a human edited directory and is still one of the most trusted sites for website descriptions in the World, and you are telling the robot to not use it. If you were that robot collecting that data you wouldn't then trust that website, and maybe decide to exclude it or flag it for manual checking, either way the outcome is not good. Read more on the GoD (Google official documentation): Google on meta & robots

Do use the the tags:
META "description" CONTENT="Where/why you should host your website..."
META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="UK web hosting, location country, google listings, etc"
But do not over use these and do not expect them to provide you with a massive boost.

So correct HTML can help, as can meta tags but they can also hinder your website, so add them with care. And remember to ensure your website is listed within Google's country-specific saerch results you must host in your native country (or at least be using a country specific domain name, e.g. website.co.uk).

Happy webmastering everyone

Dave.

Googlebot: Preventing Duplicate Content

2006-11-25T06:39:00.000-08:00

Duplicate content caused by your root AND index pages being indexed

You can find your content being indexed for the root and the index.php (the default page which can also be: index.html, index.htm, default.html, index.asp, etc.) pages like this:
www.Mydomain,com/index.php AND www.Mydomain,com
Especially if you have inadvertently linked to the index file (www.Mydomain,com/index.php), rather than the root (www.Mydomain,com). This situation can and often does occur with subfolders too.

Duplicate content caused by multiple domains on the same web space
Do you have more than one domain mapped to the same website/web content?
If so then you are not alone. This can have a negative affect on your pr and SEO.

Consider the affects it can have on search bots (googlebot, etc) finding duplicate content:
finds domain1 then domain2 which both map to the same web space. It could then decide to drop domain1 in favour of domain2, or worse still drop both domains!

Duplicate content caused by your domain being indexed with and without the "www"
www.Mydomain,com AND Mydomain,com
This is just like having two domain names pointing to the same content, it creates duplicate content.

So what do you do about it? There are two options.

The first option is where you are able to move the domain(s):
host each of the domain on their own web space with unique content.

The second option is where you are unable to host the domains on separate web space with separate unique content:
is to issue a HTTP status code: "301 Moved Permanently"

Below is the PHP code to redirect the traffic using an appropriate header and issue a HTTP 301 permanently moved status.
WAIT - is this correct? Yes, check with GoD (Google's official Documentation) here:
http://www.google.co.uk/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34481
http://www.google.co.uk/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34464
Using PHP you can use this to redirect traffic (for ASP, ColdFusion and .htaccess methods see other relevant reading below) and tell googlebot the pages have moved, add this PHP to the top of your PHP pages:

$PHP_URI=$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; // folders and filename - used over PHP_SELF as will NOT pickup on filename from root access (webserver loads default file: index.php)
$HTTP_HOST=$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']; // domain name, may include .www
if ($HTTP_HOST=="localhost") $main_url="localhost"; // useful for testing on localhost
else $main_url="www.dwalker.co.uk";// * CHANGE to your domain to be indexed
if( (!ereg("www.",$HTTP_HOST) AND ($HTTP_HOST!="localhost") ) OR (ereg("index.php",$PHP_URI)>0) )
{
$the_folder = str_replace("index.php", "", $PHP_URI);
header ('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header ('Location: http://'.$main_url.$the_folder);
exit;
}

*Make sure you check which domain you should add here, and whether you it should or should not include "www". Only you can know this by checking your website stats and the current indexed domain and pages with Google (the above PHP code can be downloaded here: http://www.dwalker.co.uk/blog/blog301redirect.zip )

Duplicate content is to be avoided at all costs, it will harm your website in the long term. You should always work towards UNIQUE content:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Daddy_Google#Duplicate_Content

Other relevant reading:

Google’s Matt Cutts on Duplicate Content:
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-08-02-n60.html

ASP, .htaccess, and Coldfusion methods of issuing a 301 HTTP status:
http://www.thegooglecache.com/white-hat-seo/duplicate-content-round-up-diagnosis-and-correction-with-free-tools/

This post follows the information from: googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com

Recommended UK Dedicated Servers
Recommended UK web hosting

Have fun and remember "content is still king".

Send me your comments...

Dave ;-)

Webhosting - Does location really matter?

2006-11-20T03:42:00.000-08:00

If you are a new off-line retail sales business and are buying a high street shop then the main criteria is location, location, location. Simple, effective and works every time.

However, will this philosophy work for online businesses?

In many ways YES. As I have already mentioned to ensure your website is ranked well in your country's specific search results then where you host your website can be critical to its success. Why risk it when you can place your online business with a proper UK host quite often for just a few pounds more. But you should always check the host is a proper UK web host and that they have servers in the UK. And just as important for many that they provide UK support by UK staff.

Details on how you can check to see if your website is hosted in the UK here.

So location really does matter, not only for bricks-n-mortar but for your online business too.

Changing host - will it affect my Google search ranking or pr?

2006-11-09T02:34:00.000-08:00

If its done correctly then your Google search results and/or PageRank (pr) will not be negatively affected.

The success much depends on the following:

Avoid downtime while transferring.
Changing host can be done in most cases without any interruption to your website (even a dynamic database driven ecommerce site can be transferred without loss of business if done correctly).

Choose a host that allows you to setup your website on a sub domain (YourNewSite.ontheNewWebHostsDomain) prior to transferring in your existing domain name, more details on domain transfer here.

Correctly copy all pages and folders from your old host to the new web space, then test and test again until your sure all pages are present and correct (see 2. below), only when you are happy the new site is working correctly should you transfer your domain name.

Check pages and links are correct.
You need to check all your pages are linked correctly on your new web
space and that you do not have any 404 errors (pages not found)! Xenu Sleuth is good
this this and its free, download here:
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
(don't be scared it really not that scary, its a useful tool).

Also, make sure you retain the original filename and folder structure as you do not want to lose any page rankings. A common mistake made by many of the arty-farty types who create these flashy sites is to scrap the old site and replace it with their own creation which has all new page names and folder names - this is bad news as all your existing pages will be dropped from Google as they will no longer be available. Retain your existing page and folder names when transferring or redesigning your website.

Stick to your native country for hosting.

Google will list your results as per location, read why here:
is-your-website-not-listed-in-google

Google is the main search engine you should concentrate upon, you can forget trying to get traffic from other engines, you will be wasting your time. Google announced third-quarter increase in revenue of 70% to £1.4bn with £390m profit, while Yahoo profits fell 38% for the same period (source: computing.co.uk/...google-growth-continues). With that kind of income Google can sustain its position for a long time yet (personally I find this unfortunate as its not good for anyone to have a single dominating company steering our Internet).

Offshore web hosting - its cheaper so why not?

2006-11-06T00:43:00.001-08:00

Why not use offshore web hosting?

Well there is NO guarantee with these services as could be involved in illegal activities (hosting any type of website), or may use unethical practices. Many state that if you must host outside the UK then host in the US, Canada, or Australia (however, don't forget unless you host in your native country then you could be excluded from your country's search engine listings).

Consider the logic why these locations are often recommended:

stability (of the host country - stable government), and
positive regulations (that aid business enterprise growth)

this steers the decisions for good reason, and before you decide to take your prised
business website to foreign shores you should take heed too. And don't forget data protection - else you could end up breaking the law yourself!

United Kingdom as the web hosting location over Eastern Europe?

2006-11-04T08:55:00.000-08:00

Quite often with Eastern European web hosting services is to charge an extremely low price for the actual space and bandwidth but when you need support it is either none existent or is charged per call.

If you have a UK business website I would recommend you use a UK web host and make sure the support is able to help when things go wrong (as eventually they will). Also, ensure you make contact, via email or telephone, with the new hosting company before you move, or buy hosting from them. This way at least you know you are able to contact them when the need arises.

And remember if you host in a foreign country then there could be issues with support such as language barriers - it can be a difficult task relaying an error with your website via email or telephone at the best of times, and this can become impossible if the support operative can not communicate in English well enough to either understand your query or to answer it!

How to check if your host is actually in the UK

2006-11-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

Start by entering their main domain name here: http://geotargeting.2meta.com/
is it in the UK? If not then is it most likely (not always the case though) that
your site would not be hosted in the UK either if you host with them.

Other checks you can do:

Check the telephone number, is this a British number?

Check the phyical address, is this British?

Check their domain name: you can carry out simple checks such as whois
and traceroutes by entering their domain name here:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/

Check the network of the host, enter their domain here: http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph
If the Netblock owner is not obviously a UK company try looking the company name up on google.

Website speed - FTP: Latency - reasons why to host in the UK

2006-11-01T08:47:00.000-08:00

In relation to UK hosting/UK business websites - "connection speed" or delay is caused by latency (see first definition [in a network] whatis.techtarget.com/definition/latency ) this can be an issue for FTP, causing slow/delayed website updates, but can also be an issue for HTTP. In other words if your visitors are very impatient they may give-up waiting and go elsewhere if they have to wait half a second longer - Internet customers are very fickle.

If your business is based in the UK and your customer base is English/British then for optimum speed you need to host in the UK on a United Kingdom Server. This will ensure your website displays without delay and your customers will not be tempted to go elsewhere.

Also, remember search engines may not place your website within the UK search results if you host outside the UK (ESPECIALLY if you have a GTL Domain [.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, etc...]).

Is it worth spending a little more to host your UK business in the UK? If it affects the successfulness of your business it is! There are other issues such as data protection issues with hosting outside the UK. If you host outside the EU you maybe breaking the law by moving customer data outside the EU unless you have specific permission from each customer.

Is your website NOT listed in Google UK search results?

2006-10-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

No traffic to your website? Are you outside the sights of Google?

Google has become the main source of web traffic for most businesses around the World and if you do not take care where you host your website you could find your website is not listing within your country's search results.

To ensure your website is ranked well in the UK specific index then you need a UK domain name or must host your site on a UK server. Google will list your website as per IP address ( http://www.answers.com/ip address ) if the domain extension does not dictate your location. If you have a TLD (.com, .net, .org, etc..) then it is even more important to host in the UK.

Any serious business can no longer afford the possible loss of web traffic to its competitors:
Why UK companies choose the UK for web hosting

Stay legal and choose a real UK host!

2006-10-25T03:17:00.000-07:00

Are you a UK company?

Due to data protection laws you must not export your client data outside of the EU without specific agreement and knowledge of each customer.

If you or your web designer is hosting your website outside of the UK then you could be breaking these data protection laws by exporting client details.

Read more here:
Why UK companies pay more to host in the UK