In a recent study, 72% of Americans expressed interest in starting their own online business. Are you one of those folks? If so, I have some valuable secrets to share with you. One of the first issues you will address as an online business owner is selecting your server web hosting company. A web hosting company charges you a monthly or yearly fee in exchange for allowing the world to "see" your site online. You cannot create your online business without a server web hosting company. Choosing a server web hosting company can be extremely tricky and challenging to beginners and experts alike. During your search for a server web hosting company be sure each feature listed below is included. These features are crucial to running a successful online business. With growing technology you need a smart, efficient, low cost server web hosting company that delivers results. Do not pay extra for these features! Here are 6 must-have features that your server web hosting company should provide to you- for free! 1) Complete Traffic Analysis- You need to know how your visitors are finding you. Many server web hosting companies provide a below par traffic analyzer. 2) Search Engine Optimization- Each webpage of your online business should be optimized for search engines. You have a few choices for optimizing your pages: learn how to do it yourself, pay a professional or use your server web hosting company's free optimizer tool. I'd save your time and money by allowing your server web hosting company's tool to optimize pages for you. This feature is crucial to ranking well at search engines. This tool should be included in the final monthly or yearly server web hosting fee. 3) Search Engine Submission- Your online business must be seen! There are 3 major search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are several smaller engines that are also worth mentioning. Every single page of your website should be submitted to all search engines. The problem here is time. Who has time to read through search engine submission guidelines? Again you have the option to pay a professional, do the process yourself, or have your server web hosting company do it for free. Your server web hosting company should automatically submit each and every webpage to all major search engines. It should submit each page upon its creation and upon making any changes. Your server web hosting company's submission program should submit your site and pages within each search engine's submission policies. This feature should be provided free of charge by your server web hosting company! 4) Newsletter- This one is often overlooked. There are many third party newsletter providers, but why pay the additional fee when your server web hosting company can provide the tool for no cost at all? Be sure the server web hosting company follows anti-SPAM guidelines, and be sure that you have the ability to create, edit and send emails to your list at your convenience. Lastly, you need to know the statistics of your mailings. You need to know how many people opened the email, how many emails were rejected, how may people, if any, reported you for Spamming, etc. 5) Friendly, Business-Oriented Help Forums- There is a difference between a remote help desk and forums. These days forums are infested with cranky folks chasing the next black hat trick or trying to sell you a tool you do not need. Your server web hosting company should have free and friendly help forums where other online business owners can meet, network and discuss online business issues. This may seem like a feature you can overlook, but I urge you not to. Successful online business owners know the impact of fast, reliable help. There's nothing worse than feeling alone and confused about online businesses. A forum filled with success-minded folks is a true gem. These 6 must-have tools and features should all be free with your server web hosting company. Each and every one has proved invaluable to my online business success. You can find these free features with the 20 server web hosting companies we present at www.Top-20-web-hosting.com. |