Take note that, while your domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go, it may also get you dropped from certain search engines.  Some search engines ignore domain addresses that reside on these ‘free servers’ or on the ‘cheap’ servers.

Even if your site is recognized and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.

Purchasing domain names are not that expensive which cost about $100 and there are many companies that can register the name for you, provided it is available and has not already been used by another company.

Using one of your keywords in your domain name can increase your score on some search engines. For example, solderingirons.com could be more effective as Electric-soldering-irons.com, if that domain name was available.

You might also choose to establish more than one domain name using keywords and then link your ‘doorway’ domain sites to your primary site. But you will have to pay for each of the domain name and also the monthly hosting fees. It all depends on the type and size of your business and your competition.

Keep in mind that some search engines disregard ‘doorway’ sites. So put at least a page of content on the doorway site with some useful information and then link it to your primary site. But don’t design it as an empty page. The other reason being, you can have one, three, five, or even more email addresses that all contain your business name, and give your business a professional feel. When customers get emails from dominicstone@solderingirons.com they feel as if they are dealing with a stable, professional business operation.

No need for customers to understand how you manage all your email boxes on your domain. They just need to feel your business is dependable and reputable.

Your web host will charge you a fee for monthly service that ranges from $10 or $20 to the more expensive $50.00 per month. Plan to pay between $300 and $500 per year to your web host.

Always avoid free or very inexpensive web hosting services, because you may experience bouts of server downtimes and you are likely to have significant limitations in storage, number of email addresses, FTP upload etc.

Be sure your web host can accommodate e-commerce and storefronts, wireless capability, blogs, forums, chats, online interactive helps and anything else you want to add onto your site.

Estimate what your growth needs are and ensure that this web host can serve you as you grow. The last thing you want to do is change host mid way unless you absolutely have to do so.

Check your bandwidth capability to be sure that, if your website traffic grows rapidly, your customers will not have to wait to download or view information. Three things to look for in a web hosting company are:

1. Excellent Customer Support: Your hosting provider should be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem. Ask them how long it takes for them to typically respond to your problem. A good test is to call them in the mid night to check if you get to a live, level 3 support.

2. A Sound Infrastructure: Check whether they offer a multi-homed network powered by multiple bandwidth providers to ensure redundancy. Some offer a 100% guarantee on its network availability or network uptime.

3. Financial Stability: If you're running very critical operations, you can't afford to be with a hosting company that may not be in business in a few months.

10. Customer Service

Service is an extremely important aspect to consider when finding a good Web hosting service. If you have any familiarity with any type of technology you are well aware that there are occasional hiccups and problems that pop up unexpectedly. When this occurs you need to be able to contact the Webhost company and get immediate troubleshooting help. You will want to connect with a service that offers 24 hour a day, seven days a week support. Make sure the company has a phone number and email address to contact them with, as well as a FAQ (frequently asked questions) page. Some companies have a forum where people can post questions and get answers as well.

9. Company Reliability

Reliability is an important quality to look for in any company, but especially a company that you are going to be paying to host your website. You should try and find a host that has some backup servers just in case the unexpected happens and the main servers go down. If your website is how you make money then you can’t afford for your site to be down, so this is very important.

8. Email

If you run your own business online, your website is how you make your money. You will need to be able to get in contact with your customers when they place orders or when problems pop up. This is why you need to make sure that part of the package you purchase from a Webhost has emails that contains the domain name of your website.

7. Shopping Cart or SSL

Buying items online these days can be pretty risky without a secure server. Your website should have a secured server so your customers can enter in their private information without worrying about having their credit card numbers or other information stolen and used without their permission.

6. Good Control Panel

Some web hosting service provider offer you a little hands on experience in managing a website by allowing you to have a control panel that will allow you to add, delete, or change email addresses and other content that is up on your site. This is definitely the type of service you want, as it can be a huge headache having to call tech support just to change a password or delete an email account.

5. Pricing

The price you have to pay a Webhost company will play a huge part in whether or not you decide to use that company’s services. It’s important that you take into consideration that you do end up getting what you pay for. So while price is an important factor keep in mind that cheaper web hosting services may not be able to meet the needs you have for your website.

4. Available Disk Space

There are a lot of scams being run online with service providers offering potential customers 500 MB of space for a certain price. Technically most websites are run using only 10 MB, which means you will probably never even use all that extra space. That means you actually loose money in this deal.

3. Speed

How fast your webpage actually loads will determine how successful your site will be. If a page doesn’t usually load up within a few seconds people will just close out the window and move on. It’s true, we humans are an impatient bunch, but what choice do you have? The speed in which your site loads depends largely on the type of servers the company uses.

2. Server Software

The type of software being used by the Webhost is very important. There are two main types of software, Unix and Windows NT. Some companies will only offer you one of these options, while others will offer you more. It’s best to find out which ones the company has before choosing them.

1. Connection to the Internet

This is probably the most important deciding factor in determining which company you should go with. There are a lot of different connection types that companies are offering these days. You will preferably want a company that offers a T3 connection as this allows for a lot more data to be transferred at a much faster speed.