Web Site Hosting

Web Hosting can a difficult service to fully understand. This is how Wikipedia defines it:

"A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center."

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What you really need to know about web hosting:

1. Dedicated Hosting - Here at Seriously Creative we take hosting, well you guessed it, Seriously. We have our own dedicated server located in downtown Vancouver in what we refer to as "the bunker". This facility is located in a flood proof, earthquake proof secure location with back up generators and 24\7 monitoring. That may sound extreme but when a business' health depends on their web site we ensure that the web site is accessible all the time. Having a dedicated server has many benefit.

   We have 100% control over our server which allows us to always have the latest security patches, the most recent anti-spam definitions and 24 hour access should a web site require attention.

2. Reseller Hosting - This is where most of the misconception about web hosting comes from. A reseller hosting account is when a company rents out space on a server to multiple people. Think of it as an apartment buisling, the reseller company rents floors out to other companies who then turns around rents out the rooms to their clients.

   What's wrong with that? You will never know who is on the same server as you, it could be someone running adult web sites or sending out spam and\or viruses.

   Not your problem? Consider this. Many servers in the world (including our) obtain their anti-spam lists from organizations that maintain lists of known spammers and their ip addresses. This makes it your problem because now your site could be on the same server as the wrong sites, not to mention the bandwidth. Sharing resources on a server with the wrong types of sites can effect the performance of your site. We call this the "Good\Bad Neighbourhood" in SEO.

   This is how companies can offer hosting for $9.95 a month or even less. The question is, does it matter to your site?

   Sometimes this doesn't matter and a cheap hosting package will suffice but for business looking to optimize their web sites, send out newsletters or have e-commerce then a reseller hosting account is a bad idea.

   We regularly check the top anti-SPAM lists to ensure that our server (and all it's ip addresses) are in good standing.

   The final point which we believe is one of the most important ones is customer service. If there is a problem with your web site ask yourself

   "Do you feel confident that you will be able to connect with someone at your hosting company who can fix the problem quickly?"

3. Location - The search engines continue to increase the importance of your server with each algorithm update. In August 2007 Google announced that the physical location (based on web site ip addresses) and the top level domain (.com .ca etc.) is considered when producing search results as described here.

   Again, we ask the question how does this effect your web site? If someone was to search for "Houses for sale in Victoria" what would results show? Victoria BC? Victoria Texas? Victoria Australia? The location of your server can provide the answer to that. If your site is hosted in Texas or Seriously Creative in Vancouver who is most likely to get better ranking?

These are only a few factors to consider when selecting a host, if you have specific questions or would like us to review your current host please feel free to contact us

Hosting Packages

	Basic	Small Business	Commercial
Disk Storage	2 Gig	10 Gigs	25 Gigs
Data Transfer	5 Gigs	12 Gigs	35 Gigs
Email
Email Addresses (POP3, Redirect)	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Email Aliases	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Email Auto responders	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Webmail
Anti-Spam Software
Technologies
FastCGI Support
Python Support
PHP
ASP Support
Perl
MySQL Databases	-	5	Unlimited
FrontPage Support
Domain Tools
Web Statistics
FTP Access
Custom Error Documents
Scheduled Tasks (Cron)	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Site Back-up
Password Protested Directories	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Sub-Domains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Domain Reporting
Domain Log File Manager
Control Panel Access
Dedicated IP Address	-	$9.95	included
Monthly Fee (billed annually)	$14.95	$24.95	$39.95

There are No Set-up Fees for any hosting packages.

We can move most basic sites from your current hosting provider and set them up on our servers at No Additional Cost.

For Small Business and Commercial web sites that include code that requires modification prior to moving please contact us for a custom quote. We can also set up your databases and populate them with your existing data.

We make changing your hosting provider as undisruptive as possible.

We can also set up existing email addresses and manage your domain name and settings. For more information about domains please visit our Domain Name page or contact us directly.

Do you want to Blog and manage your own site? We will set up your hosting, install Word Press with the template of your choice for a flat rate of $300 per year.