Boston Web Consulting
Search Engine Optimization and Adwords Reporting

So you are looking to build a site or you have site but are unhappy with your current website host. So what is a small business owner suppose to do? Here are some very simple tips to make sure you end up with a host that you can rely on:

• Ask for Client References and Call Them.
• Don’t Always Go for the Lowest Price! You are projecting an image here with your core audience and you don’t want your site down every few hours.
• If they are local, ask for a face-to-face meeting where possible or at least a phone call. You want to make sure that you will be comfortable giving your business to the right website hosting company.
• While speaking with the web hosting company see if they can help you meet your goals. For example, if you are selling goods do they support e-commerce sites. Again ask for references.
• Don’t worry too much about the details but ask what you will getting:
  • Will your site be on a shared server with many other sites?
  • How much space will be allocated to your site?
  • How much bandwidth?
  • What are the charges if you go over your space or bandwidth allocations?

Remember you are looking for a company where you can feel comfortable and trust since it will be hard for you to learn all the particulars of how to maintain and work with a web server.

Microsoft clearly behind Google on many fronts. But they have been coming out with some interesting free tools. There is a bunch at their adCenter Labs for example say you are stuck at writing your first online text as whether it is on Google, Yahoo, MSN or other search networks?

You can try MSN’s Ad Text Writer. It is not perfect but it can get you creative juices flowing perhaps. I tried with Boston Web Consulting and here is what it looks like (click on the image to see it larger):

The search funnel is also interesting to check out. These are some nice tools to further validate some of your marketing plans. Just remember that MSN only has a piece of the search market and their searchers may be a bit different than on Google.