Does Google actually care where your web site is hosted? Do they care which domain extension your using? People often ask these questions and I think it’s time for some answers. You can also find further SEO tips and information within our forums where I will be working as hard as I can to keep you updated with the latest tricks of the trade.

Google and your hosting provider

Today Google is using geo-targetting more and more within its index, meaning your search engine position will be effected by the location of your web sites IP address. Some argue that this has a marginal effect, personally I think it can have a broader effect. Either way it should be taken into consideration, especially when there is a competitive market for your chosen search terms. Being a UK hosting provider we would actually recommend that all non UK websites go with hosting company’s that are local to them as this will give them a local IP to aid there SEO efforts.. Of course we would also recommend that any UK based sites host with us which will give them a Nottingham based IP.

Domain extentions and Google

I would always recommend to our customers that you purchase a geographic domain name. For example, if you are setting up a UK based web site you should purchase  UK domain such as .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk etc.

Ever since i started developing web sites, Internet Explorer has been the single biggest pain in the backside i have ever encountered. Microsoft’s web browser is insecure, not fully compliant with the W3C web standards and just lives a complete life of its own. All of the popular free browsers available are adhering to the same standard platforms, Internet Explorer uses its own illogical way of thinking. Obviously Microsoft think they are better than the rest, being that they could have easily adopted an open source platform that runs inline with today’s web standards and saved themselves a lot of embarrassment (like ending up on the news for security issues). Anyway there’s my rant, here are the 10 reasons i would advise anyone to stop using Internet Explorer.

Security - Do you want to enter your passwords into a browser that’s constantly in the media for being insecure?

Quality - IE does not render web pages correctly so you cannot get the best out of the web

Compatibility - IE is for Windows only (surprise surprise) so if your on a Mac or Linux machine it wont work

Extendability - You cannot personalize Internet explorer or use ad-dons like you can with Firefox or Chrome

Its Microsoft! - Microsoft is a money driven business without your surfing experience in mind, other browser developers are free, open source and built for your enjoyment and usability.

Its Slow – Internet Explorer isn’t optimized for the latest technology, other browsers are so they are much faster.

Upgrades - Internet Explorer isn’t developed at anywhere near the same rate as its free alternatives.

Be nice to developers – Because Internet Explorer isn’t up to date, coders and web designers are constantly having to keep up with its bugs. We are actually backwards coding sites just for internet explorer which causes a lot of needless work.

Alternatives Available

As usual, this post is open to debate so if you would like to stand up for IE feel free to comment!

We want you to be able to share your knowledge and experience with other members, so the blog is now open for user contributions! If you would like to submit content for any of our blog categories please send your article to us using our contact form. We are looking for well written, informative articles so we may ask you to make changes to your submission before publishing it. If your article is published you will receive a credit for one month of free hosting just to say thankyou. There is no limit to the amount of articles you can publish so if you publish one a month you’ll never pay for hosting again!

What can i write about?

Anything internet related! We’re looking for;

• Web Design Tutorials
• Programming Tutorials
• Photoshop Tutorials
• IPhone App Reviews
• Webmaster Resources (Review your favorite sources of info)
• SEO Tutorials
• Your Own Web Site (Send us a full write up explaining why people should use your site!)

If there’s anything else you feel is worth knowing about feel free to send us your suggestions, if its useful we’ll blog it.

Keyword research can be a very boring task, but using the correct tools can produce some great results as part of your SEO program. Using the wrong tools can produce some highly unrewarding results. I find that Google are becoming more and more helpful towards webmasters and searching the webmaster tools sections can reveal some very handy information regarding most SEO subjects, including keyword research!

Google Search-Based Keyword Tool

Google has its own keyword research tool which you can narrow down to UK or US searches as well as various other metrics, making it a much more accurate research tool. You can also export reports, view keyword competition and lots more. Although this tool is developed mainly for PPC, it still shows the searches made.

http://www.google.com/sktool/

Other useful links/info

• Wordtracker Keyword Expert Newsletter which publishes like clockwork and offers a wealth of knowledge with every publication. Its a free resource so you might as well use it.

• SEOMoz provide lots of SEO advice and tools, you can get some extra info on your keyword research in the blog.

• SEOBook offer a keyword research tool which provides some in depth information for US based searches.

Everyone wants there web site to be popular, and your sites popularity heavily depends on inbound links coming from popular web sites. If your currently working hard to increase your websites inbound links you’ll need a tool to keep track of your progress. I would recommend something like Link Popularity Checker which you can download here. This tool scours the major search engines for your site and any competitors sites to provide you with an overall comparison.

Increasing Link Popularity

Increasing link popularity is no simple task, well its not rocket science but it takes time and effort. You need to find web sites with a Google page rank of 3 plus that are within your niche. For example, if you sell DVD’s you would link with movie review sites. A great way to check a web sites page rank in seconds is to use the Firefox Swoosty SEO Tools plug-in which displays the Google page rank and Alexa rank of every site you visit in the bottom right corner of your screen.. I’m all for these plug-ins as they save a lot of time.

Increasing Link Popularity through blogs

Yes, commenting on other peoples blogs will contribute to your linking strategy. Bookmark a load of blogs that have high Google page rank and take a few minutes each day to see whats being posted and leave a useful comment. To help you get started, take a look at this list of high page rank blogs that DOFOLLOW below..

1. http://dag.wieers.com PR6
2. http://www.bumpzee.com PR6
3. http://www.figby.com/archives/2004/11/29/more-skepticism-
4. on-blogging-for-dollars/ PR 6
5. http://www.universalhub.com/node/12757 Domain PR 6
6. http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/good-news-and-bad-news PR 6
7. http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/off-on-holiday PR 6
8. http://heiseidemocracy.com PR 5
9. http://www.expertcruiser.com PR 5
10. http://www.shandyking.com PR 5
11. http://www.dotsauce.com PR 5
12. http://sphinn.com PR 5
13. http://randaclay.com/blog/i-follow/ PR 5
14. http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/index.php/2008/01/
15. 21/are-you-depressed-today-youre-not-alone/ PR 4
16. http://blogs.speech-writers.com PR4
17. //www.searchenginepeople.com/blog PR4
18. http://freeadblogger.blogspot.com PR4
19. http://allrealestateproperty.blogspot.com PR4
20. http://www.ptank.com/catsynth PR4
21. http://endangeredspaces.blogspot.com PR4
22. http://www.planetsaedel.com/2007/11/02/why-you-
23. should-not-avoid-negative-people.php PR3
24. http://www.wordpressmax.com PR3
25. http://www.rosshetherington.com PR3
26. http://www.howtospoter.com P3
27. http://blogs.speech-writers.com PR3
28. http://www.dollarsblog.com PR3
29. http://www.fabiozanet.com PR3
30. http://www.blogsthatfollow.com PR3
31. http://shannonxj.blogspot.com PR3
32. http://advertising-for-success.blogspot.com PR3
33. http://cooladzine.blogspot.com PR3
34. http://pixietail.com PR2
35. ttp://tiptail.com PR2
36. http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com PR2
37. http://davedragon.rilysi.com PR2
38. http://www.fatmanunleashed.com PR2

Increasing Link Popularity through forums

Another great way to increase link popularity is through forum contributions. Why not sign up with a few forums and get some free advice at the same time as you build your links? I have listed a few DOFOLLOW forums below for you to get started with..

1. Warrior Forum – A Very useful internet marketing forum with a great community.
2. 5Star Affiliate Forum – There Administrator’s are especially helpful. You can learn a lot from them.
3. Ableton – Music an Audio Forum
4. Abestweb – Affiliate Marketing forum, which is actually good for both begineer and pro internet marketers
5. Abundance – Free advertising forum – An easy way to plug your site.
6. Addicsports - A big sports forum.
7. Affiliateseeking.com – A really good affiliate and webmaster forum.
8. Acorn Domains – A Domain Name Trading Forum, this one is fairly new but growing well.
9. Admin Zone Forums – Info for webmaster Administrator’s.
10. Affiliates4U – The UK’s biggest Affiliate and Marketing Fourm available.
11. Allcoolforums - Online discussion forum, lot’s of variation going on here.
12. AMD Forums – The Official Athlon Processor Support.
13. Baseballtalkpro – Sports Forum – Mainly Baseball.
14. Blogger Forum – Mainly on Blogging, you can learn a lot here worthwhile to any blogger.
15. Business Forum – business forums
16. BZ Image – Web Design Forum, also dabbles into SEO and Webmaster.
17. Clickbank Success – A forum specific to clickbank users
18. Clicks Forum – Business Forum For Internet Marketing
19. Cnet Forums – Tech Forum
20. Code4gold – Webmaster Resources, most of which are free.
21. Comic Book Resources – As the name suggest, this is all comic book talk.
22. Deviantart – Biggest Art Forum in the world.
23. Digitalppoint – One of my personal favorites – SEO, SEM and anything else Internet Marketing related.
24. DirectoryJunction – A recently started but great webmaster forum
25. Discuss Names – Domain Sales and Discussion
26. DN Forum – Domain Sales and Discussion
27. DN Lodge – Domain Sales and Discussion
28. DN Scoop – Domain Sales and Discussion
29. Dreamteam Money Forum – Moneymaking forums. One of the vest money making boards offering dofollow forum signature.
30. Ecauldron – Religon Forum
31. Ewealth.com – Internet Marketing and webmaster forum.
32. Filesharingtalk – All about sharing files.
33. Free Ad Forum – Dofollow free advertising forum
34. Geek Village – Large make money online board
35. Gento Forum – programming board.
36. Golden Talk – High ROC forums
37. Googlecommunity – About the mothership “google”.
38. GPT Boycott Forums – Get-paid-to forums and ratings.
39. Harmony Central – Musicians Community Forums
40. Hotsurfs – Autosurfing and how you can make money with it.
41. HTML Forums Webmaster advice. Very useful.
42. HYIPs Talk – High ROC Programs forums.
43. IDN Forums – International domain names forums, sales, appraisals, and general discussion.
44. Intel Forums – Intel Board
45. Internet Marketing for Business – Internet Marketing and SEO Webmaster Forums
46. IQ 69 – Webmaster
47. Iwebtool – Offers preview of site in signatures.
48. Live Journal – Community forum.
49. Microsoft Forum – The Microsoft support forum.
50. Money Maker Group – A board regarding HYIPs.
51. Movie Lists - Movies
52. Moneyfanclub – focusing on HYIPs and autosurfs.
53. Mygamebuilder – Games Board
54. MySQL Forum – programming and database forums
55. Namepros.com – Domain Name Trades
56. Online Books Club As the name suggests, Books and Reading (Boooring…hehe just kidding)
57. Oracle Forums – Oracle Support
58. Payment Processing – Ecommerce forum.
59. PhpBB Forum – Support forum for PhpBB users.
60. PokerBRB Forum – Poker and other gambling board
61. Search Engine Roundtabe – SE Board
62. SEO Chat – Programming and development forum online.
63. SEOForum – Australian SEO Forum (they seem to talk about Fosters quite a bit…)
64. SEO.com Forum – SEO
65. Sidetalks – Anything and everything.
66. Simplemachines – SMF support forum.
67. Siteowners – Webmasters forums
68. Sitepoint – Webmaster and programming forums.
69. Small Business Forum – A “dofollow” business forum for small entrepreneurs and startup.
70. Startups – Business start-up
71. Static-Subs – anime forums
72. Submitexpress – SE forum
73. Talkfreelance.com – Freelance webmasters, webdesign, and seo community.
74. Textpattern – Textpattern Help Board
75. The Free Ad Forum – Largest free advertising board and it also has a “dofollow” signature.
76. The V7 – Webmaster Board
77. TheHYIPforum – Another “dofollow” forum. Best if you are promoting a HYIP site.
78. TriPHP Webmaster Forums – TriPHP Webmaster Board
79. Ubuntu Technical Forum – PC and tech related Forum
80. Webdegity - Webmaster Forum, I have used this one quite a bit, has a great community
81. Web Design Forums – Web design
82. Web Developer – programming and scripting websites and other money related topics.
83. Webicy – Webmaster
84. Web Life – A HYIP forum.
85. Webhosting Canada – Industry Discussion, Webmaster Forum.
86. Webhosting Talk – Geared towards hosting resellers
87. Webmaster Forums Online – News and Discussion Forums for Webmasters about SEO, Internet Marketing and Advertising.
88. Webmaster-talk – Programming and webmaster forums. Big Forum
89. Webproworld – Ebusiness professionals board.
90. Webtalkforums – Webmaster Forum is a revenue sharing
91. Windows Forum – Microsoft Windows Forum
92. Winamp – Official winamp forum.
93. Work at Home Moms – Moneymaking forum for Mums.
94. Work-at-Home Moms – Internet marketing message boards for mums.
95. World of Warcraft – MMORPG Forum
96. Xandros – Web Design.
97. Vuju – Classifieds
98. AllcoolForum – Anything and everything

So you need a domain name, but what are these extensions all about? What do they all mean? Which domain extension is right for you? First of all, registering a domain name is a very simple and straight forward process, as is transferring existing domains. Some extensions require extra steps and are slightly more difficult to transfer but i’ll go into this shortly.

In this article I’m going to explain the basics of the most popular domain extensions.

Domain Extension Meanings

Below i have summarized the most commonly used domain extensions, i’m sure you will be familiar with one or two of them as we all use them on a daily basis when surfing the web.

.COM (Commercial) - This is a commercial domain extension generally used for commercial sites. This has become the most well known extension.

.NET (Network) – Generally used for network organizations e.g internet service providers etc.. But this has become a common extension used by commercial organizations if the .COM domain is not available.

.ORG (Organization) – Originally intended for non-profit or trade organizations.

.BIZ (Business) – This is generally registered to classify your website as a business.

.US (United States) – This generally refers to US based companies.

.INFO (Informational) - This gTLD is generally used as an extension for informational websites. I believe that other than .COM, .NET & .ORG, it’s the most popular domain extension used. If you are developing an informational website it’s definitely a domain extension that I’d register.

.MOBI (Mobile) – This domain extension, as of this writing, is fairly new. Although majority of the domain name owners registered their domain name with the .MOBI domain name to protect their brand, it is primarily reserved for website built for displaying on mobile devices.

.TV (Television) – In my opinion it’s used primarily for media, primarily video, related websites.

.WS (Website) – This is actually a ccTLD for Western Samoa but was converted to a domain extension commonly used as an acronym for ‘website’. Although it seems that it would be a great extension I don’t feel that it really ever took off and you can find very good domains available with the .WS extension.

.ME (ME) – This is the newest domain, as of this writing. It was originally the ccTLD of Montenegro but would generally be used for personal related websites such as family websites or blogs another option would be to pose your resume or even artwork that you may have done. The other use would be to create a very memorable personal email address.

.NAME (NAME) – This is a gTLD that’s intended for personal use. You’ll find that this extension is used for personal / family websites or simply used for name related email addresses.

.CA (Canada) – This is a ccTLD that is generally reserved for Canadian based businesses.

.CO.UK (United Kingdom) – This country code domain is generally reserved for commercial related websites based in the United Kingdom. Although it’s not restricted to just UK based business, I see very little value in registering the domain extension unless you plan on doing some sort of business in the UK.

.CN (China) – This is the ccTLD for China. This domain is not restricted to companies based in China and can basically be registered by anyone that would like a .CN extension.

A Final Word On Domain Extension Meanings

I have only covered a few of the most commonly used domain extensions but there are many more for you to chose from. If you would like to see if your domain name is available for registration go to our domain checker.

Ok, so you are a new blogger finding out ways to increase your traffic? You need to have good content and equally good patience to get some good traffic going to your blog.

I personally feel that search engines are one of the best ways to get visitors to your site. And what better site than google?

You might be aware of Google’s Blog Search . You can search up whats being churned out all over the blogosphere at Google Blog search. Do a search for your site and if it doesn’t turn up then click here to add your site to Google Blog Search.

If your looking around for web hosting the chances are you already have a web site or domain name with another hosting provider that you need to move. We often receive emails from potential customers who are don’t know how to move websites or domains. As a direct response to this we now offer a completely free domain and hosting transfer service.

Also, where possible we will also re-install your web sites software applications e.g blogs, forums etc and re-create MYSQL databases using data from your previous provider.

To take advantage of this service just sign up and then raise a support request telling us what you need us to do, we will then advise on the best possible transfer options with minimum downtime.

As part of our ongoing security improvement plan we recently added captcha to the hosting control panel log in screen. This is to prevent any automated attacks on your account. We realize that it’s an extra step that you may find inconvenient at first but I’m sure you all agree that system security is top priority. If you experience any problems with this feature or you have any ideas in how we can improve it please get in touch.

As an added security measure we have now added an FTP locking feature for all shared hosting accounts. This enables our customers to lock FTP access to there account when it’s not in use, making it more difficult for hackers to gain access. You can unlock your FTP for a given time or by IP address so you can access your files from your home pc even when FTP is locked.