Host Gator or Go Daddy

There are many other web hosts out there and they are all very competitive. The majority of them can be very expensive to say the least. They all seem to offer the same features but only a couple really seems to stand out. The two that do stand out are Host Gator and Go Daddy. In my experience, Host Gator is a lot better, cheaper and easier to use than Go Daddy.

Pricing

The pricing for Host Gator is great especially considering all of the features that you will receive. There are also many coupon codes out there that you can use to get discounts. They also offers different monthly plans as well as domain registration.

Features

Host Gator has an absolutely huge variety of features. It is truly incredible. Even with their smallest monthly plan, you get unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. In terms of their packages, there are quite a few different ones and they all offer amazing features at great prices. Host Gator's web hosting also offers a free site builder and many free templates that you can use. The entire array of templates look professionally made and well designed.

WordPress Hosting

With Host Gator web hosting, you can easily install WordPress and 75 other open-source scripts with just a click. It is the best hosting option for WordPress and is extremely easy to use.

Website Optimization

Host Gator offers many ways to optimize your website for speed and Google page rank within their cPanel. With many of these options, you can do them with just a click and Host Gator will handle it from there. It is incredibly simple and very easy to use if you don't understand SEO or Google page rank.

Customer Service

Their customer service is top-notch and is available 24/7. They offer email, phone, and instant chat. I have used instant chat and it is probably the best option in terms of customer support. They have helped me with all of my problems that I have had in the past. They are very knowledgeable.

It is really difficult to explain what Host Gator is all about in an article. The best way to understand what they are all about and what they have to offer is by going to their website and by seeing them with your own eyes. They offer a whole lot more than what is mentioned above and it is all for amazing prices. They do offer a 45-day money back guarantee, so you won't be risking anything.

This article was written by Elijah "SovietzT1" Ellerman. He is the CEO and owner of http://tier1freelancing.com/ and he runs his own freelancing business. You can easily contact him by comment or email on his website.

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A Brief History Of The NU Top Level Domain Name

You may have seen the.nu domain name around - but do you know its origins? The extension.nu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) representing Niue, a tiny island nation located around 2,400 kilometers northeast of New Zealand.

Niue was first settled by Polynesians arriving from from Samoa, followed by people from Tonga in the 16th century.

Small in size and population,Niue consists of a land area of just 260 square kilometres and is home to around 1,800 people - one of the smallest countries in the world.

However tiny and remote the nation may be, the people of Nuie are well versed in technology and it was the first country to offer free wireless Internet services to all its inhabitants, which occurred in 2003. An estimated 84 percent of the population has Internet access at home.

Niue was also one of the first countries to offer its domain extension to international registrants, the proceeds of which helped to fund the wireless Internet for its residents, as well as a program providing free computers. It is the only ccTLD model that plows resources into keeping an entire country's Internet services free - although recent reports indicate the services provided may be becoming substandard.

It hasn't all been smooth sailing for the.nu registry. In 1997, a U.S. businessman applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and was granted the right to operate the.nu domain. When the extension became popular, the Niue government attempted to gain control of the.nu TLD, citing a number of reasons.

The.nu domain proved to be quite popular in Europe as nu in Swedish, Danish and Dutch means "now." However, in French, it can mean "naked" - and consequently very few.nu domain names are registered in that country.

The country's name means something quite different altogether in the native dialect. Loosely based on the Niuean language, it translates to "Look, there's a coconut," according to information from the Niue Internet Users Society.

The Society, which is the official registry for the name, says in order to attract registrants to the domain when launching it to the world, they kept the extension as short as possible, simply.nu; rather than under second level domains like com.nu, or.org.nu.

While popular with hobbyists, the .nu extension isn't often seen in connection with businesses outside of the countries mentioned above. For example, in Australia most local companies prefer to register .com.au or .com domains as their primary name due to their level of awareness among the Australian public.

Michael Bloch is an Australia-based online business consultant with many years of experience in the web hosting and domain name registration sector. Michael is currently consulting for Domain Registration Services.

http://EzineArticles.com/6494728

Reduce the Risk of Getting Burnt When You Buy a Used URL By Doing Your Research Beforehand

Search engine visibility relies heavily on two key ingredients - your Website's Google PageRank and the power and applicability and of your Website's domain name or URL.

To promote a boost in Website traffic, some companies will purchase used URLs that had previously belonged to other companies. These companies are hoping to garner search engine traffic and branding benefits by purchasing these used URLs.

This might seem like a sure-fire, easy strategy for a company to gain more traffic, however there is substantial risk involved when choosing to buy a used URL. Purchasing a used URL is similar to buying a used car or truck - you take on any problems associated with the URL just as you do with a used car or truck. If you buy a used car or truck and a week later it needs a new alternator, it's your responsibility to pay to get it fixed. In comparison, if you purchased a used URL that has marks against it - or even worse it's been blacklisted by Google for violating its policies - those negative marks are now your problem.

The best way to avoid getting burnt by buying a used URL is to do your research in advance. Used URLs don't come with CarFax, but there are several free tools available for you to check out a URL's history and to keep you from purchasing a lemon. Some very basic research you should do include the following:

First check the WHOIS database. Here you can verify the registration history of the URL to see its original creation date. URLs that are several years old generally gain favor with Google.
Once you've checked the WHOIS database, you'll next want to verify if any of the URLs pages have been cached by Google. Verifying cache is a very simple procedure. Simply type in "cache:yourwebsite.com" into the Google search and hit return. If the search query returns no results, that could be a red flag that Google has blacklisted the URL you're looking to buy.
Lastly, you'll want to see what type of websites have backlinks to the URL. Make sure that any backlinks are related to the URLs content and purpose and aren't spammy or of adult content. To check backlinks to the URL, go back to Google and type in "link:yourwebsite.com" and run a search query. If the search returns less than ideal results and the URL has backlinks that look spammy or unrelated, you should probably avoid that used URL.

When it comes to used URLs, there isn't a guaranteed way to know if you're purchasing a dud, but you can decrease the likelihood getting burnt by doing your research before you buy.

Chris J Everett is the Owner of the Webvolution Designs Atlanta Web Design & SEO Company. An SEO/PPC enthusiast, he leads the development of custom web development and internet marketing projects for small and medium sized businesses. For more information, he can be contacted via his company website at http://www.webvolutiondesigns.com/

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