LimeGreen Marketing

What is hosting?

 

When you create a website you obviously want people to see it so you will need to publish (or upload) it onto the world wide web with a web hosting service.

Web hosting works by storing your website files in high-powered computers called servers. When someone types in your web address the Internet connects to the web server holding your website files and then transfers your website information back to their computer. From there they can surf and view the pages of your website, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Basically, web hosting provides the technology and services to manage these servers and their software, security, support, bandwidth, speed etc.!

 

Domain Names

 

Before you can present your brand new website to the world you need a domain name like www.limegreenmarketing.co.uk. To have your own domain, you will need to register it with a domain registrar.  There are a large number of domain registrar providers on the internet such as 123 Reg and 1 & 1. If possible it is best to choose a domain register provider from your own country, not least because you will be billed in the right currency!

It’s quite common to get confused between a domain name and web hosting. Put simply: a domain name, is the address of your home or office; web hosting is the space in your house or office into which you place your belongings. It is often made more confusing because many domain name companies also offer services like hosting, email etc.

 

Different types of hosting

 

There are 4 main types of web hosting; shared, dedicated, VPS and Cloud. 

While all types of hosting servers will act as a storage centre for your website, they differ in the amount of storage capacity, control, technical knowledge requirement, server speed, and reliability.  Let’s take a look…

1) Shared Web hosting is where a large number of web sites are typically housed on the same server.  This includes sharing the physical server and the software applications within the server. Shared hosting services are affordable because the cost to operate the server is shared between you and these other owners.

There are, however, some down sides, such as limits on storage and bandwidth, and the performance of your website is largely affected by the needs of the other websites, as you will be sharing the same server resources. The type of content on other sites on the same server can also have a negative affect on your website. For example, if you’re sharing a server with websites relating to religion, sex, or politics, these type of sites could be more prone to an attack due to their content, which – if you’re on a shared server – may in turn impact your website.

2) Dedicated Web hosting is where you have the entire server to yourself! This allows for faster performance as you are not sharing with other website owners. The only limit is the size of the server. However, this also means that you will be responsible for the entire cost of server operation.

This is a good choice for websites that are:

 

Very popular

Require a lot of system resources

Need a high level of security 

 

Typically, these servers start at around £200 per month and usually require a 2-year contract and setup fees.

3) Virtual Private Server hosting is a sort of fusion of the first two options. Your web site is hosted on its own virtual server so that it won’t be affected by the web sites of other customers.  However, the server shares computer resources with other virtual servers.  This means it is not a dedicated server i.e. the entire computer is not dedicated to running just one server software. 

Virtual Web servers are a very popular way of providing low-cost web hosting services. Instead of requiring a separate computer for each server, dozens of virtual servers can co-reside on the same computer. In most cases, performance is not affected and each web site behaves as if it is being served by a dedicated server. However, if too many virtual servers reside on the same computer, or if one virtual server starts hogging resources, web pages will be delivered more slowly.

Done properly VPS can be the best option for medium sized websites as the head server is often of a very high standard. VPS is great if you are running WordPress or small Magento websites as all patching and upgrades are performed by the company managing the head server.

4) Cloud hosting is a server system that provides web hosting via multiple connected resources that comprise of a cloud. Whereas standalone servers and virtual servers can have limited scalability options and the potential for service disruption, a cloud host can provide you with:

seamless capacity

increased accessibility

superior reliability

more expense for added flexibility

good for site with periodic times of high use

 

Things to consider when choosing your hosting

 

Support

How much support do you need to keep your website running smoothly?  If you are an IT whizz, then perhaps not a lot, but for most of us we don’t have the time or knowledge.  Choosing a web host provider that offers easily accessible, on-going support should be a consideration.  And if it all goes wrong, what emergency systems do they have in place to get your website back up and running?

The web hosting company will own support of certain things; they’ll make sure that your physical webs server is online (which is a different thing from your website). However, if your website is hacked, they’ll probably not be able to help. And if you need additional functionality added, they’ll certainly be unable to help.

This being the case, you can imagine there are two tiers of support. The underlying hosting provider is offering technology and network level support; they may even offer some support on your website (to varying degrees). Your site developer may offer ongoing support on top of this; as these people are best place to update the website etc.

Reliability

Your customers expect to gain to access your website 24/7 and quickly.  And whilst nothing in life is 100% guaranteed, you need to make sure that your web hosting provider can supply an uninterrupted network connection and manage your server space, to ensure quick upload speeds. You get what you pay for here! There is a world of difference in reliability between a cheap hosting account and a premium plan from a tier 3 hosting company.

Security

The last thing you want is your web site going down or being hacked.  You need to ensure that your web hosting provider can give you peace of mind with:

 

offsite backups,

storage of your data

higher security (if you need it)

 

This is one area where the initially cheap services create their additional bolt-on’s, these come at a cost. Different hosting companies will put different levels of security in place; your cheap and cheerful outfits will hardly do anything.

Again, be wary of the fine line here. The hosting company are traditionally less concerned about getting your website back online in comparison to the web server itself. There is an important and subtle difference and having someone to support the actual website itself is of benefit here.

Scalability

We all hope our businesses will grow. So it makes sense to ensure that your server can match your expansion by providing additional space and services as and when they are required.

Location

Using a server based in the UK will help your SEO.  You will have preferences on local searches compared to websites outside of the UK.  And when you target UK customers you will benefit from a faster web loading speed, based on the fact that the server is located far closer to the customer. It has been noted that Google prefers faster servers, so the shared hosting is only really recommended where Google placement is not so important, maybe a local club website or nursery in the local area.

CDN (Content Delivery Networks) also assist with this. This is a system of distributed servers (network) that delivers webpage images and other web content to a user based on the geographic location of the user, the origin of the webpage and a content delivery server.

Performance

Fast hosting is crucial to SEO. Google are hot on measuring how fast your website is as they know, statistically, how many people drop off websites as load times increase. Performance on cheaper companies like 123-REG and Go DADDY can be sluggish. Having a relationship with a company who actually cares about this side of things is beneficial, someone who will benchmark the performance profile of the website and make adjustments where needed. 

 

What happens once you have chosen your web hosting provider?

 

In order to transfer the website to the hosting company they will ask for temporary access to your domain name provider.

If you have email addresses with your domain name provider, then these will stay there unless you ask them to be transferred over to the hosting company to manage.

When your site is ready to go live it needs to have its “A” record changed to point to the new Hosting web space. This is a relatively simple task that informs all the DNS servers (those servers that translate numbers to sensible name’s) that your website name now resides at this new address. It can take anything between 12 to 72 hours for this process – known as DNS propagation – to take effect. 

So, at the end of the day, hosting generally comes down to ‘you get what you pay for’.  The more you invest in your website hosting, the better your website will perform.  Hopefully now you have the information you need to make an informed decision when choosing your website’s hosting. 

 

 

 

 

 

Pantone have recently announced their ‘Colour of The Year 2017’ and we couldn’t be happier with their selection.

 

 

At a glance we could see that ‘Greenery’ closely resembled our own brand colours, but as we delved a little deeper into it’s colour story, we found some more similarities.

To quote Pantone…

 

“Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew.”

 

This concept isn’t so far away from our own ‘fresh thinking’ ethos, as we help our clients revive their brands and reach out to their audience in new and inventive ways.

When it comes to brand consultancy, we encourage our clients to take a step back and evaluate their current digital presence before helping them identify how best to inject some new life into their organisation. Likewise, Pantone claim that…

 

…the fortifying attributes of Greenery signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate.”

 

It would seem great minds think alike!

 

You can read the full ‘Colour of The Year 2017’ announcement and find more information on the Pantone website, including colour charts and ‘Greenery’ merchandise – we’ve already got our eyes on those mugs!

 

The image for this post was taken from the Pantone website.

Christmas is coming and the party season is well and truly in full swing! We thought we’d invite you into ‘LimeGreen’s Cocktail Club’ and share with you some of our favourite Christmas cocktails.

There’s a common theme of course. Can you tell what it is?

 

Margarita – with tequila, triple sec and fresh lime

 

Equipment

  • A shaker
  • A strainer
  • A sieve
  • Cocktail glass

Ingredients

  • 1 part Cazadores Tequila
  • ½ part triple sec liqueur
  • ½ part lime juice
  • 1 lime wedge
  • Salt
  • Cubed ice

How to mix

  • Chill your glass (the easiest way is to fill it with ice)
  • Put lots of ice and all of the ingredients into a shaker, then shake hard for about 30 seconds to chill the liquid really well
  • Run a lime wedge around the outside of the rim of your glass before rolling the rim in salt
  • Double strain the mix into the glass

 

 

Mojito – a Bacardi and lime refreshing Christmas cocktail

 

Equipment

  • A muddler (or rolling pin)
  • A spoon
  • A long glass

Ingredients

  • 2 parts Bacardi Carta Blanca
  • ½ fresh lime
  • 12 fresh mint leaves
  • 2 heaped bar spoons of caster sugar
  • Dash of soda water
  • Cubed ice
  • Crushed ice
  • To Garnish: Sprig of Fresh Mint

How to mix

  • Put the four lime wedges into a glass, then add the sugar and muddle (squish everything together) to release the lime juice
  • Put the mint leaves on one hand and clap. This bruises the leaves and releases the aroma. Rub the mint leaves around the rim of the glass and drop them in. Use a muddler, bar spoon (or even a rolling pin) to gently push the mint down into the lime juice
  • Half fill the glass with crushed ice and pour in the Bacardi Carta Blanca. Stir the mix together until the sugar dissolves
  • Top up with crushed ice, a splash of the soda water and garnish it with a sprig of mint

 

 

Daiquiri – with lime and good rum

 

Equipment

  • A shaker
  • A strainer
  • Cocktail glass

Ingredients

  • 3 parts Bacardi Carta Blanco
  • 1 part lime juice
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • Cubed ice

How to mix

  • Chill your glass (the easiest way is to fill it with ice)
  • Add the lime and sugar to your cocktail shaker and stir until the sugar dissolves
  • Put lots of ice and the remaining ingredients into the shaker and shake hard for about 30 seconds to chill and dilute the mix
  • Strain into the glass. You don’t need a garnish for this drink, but a lime wedge or pinwheel (a pinwheel is just a thin slice) won’t go amiss

Enjoy responsibly!

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the newest member of the team at LimeGreen Marketing. Having recently welcomed Hannah into the fold, we’re excited to have her on board as Digital Marketing Project Manager – especially as she claims that she bakes a particularly good cake!

With design training and a background spanning events, public relations, retail and project management we know our clients and their accounts will be in safe hands with Hannah.

“I’m looking forward to putting my creative and commercial skills to good use with LimeGreen,” Hannah tells us. “It feels great to be part of such a friendly team!”