And there are quite literally millions of them.

There are other sites out there that are quite ready to point websites that suck out to anyone who would care to look.

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/top-10-worst-websites/

http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/

http://www.patheticwebsites.com/

and many, many more, including one of my personal favorites;

http://www.worstoftheweb.com/

You can read around all day long, tutorials, white papers, and instructions, about what not to do with regard to website design, but these links above and many more like them online, will actually “show” you “how not to design” a site.

Let’s catch this article quick about design then, shall we? …

The Worst Website Design Mistakes of 2008

Or maybe this one from PC World? …

In our business, we deal with site design newbies every day, and by this blog entry, it is hoped that some of our readers actually visit the links listed above. Sometimes, actually seeing a poorly designed site, might encourage some to do a better job on their own design project.

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Never has competition been so difficult in the Internet world. Google and Yahoo keep indexing more and more pages, into the millions upon millions, and yet more and more people are creating super quickie links pages that are supposed to get other webmasters to want to trade links with them.

I still trade links with other webmasters, but I’ve gotten more particular as the link trade offers get worse and worse.

First of all, nobody uses title tags correctly anymore. Just for example, a directory page for cars should have a automotive keyword in the title tag, not “ACME Soap washes your odor away guaranteed!”. Would I want my hot rod site listed on a page with that for a title tag? Remember, if by some miracle that page got listed in Google the link would read “ACME Soap washes your odor away guaranteed!”. More than likely the page wouldn’t even come up under any searches for cars or hot rods, even if all the links on the page were automotive related. Now, this example was a good links directory compared to most today.

Most people who want to trade links have links directory consisting of nothing but miscellaneous links. I mean nothing but links. I’ve seen a lot with no design whatsoever and no title tag at all. A page of links with no theme whatsoever is worthless for my site and yours.

The hidden links page is also a big frustration of mine. You’ve got to love it. One webmaster said you shouldn’t need a magnifying glass and a GPS system to find a link to the directory. Webmasters need to start treating their links pages as though they were as important as the rest of their site.

A lot has been said about link trades being a lot less effective these days. Could the problems we’ve covered here be the cause?

A Good Directory

A good links directory has title tags that relate to the content of the page, is organized neatly by theme, is easy to find, and is as close to your website’s main theme as possible. In other words, the more related the site is to your site’s content, the more the link trade is going to be valuable to your site. This is regardless of whether or not you get a higher search engine ranking. The best possible link trade for overall increases in traffic are ones that are going to boost your traffic with or without search engines, and if the links directory is a resource to the public you will get traffic from it. It would be much more probable that you would get a boost from such a site.

The basic moral of the story is if you want good sites to link to you then make a good professional looking links directory, and please no more title tags that do nothing but repeat your business name.

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Your Web hosting company can be your site’s best friend or worst enemy - depending on the level of service and responsiveness. A successful Web site depends on a good Web host, but it’s just as important to select the right kind of hosting account.

Are you willing to share space on a server with other sites or do you need a server of your own? Know the answer before you start shopping.

Unique And Shared Addresses

Every server connected to the Web has its own IP address. The IP address uniquely identifies that server much like a membership number or driver’s license number identifies a particular individual. IP addresses are also tied to domain names. This relationship means that Web users can either enter a domain name or an IP address in a Web browser to access the information on a Web server.

The basic difference between Web hosting accounts is whether a site has its own server or shares one with other Web sites. That arrangement determines whether the site has its own IP address or shares one with other sites.

Most small to medium-sized sites use a type of hosting called “virtual hosting” where a number of Web sites reside on the same server. Because the sites share a server, they also share an IP address.

Large and/or busy sites usually can’t share server space because the volume of Web traffic from many sites would quickly overwhelm the server. Those sites either operate their own servers or select a “dedicated hosting” option from their Web host. Dedicated hosting means that your site is the only site residing on the server and so you aren’t sharing an IP address with any other site.

Which type is best for you? Let’s look at the good and bad points of both.

Share The Risk With Virtual Hosting

The best thing about virtual hosting is price: it’s usually really low. Depending on your site’s technology, storage, and bandwidth requirements, virtual hosting can cost anywhere from $3 to $20 per month. It’s even possible to get free hosting in return for displaying ads from the hosting company or one of its partners on your site.

If price is your main concern, then virtual hosting may be right for you. But make sure you’re aware of potential problems:

Know your neighborhood. Sharing an IP address with known spam sites or adult sites raises a warning flag with search engines. Spam sites try to trick search engines into giving them an underserved high rank, so some search engines like AltaVista respond by banning the entire IP address from their index.

Check your Web host’s terms of service page to see what sites are allowed on their servers. Also ask if they offer an individual IP address for different sites on the same server. Some hosts do, but make sure the IP address and domain name resolve correctly before you start promoting the site.

Slower server response. A server receives requests for files and serves up those files in the order the requests are received.

It’s like a line at the bank: if you’re second in line you get served pretty quickly but it you’re twelfth in line you’ll wait much longer.

Ask your host how many sites reside on each server and how much traffic those sites get. The sheer number of sites isn’t the only issue. Response time may be slower if you share space with 100 busy sites than if you share a server with 250 sites that only get a few hits per day.

Slow server response can hurt site promotion by frustrating visitors. In extreme cases, pages may timeout and never load: not a good idea if that happens when search engine spiders crawl by.

More server crashes. Most Web hosts strictly limit the type of CGI scripts allowed on their servers, and with good reason! A poorly-written CGI script can quickly run wild and consume most of the server’s resources, even crashing it.

Your site could be slowed or brought down entirely due to the action of a neighboring site.
 

Don’t get scared by these concerns. The overwhelming number of Web sites use virtual hosting and never experience any problems. You just don’t want to be the exception! Evaluate the host carefully before you sign up for an account.

Own Your Home With A Dedicated Server

Dedicated hosting costs more, but offers more features and benefits. With dedicated hosting, you’re the only site on the server and have your own IP address. A dedicated IP address used to be a requirement for SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption, but some hosting companies now offer it as part of virtual hosting packages.

Because you have the server to yourself, dedicating hosting is more expensive. It’s like owning a home instead of renting an apartment. Like any homeowner, your costs will be higher, but there are benefits to the arrangement:

More control: You don’t have to worry about someone’s bad script slowing or crashing the server. You have only yourself to blame if that happens!

Faster response with high traffic loads. Because the server only responds to request for information from your site, visitors won’t have to wait in line to view your Web pages and images.

Easier setups. It’s easier to set up the server to handle anonymous FTP and SSL encryption if the server has a dedicated IP address. This isn’t impossible with virtual hosting, it is more difficult.

Many virtual hosts don’t offer it or charge a premium if they do. If the host offers SSL encryption with a virtual hosting account, make sure they set it up for you!

No bandwidth penalty. Virtual hosting accounts usually offer a certain amount of bandwidth per month to each site on the server. Sites that go over their allotment get charged extra. But dedicated hosting generally has no such restrictions because it’s assumed you need a lot of bandwidth if you require your own server.
 

Those are great benefits, but they usually don’t justify the extra cost for smaller sites. Evaluate your needs and your financial resources before you sign up for hosting and choose your host carefully.

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