Now that we’ve discovered where we stand in relation to indexed pages, keyword rankings, and search engine coverage. We have a good idea of where Host Discussion now ranks and what it doesn’t rank on. Now that we know where we are – it’s time to find where we want to go.

Webmasters sometimes get lost in knowing what keywords to attempt to rank on. You may start with a random keyword list. You probably also don’t know if those keywords are well searched. You search what competitors of yours are ranked on for these random keywords. All time consuming and usually fruitless.

It would be nice to have a tool that makes keyword suggestions. It would be even nicer if that tool gave us a rough idea of how heavily that keyword was searched for. What if this tool also told us what keywords visitors were using to hit our competitors Websites?

That’s the beauty of RankSense and the true power of it. These kind of tools are readily available to you. If you know what keywords are heavily searched for, you erase the guessing game. Now you can focus on keywords you KNOW will bring traffic to your site. Using this tool you can discover obscure keywords that others may not even know visitors heavily search. It’s efficient and it’s easy.

Figuring out how humans search is part of the equation within RankSense and I love it. Now let’s see how these tools are used within RankSense.

Step 1 – Search Engine Selection

As most Webmasters know, a Website can rank differently between Google and Yahoo and other search engines. The Search Engine Selection tool helps you choose the search engine you wish to increase rankings for. For our review, I’ve picked Google, Yahoo!, and Live.com. Pretty basic here, obviously Google and Yahoo! are clearly the top two to pick here to reach the mass market for Host Discussion.

Read the rest of this entry »

The internet has become more than a tool used for research and simple entertainment. The world is using the net to connect with people from all over. It has turned into a daily routine, like drinking coffee and reading the morning paper for us. We can’t live without getting online and checking our email or scoping the world news. The list goes on and before we get to social networking. Social networking is the craze nowadays as contrasting social communities are uniting and expressing their individual interests.

Everyone has heard of MySpace, Facebook and Hi5, but have you heard of LinkedIn, MyChurch, or Passportstamp? If you haven’t, it goes to show how social networking, as does life, is evolving. The first three sites are dedicated to general social networking between anyone and everyone. LinkedIn is dedicated to bringing together business owners and entrepreneurs. As MySpace has “Friends” for you to add and chat with, LinkedIn’s users are called “Connections.” The way the site works is as follows: A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second degree connections) moreover the connections of second degree connections (termed third degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted contact. Next, you can use the network to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in anybody’s contact network. Employers can list jobs and even search for prospective employees. The job seeker can review the profiles of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them. The next site, MyChurch, is a Christian social network site serving Christian churches that follow the Nicene Creed. In addition to the standard offerings of MySpace, MyChurch allows churches to post sermon podcasts, show event calendars and even collect tithes from members. Although, MyChurch is geared towards Christians, they encourage non-Christians to join. Lastly, Passportstamp is a social networking website for travelers to record their worldly travels and visits. It was even named one of the Top 50 Travel Websites of 2007 by the Times Newspaper. That just goes to show some of the strides social networking online has taken. Other social networking interests include: college life, knitting and crochet, books, music, social story writing, online artistic community, Gay and Lesbian communities, genealogy and biography, recreational sports, collaborative scientists, investing, jet-setting and social elitists, online gaming, African-Americans, fantasy and sci-fi and a site dedicated to adults looking for friends and sexual partners. The list is very, very long and ever growing. There are even sites dedicated to users to create their own social websites and networks.
Read the rest of this entry »

The direction I’ve seen Google take with business and consumers tools in recent years have been to make our lives easier.  So when I heard that Google released a web browser I had to check it out.

The download and setup of the new browser was quick and effortless and soon as I loaded up the browser I noticed a resemblance to Firefox but with some cool tricks and features.

Firstly, as an avid Google search user I often find myself installing the Google Toolbar or Search Box.  With Chrome they have combined the typical (IE/Firefox) URL form into a search box as well.  So now one form field can handle both my Google search’s plus direct typing of a website URL.  For example, a common search I do to see our website ranking is ‘web hosting reviews’ and our website I visit daily is www.findmyhost.com.  With the combined box, I can do both without having to switch between the search box and URL submit form, very handy.
Read the rest of this entry »

There are tons of different niches in the web hosting business. There are hosts that specialize in specific areas such as:

shared hosting
dedicated servers
Windows VPS hosting
virtual private servers
ColdFusion hosting
hosting in different languages
hosting for realtors

and so on. There are probably hundreds of different ways that a hosting enterprise can separate itself from the competition. So it shouldn’t have surprised me when I came across a web host that I had never seen before with the intriguing name of:

AlcoHol-Host.com

Now whether the ‘h’ in alcohol was intentionally capitalized or whether that was a mistake born of ‘one too many’ is unknown – unfortunately the site is written in a language that I can’t understand.

One facet of this innovative webhost is readable – they apparently rate their hosting plans based on alcohol content. In fact, their main product set seems to be named the ‘’AlcoHol Plan’’ with a starter plan containing ‘’Alcohol 5%’’ up to the maximum legal limit plan of ‘’Alcohol 30%’’.

The website drives home the point that to create a strong market niche is to succeed in the competitive landscape that is the modern website hosting industry – and that is great for consumers. Let’s take two hypothetical web hosting buyers: Mr. Tech and Mr. Novice. Both are looking for reliable web hosting, at an affordable price. Mr. Tech, however, needs much less hand holding that Mr. Novice – so he is content with email-only support backed up with a detailed knowledge base. Mr. Novice needs 24×7 phone support with a service department that has the patience to deal with his novice questions, and he will probably never read knowledge base articles. Two clear niches exist to serve these two buyers: a slightly more discounted brand with email-only support and great online self-help articles; and a full service, high touch web hosting brand with 24×7 phone support at a slightly higher price point.

The above example helps illustrate that web hosting allegiance is not decided based on price – or even technical specifications alone. Consumers are shrewd enough to understand that ‘you get what you pay for’ and actually expect a brand with higher service and more features to cost more money.

So whether you are a buyer or a seller of web hosting services, remember that there are many niches out there – and select the one that best fits your business model and needs.