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5 Best Practices for Business Blogs

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Hosting

The post 5 Best Practices for Business Blogs appeared first on HostGator Blog . Blogging can be good for your business, if you start with a plan. A blog can boost your website’s SEO, build relationships with prospective customers, and position your company as a trustworthy source of expertise. Sounds good, right? So, what are the best practices for starting your business blog ? Let’s dig in. 1. Blog for Your Customers, Not You What should you write about on your business blog? The big difference between business blogging and personal blogging is this: Business blogging is all about your audience, not all about you or your business. What that means is you’ll need to stick to topics of interest to your potential customers. Write for your customer personas , include keywords they search for, that you want to rank well for, and try to answer customer and reader questions with your posts. For example, does your business sell custom replacement windows? Use your posts to answer the questions customers ask you about energy efficiency, design, durability, energy rebates, and more. Remember that a blog is supposed to be a casual conversation. Readers come to you because they’re looking for information. You build trust and authority with them by giving them the information they want. That means don’t get too salesy on your blog. Yes, you can post about new products and sales, and share user-generated content like customer photos of their new windows. But don’t turn every post into a full-volume sales pitch. A call to action at the end of each post is enough. Vary the format from time to time. Maybe throw in an interview with a customer or supplier, use Canva to make some infographics with facts and stats your customers can use, shoot some tutorial videos, or make a slide deck with PowerPoint that your readers can download and share. 2. Include an Image with Every Blog Post Why? It’s simple. People love pictures. Pictures pull your visitors into your story before they read a single word. Look at the home page for Gardener’s Supply’s blog. For gardeners, these pictures are catnip, because they show what’s possible—and they show what the company’s customers want for themselves. Images also make social media posts more engaging. Tweets with images get 34% more RTs than tweets with only text, according to social media scheduling service Postcron. And Instagram posts without images? Just not happening. So take the time to create original photos or graphics for each posts. 3. Decide on Your Posting Schedule Hamster wheel or lazy river? How often should you post? Business blogs that turn out a post or more each day, like HostGator, have teams of writers and editors dedicated to creating that content. But as a small business owner, you wear many hats, and your most important one is running your business, not cranking out blog posts. If you must choose between fewer high-quality posts and more low-quality ones, go with less frequent, better-written posts. You can get good results from a slower posting schedule, if your content gives readers and prospective customers information they want. The key is to use the search terms your audience is looking for and the questions they are asking. To make an infrequent posting schedule go farther is to promote the heck out of each blog post on your business’s social media channels . If you’ve done your persona homework, you already know where your target audience hangs out online. Meet them there with your posts. 4. Keep Your Posts Fresh with Regular Blog Updates Every post you create is a resource you can edit and update as your business grows and your customer base evolves. When you update an old post, save that update in WordPress or update the publication data so that Google knows it’s been freshened up with new information. It’s a good idea to build regular updates into your content schedule. Changing out quarterly or yearly updates of statistics is an easy way to freshen up old content. Adding new feedback from customers to product-focused posts, or updates on new features, can also extend the life of your posts. For more tips, follow our step-by-step guide to running a content audit . 5. Get Organized with Blog Categories and Tags Keep your business blog categories simple and limited. Here’s how HostGator does it. Give your categories names that are search keywords, when possible. HostGator’s customers search for phrases like web hosting tips and marketing tips and tricks. Your business may have very different categories. Whatever they are, they should line up with what your market wants. For example, let’s say you’re in the dog training business. You might have categories on dog behavior, obedience training for dogs, socialization for dogs, and exercise with your dog. This keeps your blog focused on the stuff your customers are interested in. It also makes it easier for readers to home in on the information they need. You can tag your posts, too. This is different from assigning a post to a category. Maybe you write a series of posts on socializing and behavior training for rescue dogs, and another on senior dog behavior and exercise. The categories for these are clear—socializing and behavior. But you can tag them with “rescue dog” or “senior dog” so your readers can search your whole blog, not just individual categories, for content that matches their situation. Like with your category names, tag with phrases your readers search for. Here’s what the category and tag control panels look like in WordPress. Be sure to fill out the slug and description for each of your blog’s categories and tags. That information helps search engine crawlers understand what your post is about. Tags and categories can also help you when it’s time to update your content. Is there new research about senior dog health you want to add to your old posts? Call up the “senior dog” tag and you can rework all the relevant posts in a snap. Build Your Business Blog with HostGator Ready to get started? You can set up your business blog today with a WordPress hosting plan . Add on HostGator Domain Privacy to shield your personal domain registration information from public view to protect your business from spam. Not familiar with WordPress? You can still get started today, too. Gator Website Builder gives you drag-and-drop tools to help you snap together your business blog in minutes, with lots of mobile-friendly templates to make it look great. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Filter Spam Bots in Google Analytics [Step by Step Guide]

Posted on July 15, 2019 by Hosting

The post How to Filter Spam Bots in Google Analytics [Step by Step Guide] appeared first on HostGator Blog . You know how valuable Google Analytics is and you’re ready to take all the insights it can offer to improve your website’s performance. But as you pull up the Acquisition data to see how people are finding your website, you notice some strange entries.  Chances are, this means that you’ve become a victim of spam bots. What Is Google Analytics Referral Spam? Spammers will do anything to drive more traffic to their websites. One of the tactics they’ve employed to this effect is finding ways to show up in Google Analytics, hoping that website owners will click on a site to see why it’s sending traffic their way. Google Analytics referral spam used to be much more common, but Google works hard to keep those spammy sites from showing up in your data. Nonetheless, many websites will still see some results in their Google Analytics data produced by spam bots. If you care about getting accurate data about your website’s performance—and you should, because it’s the only way to understand what’s working—then you need to filter spam bots in Google Analytics.  Here’s a handy guide on how to do just that.   How to Filter Spam Bots from Your Google Analytics Results There are two main types of filters you should set up to capture most referral spam from bots. For both, you have the same first few steps.  Getting Started 1. Keep an unfiltered view. When you make any technical change, you always want to have a backup. In Google Analytics, that means keeping an unfiltered view . This provides you with data you can use for comparison with the filtered results you get, to make sure they’re working. And it provides you with a view you can revert back to if one of your filters doesn’t work right. To do this, go to the Admin section in Google Analytics by clicking on the Gear icon in the bottom left corner. Click on View Settings in the third column.  Click on Copy View, then name your view Unfiltered , or something similar.   2. Click on Filters under the View column. With that done, go back to main Admin page by either clicking the back icon or the gear icon again. Click Filters in the View section (Note: this is different than All Filters in the Account section). 3. Click +Add Filter.  Click the red “+add filter” button. Then move onto the next section for the specific filters to create.  2 Google Analytics Filters to Set Up Valid Hostname Filter A valid hostname filter is the best way to filter out ghost spam. These are the spam bots that manage to ping your Google Analytics without ever actually visiting your website. Ghost spammers use automated scripts to send traffic to random websites, usually using a fake host. By telling Google Analytics how to recognize a valid host, this type of filter cuts the ghost spam from your analytics view.   1. Find your hostnames in Google Analytics.  A valid hostname is anywhere that you’ve legitimately set up Google Analytics tracking. That includes your website, most obviously, but also services like marketing tools you use and payment gateways. You can find a hostname report in Google Analytics in the Audience section by selecting Technology , then Network . Select Hostname as your Primary Dimension . Set your date range to go back at least a year. Scan the list to identify your valid hostnames. You should be able to recognize these as your own domain name, and any tools you use and knowingly allowed access to your Google Analytics tracking. Anything you don’t recognize or don’t manage yourself is probably spam.  If there’s an entry you’re not sure about, do some Googling. For example, Google Web Light isn’t something I manage directly, but it’s a service Google provides to load speedier pages on mobile devices with slow connections. That makes it legit.  2. Create a filter listing your hostnames. Back over in our Add Filter screen (scroll back up to the Getting Started section if you need a reminder), name the filter something like “Valid Hostnames.” Select Custom under Filter Types , Include in the list of bullets below that, and Hostname from the dropdown menu.  Under Filter Pattern, list all your valid hostnames in this format: yourdomain.com|hostname2|hostname3|hostname4  You want to fit all of your valid hostnames into one filter here—you can’t create more than one filter that includes hostnames.  3. Test your filter.  Before you click save, take a few seconds to test the filter out and make sure you configured it right. You can use the Verify Filter option right there on the page to run a basic test and see how the filter would affect your data for the past 7 days. Note that, if your website doesn’t currently get that many spam hits, 7 days might not be enough of a sample set to show a difference. Once you’re confident your filter is accurate, click Save .  Crawler Spam Filter The other main category of spam bots that show up in Google Analytics is crawler spam . These are bots that actually do visit your site. They leave a correct hostname, so won’t get caught in your valid hostname filter. Instead, you need to exclude these from your analytics.  1. Find the crawler spam in your analytics. To start, identify the crawler spam that shows up in your analytics now. In the Acquisition menu, choose All Traffic , then Referrals . Change your date range to include at least a year. Now browse the list of websites to look for any that appear to be spammy.  Some will look immediately suspicious. For example, display-your-ads-hereti.info jumps out in the list above as probably spam. But for anything you’re not sure about, do a Google search for “what is ” and you can usually get your answer for whether or not it’s spam. If the list here is long, it’s probably not worth your time to try and filter out every single spam bot, but if there are a main few sending a lot of fake traffic to your site, make note of them to include in your filter.   2. Look up common crawler spam lists. In addition to the spam examples you find in your own analytics, you can find pre-created filters that list many of the most common offenders on sites around the web (such as here and here ). These will cover many of the spam bots that may not have hit your website yet, but could.  3. Create a filter (or multiple filters) listing the crawler spam. Back in our Add Filter screen, name your filter something like “Referral Spam.” Choose Custom as your Filter type, click on the Exclude button, and select Campaign Source in the dropdown menu.  For the pre-created filters you find, you can simply copy-and-paste them into your Google Analytics. For any you manually create, use the same format you did for your hostname filter: Spamname|spamname2|spamname3 Since you have a limited number of characters you can use for each filter, you’ll likely be creating several different filters in this step. Be sure to give them each a unique name. 4. Test your filter. For each filter you create, take a minute to test it. If you’re satisfied it’s accurate, click Save . Filtering Spam Bots on a WordPress Site Setting up filters within Google Analytics can feel pretty complicated. But if you have Google Analytics set up for your WordPress website, you have an easier solution you can take advantage of: plugins.  There are a number of WordPress plugins devoted to blocking referral spam, including: Block Referrer Spam SpamReferrerBlock WP Block Referrer Spam Stop Referrer Spam You can block a significant amount of spam from your analytics simply by choosing one of these plugins, installing it to your WordPress site, and activating it.  If you’re not on WordPress now, but liking the idea of a simpler process for filtering spam bots, the first step to setting up a WordPress site is investing in WordPress hosting . Many aspects of designing, managing, and maintaining a website are easier with WordPress, so for website owners without extensive tech skills, it’s worth considering.  Google Analytics Spam Bots FAQs Those are the main steps you need to know to filter spam bots in your Google Analytics. But if you still have questions about Google Analytics spam bots, here are answers to some of the most common questions people wonder about.  1. How do I detect spam in Google Analytics? First things first, don’t click on the link! If you visit the website itself, the spammers are getting what they want from their shady tactics.  Instead, either do a search for the website in quotation marks, e.g. “99-reasons-for-seo.com” or a search like “what is 99-reaons-for-seo.com.” That will ensure Google doesn’t take you to the spammer’s website—the thing we’re trying to avoid here—and instead you’ll see results from other websites about it. If the website’s a known source for analytics spam, someone’s probably written about it.  2. Why does filtering spam from my Google Analytics results matter? Website analytics are a rich source of information about what your audience responds to. They can show you what your website gets right now, and reveal areas for improvement. And they’re your best way to track the success of your online marketing activities so you know what tactics are worth the investment. Referral spam clouds the accuracy of your analytics. It puts you at risk of misinterpreting the data you have, because the data itself isn’t accurate. You don’t want to spend time and money on tactics that aren’t working because a spam bot makes you think a particular page is more popular than it truly is with your audience. By cleaning up your data, spam bot filters ensure your analytics deliver insights that are more accurate and useful.  3. Can I clean past Google Analytics data? These filters will mean you get cleaner data moving forward, but they won’t be applied retroactively. Your historical data will still include inaccuracies caused by spam bots. But, seeing the comparison between your analytics before and after applying the filters can help you make an educated guess about how much of your traffic was due to bots. You can take that into account when analyzing the data you have to help you get closer to an accurate picture.    Gain Clarity by Skipping the Spam Google Analytics is one of the most valuable tools available to every website owner. While you can’t completely avoid spammers online (they have an obnoxious skill for being everywhere), you can control the influence they have on your website data. Applying the right filters and plugins to your website analytics will rob spammers of their power, and give you back the accuracy you need to build a stronger website for your audience.  Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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5 Ideas to Boost Your Website Traffic Fast

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Hosting

The post 5 Ideas to Boost Your Website Traffic Fast appeared first on HostGator Blog . Building your website is only the beginning of your online marketing journey. If you want to get new customers to your site, you need to boost your website traffic. On top of that, you don’t want just anyone coming to your site. You want people truly interested in your services and products. It’s never too early to create a strategy for your online business. Here are 5 ideas to quickly boost your website traffic. 1. Host a Live Webinar People want to know the team behind the products and services they purchase. Hosting a live webinar is an effective way to spark future customers’ interest. The first step is selecting a topic related to your industry. Ryan Robinson , side project aficionado and part-time entrepreneur, explains: “Choose a topic that you’re all interested in and knowledgeable about, and you don’t even need to make it fancy. The best part is that everyone involved will bring some of their own audience, and you can get the attention of people interested in your field.” Then, choose a platform to host your webinar. Once you’ve selected the topic, date, and time, you’ll want to spread the word everywhere about your upcoming webinar. Ask friends and business partners to share a social media post (or two). During your webinar, direct attendees to your website to get additional information. Make sure you repeat the site address multiple times, add the site link to your presentation slide, and type it in the chat for people to click on it immediately. Creating an upbeat, fun webinar will keep your attendees engaged. As a result, they’ll feel more compelled to learn more about your business at your website. Pro Tip: Webinars are just one type of video that boost your website traffic. Get more video ideas for your website here. 2. Host an Online Giveaway Everyone loves being a winner. Give your consumers the spotlight by offering an online giveaway. It will spark brand awareness and lead to a boost in website traffic. A powerful giveaway starts with a cool prize. Don’t feel obligated to give away a new television. However, your prize should be relevant to your business. Let’s say you’re a chef with a blog, and you sell cookbooks and offer on-site cooking classes. Your giveaway prize may be a free cookbook or one free private class. Next, decide how you will execute the giveaway. You can host it on your site with the contest rules and a form for people to fill out. Or you can use a platform, like Gleam (shown below), to encourage people to visit your page to earn an entry. No matter how you implement your giveaway, your objective is to get people to your site. So, always include calls-to-action to your site along the way—-contest rules page, thank you page, and follow-up email. 3. Advertise on Social Media Social interaction remains an important part of marketing and sales, and there’s no exception when it comes to building your online audience. Social media is the spot for consumers to get their news, talk with friends, and learn about new products. For businesses, it’s an opportunity to build brand engagement with customers. To get traffic to your site fast, you’ll want to invest in social media advertising . Even with a small budget, you’ll get noticed by more people matching your audience criteria. Your ad should captivate people’s attention and give them a glimpse of your products. Be bold in your copy and carefully select a photo that tells a vivid story. Home improvement retail company Lowe’s uses Twitter to promote their sponsored posts. The example below shows how they use copy and a photo to motivate followers to create an outdoor oasis with the help of their products. It’s engaging and leads visitors to their site. Crunch the numbers to include social media advertising to your budget. It’ll help you achieve your traffic goals faster. 4. Answer Questions on Forums The Internet has evolved into a marketplace of knowledge. It’s where anyone can find answers to their most pressing questions: “Is Pluto a planet?” “Where’s the nearest Chinese restaurant?” People’s desire for information is good for your business because your product may be the answer to their question. It’s your chance to position your business as a solution. You can get in front of potential visitors by posting responses in online forums, like Quora . In these spaces, people are seeking honest, thoughtful answers to their questions. When participating in these forums, skip the fluff and jargon. Add a link your business when it’s relevant to the question, and only answer questions in your expertise. In the image below, the person offers a detailed response with examples and pictures. She uses a friendly tone and offers a straightforward answer. To drive traffic, it’s not enough to answer one question. Schedule in your strategy to post on forums three to five times a week. Most forums operate on an upvote system, so encourage people to upvote your answer if they find it useful. 5. Team Up with Influencers No one can achieve their goals alone. Successful businesses develop partnerships to expand their operations. Team up with influencers who share your same values and audiences. Search for non-direct competitors in your industry. For instance, your online store may sell only snow boots; so, it would be clever to connect with an influencer who only sells winter coats. You’ll want to define the partnership terms upfront. Will the influencer promote your site on her social media pages? Will the individual add your business logo and link to his homepage? Be as detailed as possible in the contract and get an attorney to review it. Also, remember that influencer partnerships should be genuine. You want to transform influencers into real customers. Teagan West , a contributing writer at Scrunch, says: “It goes without saying that you should do everything in your power to turn influencers into raving fans…When you have some influencers who are raving fans, your momentum will start to build and you’ll be connecting with new people and opportunities in no time!” Make boosting your website traffic a collaborative project. Join forces with influencers to increase your site visitors. Boost Site Traffic, Get More Visitors Don’t feel overwhelmed by the process of getting more website traffic. Do what works best for your business, like an online giveaway or influencer outreach. You’ll have new visitors at your site soon. Supercharge your site traffic with paid search advertising. See how the PPC experts at HostGator can help you can get more traffic, fast. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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5 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website from Social Media

Posted on June 3, 2019 by Hosting

The post 5 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website from Social Media appeared first on HostGator Blog . Everyone is spending time on social media. It’s the hangout spot for people to chat with their friends and get the latest updates on their favorite TV shows. It’s also a place for you to attract new customers to your brand. It’s important for people to engage with your website. However, social networks are doing their absolute best to keep people in-platform. But you can change all that! Here are five social media tips for your brand to get people to actually visit your website. 1. Optimize Your Profile It’s very likely for potential customers to learn about your brand on social media before they even land on your website. So, you’ll want to make a good first impression. You’ll need two key people from your team: a graphic designer and a copywriter. The designer will ensure your logo and profile images represent your brand well. You may need to adjust the color schemes or image sizes to maximize your brand’s visibility. Then, work with your copywriter to draft a creative message about your business. You can use your tagline or meaningful saying that will strike an emotional chord with your followers. Here’s an example from Califia Farms . Their Instagram profile shows a clear image of their logo. Plus, the copy sparks curiosity and spotlights their plant-based mission. Lastly, you want to lead people to your site with a link. Experiment with your homepage or a specific landing page. Your goal is to increase traffic and keep your new visitors’ attention. 2. Tease Exclusive Content Consumers love the velvet rope treatment. That’s when a few people receive access to a special offering. It gives people a sense of belonging and labels them as part of the “cool kids” group. Exclusivity can encourage more people to visit your site. Julie Neidlinger , writer, artist, and pilot from North Dakota, provides her perspective: “Exclusivity works because, frankly, people like to be in on the secret. Exclusivity makes people want something. If they can’t have it, they want it all the more. Some of us take a bit of pleasure when others are excluded (though we’d rather not admit that).” Use this strategy to your advantage by only posting links to specific content on your social media channels. For instance, let’s say you did an interview with a well-known expert. You can post the link to the video only on your Facebook account for 48 hours. That exclusivity will motivate your followers to click the link to your site. Another idea is to announce product releases on social media. It’ll prompt your audience to follow you on social media and visit the official announcement page. It’s a win-win for everyone: your fans get the exclusive perk and your brand gets traffic. 3. Engage Followers Directly Social media has earned a bad reputation because businesses like to rely on too many automated processes. This dependence on automation hinders brand engagement. Your customers want personal attention, not a bot sending them a canned response every single time they reply to your social account. To truly get people to your site from social media, you must engage them directly. So, invest in hiring (or outsourcing) a part-time social media manager to craft direct responses to your followers. Whether it’s a potential customer looking for a quick answer or a long-time customer needing assistance, you want someone to provide a unique reply in a timely manner. Footwear and apparel brand Vans offers a good lesson on how to connect with your social media audience. Below the company provides a friendly reply along with a recommended site for the customer to visit. When directing followers to your site, make sure it fits their needs. Matching the right page with their current issue ensures a positive outcome. 4. Connect with Influencers When building your marketing plan, don’t forget the power of relationships. Your team shouldn’t be tackling every task in a silo. Instead, recruit influencers to help you spread your message and get people to your site. Choose influencers within your industry that align with your brand’s values and goals. David Zheng, former contributor to The Daily Egg, offers his insight: “It can be excruciatingly overwhelming to track down influencers…The key to finding the right influencers is to remember that the more you know about your target, the better you can create a pitch that will engage and sell them on your idea.” You’ll want to draw up an agreement highlighting the expectations for the influencer partnership . Will the individual retweet specific posts? Or will the person post about your business three times a week on his account? Moreover, give influencers creative control to develop new social media ideas for your brand. Maybe they can post a series of funny videos or do a takeover on your Twitter account. These innovative approaches will earn your business more traffic. 5. Promote Special Deals A good deal is hard to find. That’s why customers are happy when they find a coupon for their favorite brand. Customers will even go the extra mile to locate a promotional code before purchasing products in their online shopping carts. You brand can leverage people’s need to save money. Start by offering special discounts on your social media accounts. It can be a one-time holiday offer or monthly deals just for your followers. These incentives will get people to your site, and it gives visitors a reason to buy from you now, rather than later. Check out this example below from Letterfolk . On Facebook, the brand is showcasing a special 20% discount on all their inventory for their Mother’s Day Sale. Like any good marketing strategy, don’t overload your customers. You shouldn’t post discounts every day. Also, state any restrictions about the coupon upfront. The last thing you want is followers upset because their coupon doesn’t apply to the items in their cart. Driving Traffic From Social Media to Your Website Social media is all the craze, but you need visitors to come to your site. From profile optimization to direct engagement, there’s an opportunity for your brand to get more traffic. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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What Is ASP.NET Hosting?

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Hosting

The post What Is ASP.NET Hosting? appeared first on HostGator Blog . One of the most important decisions every website owner must make is choosing the right type of web hosting services. And there are a lot of different types of hosting plans out there. Selecting the best web hosting solutions for your website depends on a number of different factors, including the programs you use to build and maintain your website. For a certain subset of website owners, that makes considering ASP.NET web hosting services an important part of the process of finding the best plan for you. Before we can provide a good explanation of what ASP.NET web hosting is and who it’s right for, we need to define what ASP.NET is. What Is ASP.NET? ASP.NET is an open source framework programmers can use to build dynamic websites, apps, games, and online services with the .NET platform. In ASP.NET, programmers build web forms that become the building blocks of the larger website or app they work to create. While ASP.NET is not as commonly used as PHP—the most ubiquitous of the programming languages used to build websites—it provides some distinct benefits for web designers that make it a strong choice for many websites. 10 Pros of Using ASP.NET ASP.NET isn’t for everybody, which is why it has a much smaller market share than PHP. But the pros of using ASP.NET to build your website or app are notable enough to make it well worth consideration. Here are ten top reasons to consider using ASP.NET. 1. It’s open source. As an open-source framework, any developer or programmer can make changes to the ASP.NET architecture to make it work the way they need. And often developers will share any updates or improvements they make with the larger community, so you can benefit from the work being done by a wide number of talented, skilled ASP.NET programmers. Any open source piece of software or program gets the benefit of all the great minds that use it. Every programmer that sees a way to make it more flexible, secure, or feature-rich can contribute to it. With over 60,000 active contributors, you can count on ASP.NET to just keep getting better. 2. It’s known for being high speed. ASP.NET makes it easier to build a site while using less code than other programming options. With less code to process, websites and apps load faster and more efficiently. ASP.NET packages also uses compiled code rather than interpreted code. Compiled code is translated into object code once, then executed. And every time after that, it loads faster. In contrast, interpreted code has to be read and interpreted every time a user accesses it, which slows things down. While you always have options for speeding up your website , no matter what you build it with, ASP.NET means you’re starting off with a website that will work and load that much faster than with other options you could choose. 3. It’s low cost. In addition to being open source, ASP.NET is also free. You can download the latest version of the software from the website for nothing. You can write ASP.NET code in any simple text editor, including free options like Microsoft’s Visual Studio application. In some cases, as with Visual Studio, the most useful text editors have a free basic plan you can use to start, and paid versions that provide more useful features for the common needs of big businesses, such as collaboration options. You may end up spending some money to get the full use of it you need, but businesses on a budget have the option of using ASP.NET for free. 4. It’s relatively easy to use. While PHP has a reputation for being easier to use, ASP.NET also has many features that make it intuitive for programmers or reduce the amount of work required to create a website or app. For one thing, programming with ASP.NET requires creating less code than most other options. That both means less time spent working on code for developers, and that your pages will load faster because it takes less time to process the code that’s there.   For another, it offers code behind mode, which separates the design and the code. This creates separate files for the design part of a page, and the code part of a page. That makes it easier to test things out and make changes as you go without messing anything up. Finally, ASP.NET allows for template-based page development and server-side caching, both of which mean you can make the design elements you build go further and easily re-use them for different parts of the website or application. While ASP.NET is primarily a resource for professional developers rather than beginners, they have a range of free resources available for those who want to learn the ropes. 5. It has a large developer community. Even though ASP.NET is relatively easy to use, many website owners will want to hire a professional developer to help with the particulars of building out a website or app. Luckily, the ASP.NET community is big enough that finding a skilled developer to hire who has experience in using the framework shouldn’t be a problem in most cases. And having a large community also means that, as an open source software, there are more smart minds working to improve upon ASP.NET on a regular basis. Many of the issues it had in the past have been fixed, and anything about it you don’t like today may well be taken care of in the months or years to come. 6. It requires less setup for Windows users. If your business already uses Windows products, then picking a Windows framework to build your website or app on will make the overall process easier on your team. Since it’s made by Windows, ASP.NET works seamlessly with other Windows applications. Getting your various products to play nice together and work in tandem will be simple. And you won’t have to worry about an update to ASP.NET or any of your other Windows applications screwing up compatibility. Windows will make sure that updated versions of its various products and applications still work well together, even as they all evolve over time. 7. It offers support for multiple languages. Programmers using ASP.NET have a couple of different programming languages they can choose from: C# and VB.net. C# in particular is a popular option with many developers because it’s powerful, flexible, and easy to learn.  It’s one of the most popular programming languages today and is known for being particularly well suited for building Microsoft applications, games, and mobile development. 8. It’s now compatible with all servers. Some articles on ASP.NET list one of the main disadvantages as being that it only works with Windows servers. In fact, several years ago Windows released the ASP.NET Core which made the program compatible with all types of servers—Linux, MacOS, and Windows. While it still may work best with a Windows server, since it was initially designed with that compatibility in mind, you can use ASP.NET no matter which type of web server you prefer. 9. It’s supported by Microsoft. Microsoft is one of the biggest and most powerful tech companies in the world. Any product that has their backing can count on regular maintenance, updates, and improvements. With some free products, there’s always the risk that their creators will stop supporting them and anyone dependent on them will have to start from scratch, but ASP.NET has the power of a company that’s not going anywhere behind it. 10. It’s got a great reputation for security. One of the main areas where most experts agree that the ASP.NET service beats PHP is for security. The program supports multi-factor authentication protocols that allow users to control who has access to the website or app they create with the framework. And ASP.NET includes built-in features that protect against common hacker protocols like cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL (structured query language) injection attacks, open redirect attacks, and cross-site request forgery (CSRF). Website security is an increasingly important issue for all website owners to consider, especially as hacks and high-profile data breaches become more common. Choosing ASP.NET is one of several steps you can take to make your website more secure. 5 Cons of Using ASP.NET That’s a long list of pros, which may have you wondering why so many people still choose PHP over ASP.NET. It’s not all positives, there are a few downsides to choosing ASP.NET as well. 1. It’s not compatible with fewer CMSes than PHP. One of the main reasons that some people prefer PHP is that it works with popular content management systems like WordPress. For people more comfortable using a CMS, which makes creating and updating a website easier if you don’t know how to code, ASP.NET puts a serious limitation in their path. With over a quarter of the entire internet running on WordPress, and content management systems like Drupal and Joomla powering much of the web as well, that makes PHP the natural choice for a majority of websites.   2. It has fewer templates and plugins. Because ASP.NET has fewer users, it also has fewer extras. With fewer people to develop useful features like templates and plugins, there just aren’t as many available to users of ASP.NET. These kinds of extras extend the functionality of a program and can make it easier for people to create the exact kind of website or app they want. While there are still definitely options you can take advantage of with ASP.NET, fewer choices means getting your website where you want it to be will be harder. 3. It’s potentially expensive if you’re not already using Windows. As we already mentioned, using ASP.NET is technically free. But using it tends to make the most sense for companies that already have access to a number of Windows products. One of the big benefits it offers is working seamlessly with all those other Windows solutions, so if you need something a Windows product offers while working on your website in ASP.NET, you’ll likely have to shell out for an additional product. Not everyone that uses ASP.NET will feel the need to spend money on other Windows solutions, but some will. If you end up deciding you need the additional functionality various Windows products provide, the cost can quickly add up. 4. It has a smaller community than PHP. While ASP.NET has a community that’s devoted, it’s much smaller than the community that uses PHP. That means fewer support resources and fewer developers working to make the framework better. It also means businesses will find it harder to find professional developers that are skilled in ASP.NET than PHP (although far from impossible). And you won’t have as many forums or user groups to turn to with questions. While that is an inconvenience, there is enough of a community out there that you may not feel a lack if you do choose to go with ASP.NET. But if having a supportive community is an important part of your decision when choosing what to build your website or app with, other options beat ASP.NET in this category. 5. It’s harder to learn than PHP. ASP.NET is relatively easy for developers to learn, but it has more of a learning curve than PHP. And because you can’t use intuitive content management systems like WordPress with it, it’s generally out of reach for many beginners that can’t afford to learn programming languages themselves or hire a professional when building out their website. For big businesses with a budget to put toward building a website or app, this is likely to be a non-issue since finding skilled ASP.NET programmers to hire won’t be too hard. But for smaller businesses and individuals building a more basic website, it’s a good reason to pick a simpler solution. What Is ASP.NET Hosting? Now that we’ve covered the basics of what ASP.NET itself is, we come back around to the main question at hand: what is ASP.NET web hosting ? ASP.NET hosting is any web hosting plan designed to be compatible with ASP.NET. In many cases, that means Windows hosting, but since ASP.NET is now compatible with other types of servers, it doesn’t have to mean that. Two main things define ASP.NET hosting services: 1. It promises compatibility with ASP.NET and all associated web applications. ASP.NET hosting solutions must provide seamless compatibility with ASP.NET itself. But you’ll also want to make sure your web hosting plan provides compatibility with other web applications you’re likely to use with ASP.NET, such as the Plesk Control Panel and any other Windows products you use.   2. It has an easy installation option. A good ASP.NET hosting plan will include simple one-click installation that lets you add ASP.NET to your web hosting platform within seconds. You have enough work to do building your website, game, or app—you don’t have time to spend on a complicated installation process. A good ASP.NET hosting option ensures you don’t have to spend any longer on this step than necessary. What to Look for in an ASP.NET Web Hosting Plan If you determine that using ASP.NET is the best option for your website, then an ASP.NET hosting plan is a smart choice. When researching your options, look for a web hosting plan that includes: A 99.9% Uptime Guarantee – Uptime is the amount of time your website is working and accessible to visitors. It’s one of the main differentiating factors between different web hosting companies. The best companies promise at least 99.9% uptime and back that claim up with a money-back guarantee. 24/7 Customer Support – The moment you have an issue with your website, you want to get it fixed. 24/7 customer support means you can reach someone right away and get the problem taken care of faster. Plenty of Bandwidth – Look for an ASP.NET hosting provider that offers plans at different levels, especially if your website or app will need a significant amount of bandwidth. If you need it, make sure you can get an enterprise-level plan compatible with ASP.NET. A Reputation for Security – Choosing ASP.NET to build your website is one smart step you can take for security, choosing the right web hosting provider is another. A web hosting provider that uses strong firewalls and offers security features like an SSL certificate that will provide an extra level of protection that keeps your website and its visitors safer. HostGator’s ASP.NET web hosting services offer everything on the list. We make it easy to add ASP.NET to your hosting account so you can get started faster. And we have one of the top reputations of any web hosting company in the industry. If you’re still not sure about the right web hosting provider or company for your ASP.NET website, our sales representatives and support team are available 24/7 to answer any questions you have. If you’re looking into a different service like dedicated server hosting , cloud hosting , or shared hosting plans, our experienced team can help you find the best package for your needs. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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