responses, visitor tracking, are just a few of the many hosting issues to consider.
     Will your host allow aliases, which let you create addresses such as sales.yourcompany.com? Ask about programs for handling mailing lists and generating automatic e-mail responses. In addition, check that the host can track visitors to your site.
     If your web site will have interactive elements such as forms, surveys or online transactions (e-commerce),make sure you ask about features such as JSP (Java Server Pages), ASP (Active Server Pages) or ColdFusion coding.

Don’t just because you can.
     On the other hand, you also want to avoid paying for features that you don’t need. Follow the business integration plan that marketing has laid out. For example, if you have no intention of taking credit card orders online, or asking for private survey information,  you wouldn’t have to pay for special security features like secure socket layer (SSL).or SHTML.
  Finally, once you’ve whittled down your list of web hosts, ask each finalist to provide you with a list of the sites it houses. Then go to those sites and observe how fast the pages load. You can also e-mail the sites’ Webmasters and try to find out what they think of their hosting company.
     Moreover, you can consult Internet mailing lists, computer user groups and professional associations in your search for the most ideal web host for your company if you have not been able to consult with an experienced Internet marketer.

On top of the search engines
     Appearing in the first two or three pages of search results is crucial to the success of certain websites. Your marketer will let you know just how important and how much money you should spend in this effort.
     Every web marketer in the world competes for the top (Top)

spots. Whoever pays the most to be placed in search engines or to have their sites explored often by search engine crawlers gets those spots. Its like deciding whether you want to advertise in the local newspaper or the Wall Street Journal, and it all depends on your marketing niche.
  To ensure that your site gets top placement, you or your marketer would have to hire an analyst or an interactive agency to perform search engine optimization for your web site. But if your business is not General Mills you may want your marketer to work with the web developers, graphic designers and copywriters to make sure your content can be easily crawled by the Search Engines and that each page has the appropriate metadata so that they may be easily classified.
Your marketer can also make arrangements for cooperative links to other compatible sites...which also provides your site with more favorable search engine rankings

Protecting your information
     While being connected to the Internet makes your web server inherently vulnerable, there are several basic steps your developers can take to thwart attacks and minimize damages:
     Web firewalls, passwords and bio-security are important, but most important is competent security planning. This, again should be done with your marketer to balance transaction convenience with information protection. Then, make sure your developers are using the right coding programs for the security you need.
     Finally, training personnel in the whys and wherefores of your marketing and security plans is probably the most important aspect of maintaining a good operations and security balance in your web enabled business.

Other questions? Call me toll free at 866-324-1658 or email me:
JDK@devkinney.com.
                       -- J.D. Kinney