Web Host Recommendations?

[McB!]

I realise that someone else recently started a thread on this topic, but I have some specific queries and I thought it would be uncool to hijack it.

At the moment I'm not running any kind of official photography business. It's something I'm very slowly working towards, but right now I'm in no rush. Anyway, I've got a few weddings and other events coming up later this year. I reckon they will be good opportunities to generate further business, so it would be nice to have a website to direct people to. For the time being I'm just looking to showcase my work, so a few galleries and my contact information will suffice for now. However, I'll probably be wanting to look into more advanced options eventually (online proofing, ordering etc.).

I have questions, but I suppose it would make sense to tell you what kind of website I'm after. I'd be willing to pay a monthly or annual fee. Basically, I'd like something fairly classy and minimalistic, maybe with an indie / alternative vibe. I want to avoid the "free website" look as much as possible. I'd like people to be able to browse galleries quickly and easily, so no unnecessary bells and whistles or load times would be a plus. I'd also like to to have my own domain name (i.e. myname.com), with any references to the actual web host kept to an absolute minimum (this is just a personal preference of mine. I think it seems more professional). And finally, I'd obviously like a site that I can rely on.

Now, here are my questions. Bear in mind I have absolutely no experience whatsoever in creating or managing my own website (I have a Facebook page and that's it), so the chances of me asking things that are screamingly obvious to everyone else are high. Please, just humour me

1. It's my understanding that SmugMug, Zenfolio and Bluehost are popular choices. What are your experiences with these sites? Why are they so popular? Advantages / disadvantages? Are there lesser known sites that are equally as good or better?

2. Flash or no flash? Other than the aesthetic value, are there any other advantages to having a flash site? From my research, I've read that flash websites increase load times and aren't recognized by search engines. Is this true?

3. Many websites claim to be SEO (Search Engine Optimised). Are these valid claims? Again, from my research it would seem that it's pretty much up to the owner of the website to do as much as they can to generate traffic (linking from other pages, for example), thus improving the search engine ranking. Is that actually how it works?

4. With regards to registering a domain name, is that something I would do through my choice of web host, or would I register it separately and then choose a web host that would allow me to use it? What is the best way to go about registering a domain name?

5. I've noticed a few websites boasting that they are optimised for iPhone / iPad viewing. Again, I'm not sure how valid these claims are, as I'd expect most sites to be viewable on at least some level. However, given the popularity of these devices, do you think this is something I should be taking into consideration?

6. I am a Mac user. Should this have any effect on which web host I go with?

As I mentioned earlier, I'm taking things slowly, and I started this thread with the hope of being able to avoid as many pitfalls as possible. Up until now, I don't think I fully appreciated the sheer number of factors you have to consider when starting your own website. I admit that I have asked a lot of questions, but I'd really appreciate hearing any of your thoughts on the subject.

Thank you!

[BuddhaPi]

1. smugmug, zenfolio are good fro client areas, proofing, and sales features, bluehost is just a web-host, they do not offer the same items as the other two, with a web-host you would need to develop the site and either link to an outside shopping cart system or develop one. In terms of web-hosting you get what you pay for and prices range from 5.00 per month to upwards of 30 .oo per month depending on your neeeds/ wants.

2. stay away from flash, you'll be limiting you viewer base, flash does increase load time and is not search engine freindly.. most anything done in flash can be accomplished using other methods / languages..

3. I can't speak for smugmug or zenfolio, but i assunme there are features built into to these to aid in SEO, and yes SEO is pretty much up to the owner or developer of the site..

4. register your name thru a known and respected registar as opposed to a web-host ( go-daddy is cheapest), then you can change the DNS to point to the webhost of your choice.

5. If you use flash, forget ipads, i-phone, Steve Jobs and Adobe are at war.. you might consider developing a mobile friendly site, depending on your budget.

6. mac or pc doesn't much matter to what web-host you choose, however I would suggest linux hosting over windows hosting, a. it's more affordable, and b. it's much more stable.

feel free to PM me if you have further question ro i I confused you at all..

[funcrunch]

1. I have used both SmugMug and Zenfolio. I left SmugMug because they had numerous unplanned, extended downtimes during the time I hosted with them. I've been with Zenfolio nearly a year now and have been happy with their features, pricing (I'm on the $100/year Premium account level), user interface, and customer service. Both sites have a free trial period so you can try them both out; if you decide to go with Zenfolio, you can save a few bucks with my referral code, DUQ-C5J-MB8.

2. I hate Flash, with the exception of truly interactive applications that I choose to go to within a site. If I see a Flash loading screen when I first go to a site's home page, I am likely to leave and unlikely to return.

3. The best way to improve your search ranking is to have many high-quality web sites (i.e. not link farms) link to yours. Zenfolio makes efforts to help with SEO by including options for Google Analytics, etc., but I've heard complaints that their SEO is not great in general. I am starting to find more of my Zenfolio photos through Google and seeing more visitors from there, however, after being with them for awhile. SmugMug did seem to have the edge in this regard though.

4. I use and recommend pairNIC for domain name registration. They are not as cheap as some alternatives like GoDaddy, but I have found them to be more professional and reliable. Once you set up a domain name through them or another registrar, Zenfolio and SmugMug both offer instructions as to how to point that name to their web site for transparent integration. I do not use that option myself however, preferring to have a separate web site that I manage entirely by myself (as I have a web development background), with links to my Zenfolio galleries for customers.

5. Just avoid Flash and gigantic images that would require a lot of scrolling on mobile devices. Test your site on them too if you can.

6. Any web host worth using should be friendly to Mac users. As a Mac user myself I would run away screaming from any site that only worked with, or was primarily designed for, Windows. I'm even annoyed that I can't upload photos easily from Linux, which I'm running in a virtual machine on my Mac, but photo hosting sites that test for compatibility with Linux browsers are probably still few and far between, sadly (and it's really a Java plug-in issue in my case).

[dakwegmo]

Originally Posted by McB!

1. It's my understanding that SmugMug, Zenfolio and Bluehost are popular choices. What are your experiences with these sites? Why are they so popular? Advantages / disadvantages? Are there lesser known sites that are equally as good or better?

I use another web host, DreamHost for most of my websites, but still do client proofing and ordering with Zenfolio. With a standard web host, you have much more control over what your site looks like and what web applications you can install or develop for your site, as a web developer I find myself tweaking things here and there to get them just right, and would be frustrated giving up all that control That said, I went with Zenfolio after researching various shopping cart and proofing systems and liked the balance of features vs. price. I'm still not happy that I can't tweak things, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make so I don't have to deal with all of the hassles (and costs) of running on online storefront.

Originally Posted by McB!

2. Flash or no flash? Other than the aesthetic value, are there any other advantages to having a flash site? From my research, I've read that flash websites increase load times and aren't recognized by search engines. Is this true?

Almost everything you can do with flash that you can do with HTML/CSS/and Java*Script.
There's simply no need for it in most websites, and there are dozens of reasons to avoid it.
Yes, most flash sites do load slower than HTML sites.
Yes, most search engines can't read flash. Google has recently started indexing the content of flash animations, but the way most flash sites are designed, the entire site is loaded into a single page so there's no way to get directly to the content, even if the search engine knows it's there.
No all devices support flash, most notably any of the iOS devices, so by having a flash only site you're automatically excluding a potential client base with disposable income to spend on luxury items like gadgets and photography.

I could go on, but suffice it to say, there are far more reasons not to use flash than there are to use it. If you're making decisions now, I'd rule it out as an option.

Originally Posted by McB!

3. Many websites claim to be SEO (Search Engine Optimised). Are these valid claims? Again, from my research it would seem that it's pretty much up to the owner of the website to do as much as they can to generate traffic (linking from other pages, for example), thus improving the search engine ranking. Is that actually how it works?

When a site claims to be SEO optimized, they usually mean that that they have built in features that make them more likely to be ranked higher in search engines. These usually include things like page titles, friendly URLs, semantic HTML, etc. These things alone won't get you a higher ranking, but they help. The site owner will still need to do a lot of work to generate traffic, but if you have choice between a site that's SEO optimized and one that doesn't mention it, go with the one that is.

Originally Posted by McB!

4. With regards to registering a domain name, is that something I would do through my choice of web host, or would I register it separately and then choose a web host that would allow me to use it? What is the best way to go about registering a domain name?

A lot of web hosts include a domain name registration when you sign up. If you think you're ready now, find a host, then see what they offer. If you're not ready, or they don't offer it, you can register one now for fairly inexpensive. I use godaddy for domain registration. They're inexpensive and let me have a lot of control that I don't get through other registrars.

And a note about domain registration and SEO, domain longevity is one of the many things search engines use to rank your site. The longer it has been registered, and the longer it is until the domain expires, the better your search results. So, if you can register the domain and pay for it for 5 or 10 years out, go ahead and do so.

Originally Posted by McB!

5. I've noticed a few websites boasting that they are optimised for iPhone / iPad viewing. Again, I'm not sure how valid these claims are, as I'd expect most sites to be viewable on at least some level. However, given the popularity of these devices, do you think this is something I should be taking this into consideration?

More than likely these sites have a completely different interface for mobile devices than they do for traditional displays. If you have a iphone, visit my site and compare it to what you see if you open it in a full browser.

Originally Posted by McB!

6. I am a Mac user. Should this have any effect on which web host I go with?

Not at all. Regardless of what you're running on your home machines, I strongly recommend going with linux for your website hosting.

[McB!]

I've only been on this forum a short time, but again and again I'm amazed at how people are willing to give in-depth responses to questions I'm sure seem quite trivial to them. Thanks guys, I really do appreciate it.

Given that I have no web development background, I suspect that a standard web-host might not be a wise idea right now. Zenfolio and SmugMug are obviously good choices, but I'm wondering if anyone has tried any of the lesser-known sites? I'm quite partial to some of the designs I've seen on Online Portfolio & Photography Websites | Parade and Photography Websites and Site Hosting for Digital Photographers and Artists and Small Businesses: Web Sites and Hosting by SiteWelder. Has anybody tried these, or heard good things about them? They do seem slightly more expensive, but I'd be willing to accept that if the end result was more to my liking.

I guess I'll need to take advantage of all the free trials these sites are offering. Can anyone recommend any other sites I should be considering?